Snow Equipment Owning/Operating A little disappointed in spreader. Expect too much?

[jcmseven]

To all:

Tonight, we had some light snow followed by sleet and 15 degree temps at my house. There was not enough snow to plow, but there was enough to make our steep 300+ foot driveway very slick. My wife is on call tonight, so I had to make sure she could get out if needed. I bought (with my dealer's recommendation) a Snow-Ez rear hitch hopper spreader for my Gator UTV. I believe it is the 100 model (240 pound capacity). I used it the first time tonight. My neighborhood has a plow shed and keeps some combination ice melt, rock salt and sand mixture which I can access if I want. It is heavy and has the consistency of heavy, gritty dirt. It is moist but not caked and I keep it in my garage until use. I filled up my bin with about 100 pound worth for a test run. Once the toggle was on it spun out about three feet worth of the mixture but seemingly could not keep the little agitator contacting the mix to pull it into the siphon hole. Therefore I had to stop frequently and shake the spreader to keep the flow coming, this got old quickly. This substance is heavy but it is custom mixed and our neighborhood plow guy has no trouble spreading it (but he has a Boss in bed for his truck). In addition the throw platform spins very quickly (one speed) and will plow through 200 pounds of ice melt (It will spread that) in about 5 minutes. My questions therefore are these:

1. Is this spreader able to spread a heavier mix like I normally use.
2. I am relegated to spreading ice melt only?
3. What upgrade may help it do better?

Thanks, John

 

[arsenix2001]

In bed truck spreaders used a conveyor chain to cart the material to the fairly large chute opening. Even these systems can chocke on wet/frozen material. Your hopper is unfortunatly most likely just going to handle pellletized material or fairly dried sand mix. Just the nature of the beast.

 

[Duffster]

To all:

Tonight, we had some light snow followed by sleet and 15 degree temps at my house. There was not enough snow to plow, but there was enough to make our steep 300+ foot driveway very slick. My wife is on call tonight, so I had to make sure she could get out if needed. I bought (with my dealer's recommendation) a Snow-Ez rear hitch hopper spreader for my Gator UTV. I believe it is the 100 model (240 pound capacity). I used it the first time tonight. My neighborhood has a plow shed and keeps some combination ice melt, rock salt and sand mixture which I can access if I want. It is heavy and has the consistency of heavy, gritty dirt. It is moist but not caked and I keep it in my garage until use. I filled up my bin with about 100 pound worth for a test run. Once the toggle was on it spun out about three feet worth of the mixture but seemingly could not keep the little agitator contacting the mix to pull it into the siphon hole. Therefore I had to stop frequently and shake the spreader to keep the flow coming, this got old quickly. This substance is heavy but it is custom mixed and our neighborhood plow guy has no trouble spreading it (but he has a Boss in bed for his truck). In addition the throw platform spins very quickly (one speed) and will plow through 200 pounds of ice melt (It will spread that) in about 5 minutes. My questions therefore are these:

1. Is this spreader able to spread a heavier mix like I normally use.
2. I am relegated to spreading ice melt only?
3. What upgrade may help it do better?

Thanks, John

You need a vibrator on it. Something like this.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200487345_200487345

and maybe one of these to control your spread pattern.

http://www.rcpw.com/snow-plow-parts/snowex-salt-spreader-controllers-switch-boxes/9032020.html

 

[Brant]

Just about all of the smaller electric spreaders are for dry, bagged material only. Spreading bulk materials will seldom work well consistently.

 

[leonz]

To all:

Tonight, we had some light snow followed by sleet and 15 degree temps at my house. There was not enough snow to plow, but there was enough to make our steep 300+ foot driveway very slick. My wife is on call tonight, so I had to make sure she could get out if needed. I bought (with my dealer's recommendation) a Snow-Ez rear hitch hopper spreader for my Gator UTV. I believe it is the 100 model (240 pound capacity). I used it the first time tonight. My neighborhood has a plow shed and keeps some combination ice melt, rock salt and sand mixture which I can access if I want. It is heavy and has the consistency of heavy, gritty dirt. It is moist but not caked and I keep it in my garage until use. I filled up my bin with about 100 pound worth for a test run. Once the toggle was on it spun out about three feet worth of the mixture but seemingly could not keep the little agitator contacting the mix to pull it into the siphon hole. Therefore I had to stop frequently and shake the spreader to keep the flow coming, this got old quickly. This substance is heavy but it is custom mixed and our neighborhood plow guy has no trouble spreading it (but he has a Boss in bed for his truck). In addition the throw platform spins very quickly (one speed) and will plow through 200 pounds of ice melt (It will spread that) in about 5 minutes. My questions therefore are these:

1. Is this spreader able to spread a heavier mix like I normally use.
2. I am relegated to spreading ice melt only?
3. What upgrade may help it do better?

Thanks, John

If you can make use of a vibrator set up that will help too, and you can use windsheild washer fluid by pouring directly into the hopper and works well to keep things flowing in the hopper. But if you are able to portion some the mix into a warm area it will begin to dry out and not attract so much moisture too that is where most of your problem lays as a sacked sand product stored indoors in a warm area will not have flow problems.

 

[aczlan]

Looks like you might have a Base Line 240.
If so, take a look at their Accessories section: Meyer Base Line 240/400 Spreaders
Looks like they have an auger that will break up clumps and a flow restrictor to slow down the material feed speed.

Aaron Z

 

[crazyal]

The only tailgate spreader that I've seen that looks like it can handle wet sand is the Western Pro-Flow 2 or the Fisher Speed Caster 2 (I think they are the same company). Instead of dropping sand onto a spinning wheel from the hopper they use a belt like the in bed spreaders use. But they are not cheap and they could be too much weight for a gator (over 200lbs empty).

 

[jcmseven]

Thanks, I have had as much as 500 lbs. off the hitch in my Gator. This may be a viable option. The mix I am using is not so heavy or course that a spreader couldn't do it. This is why I was disappointed in the performance of the one I have. I basically served as a hopper to carry the mix to where I could spread it manually. That is no fun when it is dark and cold and one has paid for a spreader already.

John M

 

[Coyote machine]

The quick facts section on the right side of the page linked by the poster above states the hopper is for use with: "bagged rock salt".

 

[jcmseven]

Yes, but to me the implication below with the agitators implies with an upgrade in that area one can use sand, etc. The Meyer spreader looks like a much nicer one than the one I have. I am OK with bagged rock salt, but it did not spread that too well, either. It clogged with that, I stopped the spreader and shook the hopper, got back on and reactivated the spreader and it promptly "dumped/spread 100 pounds worth of the bin contents over about 20 feet. Does anyone know if I could convert the spreader I have to a two speed with a two-speed controller (aftermarket) so it will not do this?? My suspicion is not as this seems to be a simple one-speed motor. If I could get mine to spread ice melt at less than supersonic dump on the ground speed, I would be OK with that for the rest of this season and look elsewhere during the summer for a spreader that could better handle the heavy stuff.

John M