There are four property owners that share maintenance expenses on our 1.25 mile, very steep private road. We all share the plowing chores but I'm the only one with a spreader. Right now, two of us burn coal and I spread ash when the road gets slick. Yeah, I know, coal ash is considered toxic but we handle it as such using a cabbed tractor, masks, gloves and goggles. There have been no issues during the 40 years we've been using it.
The two of us with coal stoves are switching to heat pumps this year and the coal ash will no longer be available. In the past, I've experimented with various aggregates but they are expensive and difficult to store. If stored in a pile outdoors, it freezes up and gets covered with snow which makes tarp covers difficult to remove. After fighting to remove the cover, sand, cinders & fine gravel have to be broken up with a hammer. The chunks then get caught in the modified ag spreader I use. Mixing with calcium or rock salt helps but it's expensive and difficult to effectively mix with the aggregate.
Right now, we store the lightweight ash in 30 gal cans which are weather resistant and can be dumped into the spreader. Heavier aggregate needs to be loaded with a shovel. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal for many but the youngest property owner is 70 and the oldest is 85.
I realize this topic has been discussed many times but I keep hoping for some new ideas, tricks or equipment.
For those who maintain private roads, what aggregate do you use and how do you store & spread it?
Heat pumps are a very expensive animal if they lose a circuit board and do not heat well at all in sub-zero weather as my brothers found
in thier rental properties.
I do not use salt, if I have to deal with ice, I use concrete gravel sand.
I would chat with your neighbors and invest in a trailer load of concrete gravel sand,
a large high quality green tarp from Tractor Supply hollow core cinderblocks
and a kerosene fired space heater/torpedo heater/salamander space heater.
The reasons why are these;
Option 1.
1. The kerosene fired space heater will heat up the gravel sand every time quickly and
make it easier to shovel.
2. the space heater if large enough can heat up your mule quickly and also dry it out
after you are done with the road clearing chore.
3. The heavy green tarps are of high quality but will still need to be secured with
hollow core cinder blocks and rope.
You want a green heavy tarp large enough to dump the gravel sand load on to keep it from
pulling moisture from the ground and to prevent as much water as possible from pooling
on the tarp
Option 2.
would be for the clear span/farmtek folks to come in and install a large/tall hoop shed
for you to store your gravel sand and dead ash garbage cans and keep it drier.
You would want a kerosene fired space heater to warm up the gravel sand and tractor though.
Do not bother with a zippered door as the zippers are not well secured and poorly sewn on the
shed fabric because the thread used to attach the zipper does not last.
An RV hoop shed would work well as it is tall enough, wide enough and long enough
to park your tractor in it facing out so you can simply shovel the gravel sand in it.
Option three.
Install a long enough RV hoop shed minus the zipper door UNLESS you can buy a crank up
fabric door that rolls up.
Replace your current spreader or add a new HERD brand hydraulic drive scoop spreader to
spread the gravel sand. The HERD scoop spreader is designed to scoop materials and spread them
while driving forward. These spreaders are ment for skid steer loaders and I would hesitate to
use them on a tractor loader unless the sand is warmed and under cover.
(You would need a hydraulic top link and a pair of rear remotes to operate this spreader
to lift and lower the spreader operate the broadcast function and the scoop function separately
unless the system control design has changed)
The nice thing about the heavy green tarp is that you can prop it up with a wooden frame or 2 pallets
and park the space heater in front of the tarp but not too close and the tarp will act like a heating duct-
I did this with my firewood processor to warm it up because it had a 25 gallon hydraulic oil tank.
About your mule A lot of this would depend on if you have a quick attach system and a third function valve on
your loader controls or can add one to operate the front mounted HERD spreader.
HERD offers a rear mount salt and gravel sand spreader that is loaded by hand as well.
The VICON spreader folks offer a pendulum spreader that is clog proof and capable of
spreading salt and gravel sand as well. You would have to load it by shoveling the gravel sand and salt in it.
If you can purchase longer lower links for your three point hitch all the better, but if you have adjustable lower
links you would be able to shovel sand in the spreader at ground level.
(if you have a hydraulic top link you could tilt the spreader back so shoveling is in to it easier)
The Vicon pendulum spreader spreader is the "original pendulum spreader", several other
manufacturers offer a pendulum spreader but I can only speak of the Vicon spreaders gearbox
quality as it is made from cast iron and it never let us down while using it.
The gear box driven Vicon pendulum spreader operates using a reduction gearbox and an agitator
arm in the base of the spreader hopper. The flow control is managed by manual adjustment and
the spreading width is also controlled by a manual adjustment to prevent overspreading and waste.
The vicon spreader has a salt and sand spreading tube attachment which is shorter than the standard
supplied tube and it is larger and is much less likely to clog up from frozen or wet gravel sand and the
shorter tube length lets you spread the material within a narrower width much more easily by manually
adjusting the casting width.
I am not trying to get in your way or spend your money but after 45 years of living on a mountain you
learn a lot.
