Spreader Sand & Salt Spreader - Need Advice

[John1133]

I have a new to me Kubota B7800 with a soon to arrive Kubota front mount snow blower. This is my first winter with the tractor. I live in Ontario Canada and because my driveway is about 1/4 mile long with VERY steep hills I have put trig / stud chains on the rear tires. I want to be able to tow or mount a spreader on the rear to spread sand with some salt. I'd heard good things about the King Kutter spreaders sold at Tractor Supply and spoke to them and King Kutter today. According to King Kutter their is no way other than reducing the RPMs down to almost nothing to reduce the spread width on the spreader. At normal RPS the spreader will spread material out to about 40 feet. My driveway is only 10 feet wide. According to them, even with the RPMs greatly reduced their spreaders will still spread the sand out to about 20 feet. At 20 feet 50% of my material will end up in the bush. Any suggestions? Having just bought the tractor, blower and chains I'm trying to spend as little as possible and still get the job done. Thanks in advance!

 

[jgrreed]

If you a fabricator at all, could you make some simple 'shrouds' out of sheet metal to limit the spread/fan of the sand?? Nothing fancy, you could even just bend the sheet metal to adjust your pattern. I envision them being mounted on either side of the spinner. I suppose it would somewhat produce a heavier layer on either side of the path, but at least it'd be on your road instead of salting your trees. You could probably narrow it to just a wee bit wider that your car tracks.

When I was looking for my fertilizer spreader I remember reading about this and there are some out there that have adjustable fan widths, as well as only left or right patterns. They were more $$ though. Also, not all spreaders are beefy enough to spread sand (at least that's what I read), so be careful before you plunk down the cash.

I'd get a 3pt mounted unit, and DEFINITELY get one with a plastic hopper to limit corrosion.

I got one from agrisupply for something like 500$ (before the dollar tanked!!). I don't plan on spreading sand for salt, only seed and fertilizer.

Hope that helps.

-J.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Look around and find an "EZ Flow" lime spreader. (Drop spreader) They're usually less than $200 at used farm equipment dealers and/or auctions. I've got an 8'er that I picked up for $150. Very accurate delivery.

 

[deereguy]

I'm not sure how aggresive the feed auger in either spreader might be- I'm considering frozen/brick-like sand, salt, and fines that you are trying to spread. From experience the salt will crumble pretty easily, but not sure about the sand. You may add another baffle in the front to the cone-like spreader to keep salt/sand off your tractor and frame. Also, might run the baffles so it only spreads 8' wide because salt will bounce wider than that.

Good Luck!!

 

[Scooby074]

Local Deere dealer had one of these Herd sand spreaders on the lot. Herd Seeder - Seeders, Spreaders and Feeders Looked very sturdy, and has a serious set of augers inside to break up the sand/salt. Its available with a shroud to control the pattern too. If I remember the price was somewheres around $1300 though. Nice but expensive.

 

[John1133]

Once again I'm impressed and so thankfull for everyone's thoughts and suggestions. I took a look a the Herd Seeder Company's web site then spoke to them this morning. They were very knowledgeable and helpful. They recommended the moded "5.5 Sand Spreader". It sell for $1173 plus freight. It's more than I wanted to spend but it certainly looks like it's the right tool for the job. If anyone else has experiece with this unit please pass along your comments. THANKS!

 

[George2615]

Check with Northern tool. They sell several 12v electric motor driven tailgate spreaders that could easily be adapted to mount on a 3pt. for about $500. or less. Also TSC stores have a 3pt PTO driven spreader also for under $500.

 

[Bedlam]

Be careful most spreader only have a gravity drop of the materials. and sand and stuff can get hung up. Unless you get the vigrators for them.

 

[sailnseagulls]

Hi John,
I have the Herd 5.5 sander that I use with my BX23. I use a salt/sand mix that I got from the Highway Dept. The Herd works very well for sanding the dirt road and hill I live on. I am careful not to get the sandmix all over the tractor for fear of rust. The unit is about 3 years old now and even though I wash it, there is some corrosion around the spinner and the top screen. It gives a nice spread. One thing I did buy extra is a shield for inside the hopper. When the auger is turning it is pretty aggressive and can scape off the paint fast and possibly dent it up. The shield inside helps with this. I slow the rpms when spreading because Herd reccommends leaving the adjustment wide open with sand and it can empty pretty fast. Lastly, I try to empty the unit before putting it away so the sand won't freeze around the auger. Nice unit.
Larry

 

[Hammy]

I have a King Kutter seed spreader that I use to spread sand with, no salt. My driveway is 1/3 mile long all up hill. It gets really icy and the sand alone works excellent.

The spreader works great for the price. I have to bounce the 3ph a bit to keep the sand flowing. I just keep the RPM's down to keep from waisting the sand in the ditch. I'm sure it would be easy enough to fabricate some type of shield to keep the spread more narrow but I don't have a need.

One thing to consider, is to filter the sand prior to putting it into the spreader. I use some expanded metal placed over the top. It keeps the rocks and larger stuff out. I learned this after breaking the agitator during the iciest week of the year.

They are hard to beat for the money.

Here are a couple of pic's.

Craig

 

[greggh]

Has anyone used ashes from a fireplace? Would those work?

 

[Ford850]

To all the guys using sand...
How do you store it so it isn't one large block of ice when you need it? Do you hand shovel it into the spreaders? Is the sand wet or dry? How much do you apply at a time, lets say per 100' of drive?
Thanks.

 

[hwp]

I have about a 400 ft paved driveway that it is quite level. I originally tried a friction drive tow-behind drop spreader but found that when there was snow and ice on the driveway the spreader tires slid rather than turning the rotor. My tractor doesn't have a rear PTO so I fitted a tailgate style spreader with an electric motor to the back of the tractor as seen in the attached thumbnail. I have a two compartment "salt" bin with each compartment holding about of cubic yard of material. I keep straight salt in one compartment and a 50/50 sand/salt mixture in the other compartment. I buy both products by the cubic yard from a local supplier. The salt will cake from moisture over time but it is not difficult to break up. Sand on the other hand absorbs moisture and because my spreader doesn't have an agitator, the wet sand hangs up in the hopper and it can be quite difficult to get it to flow to the spinner. As a result I keep an few tubs of sand/salt in my basement next to the furnace so it is dry whenever I need it and it flows freely. I fitted a piece of 1/2" square hardware cloth to the inside of the hopper near the top to catch clumps of product and miscellaneous leaves, etc. I tend to use a lot more salt than sand for three reasons. First, our winter temperatures tend to around the freezing point so the salt will usually melt whatever snow and ice remains onthe driveway after I have plowed it. Second, it is a lot more convenient - it is in a bin at driveway level. Third, salt isn't as messy as sand, especially in terms of tracking into the house. This appraoch isn't for everyoone but it works for me.

 

[Bedlam]

The ashes work excellent and in my use they seem to bind well to the ice. The problem for me is that I have lots of nails from the ashes, and the tires seem to find them.Ive been desperate a couple times and used the ashes on the tire footprint portion, and then walked along and picked the nails out and also a magnet but its easy to miss them and always seem that it only takes one.
But if no nails it works great ,at least on a gravel drive not sure on paved if in the spring it would be another clean up chore or not.
As for the sand I use, I get a load of sandy fill each year and , wait for a day when its been hot and dry, and then shovel it into a 50 gallon drum and place in the basement , then its dry to use in the winter, (I just use it with a shovel)
Id think the key would be for it to be as dry as possible to drop down the sides of the then spreader.
Hope this helps.and nice set up Hammy.

 

[LBrown59]

To all the guys using sand...
How do you store it so it isn't one large block of ice when you need it? Thanks.

I keep several loader buckets of dirt and about a wash tub of sand in this metal building shown to the right in the picture.
There is about 7 bags of salt in there too.

Click on photo to enlarge.

 

[Hammy]

I have a 12 yard load of sand delivered each year. Ideally, it would probably be better to have it brought up during the summer so it could be dried out and kept dry but I seem to wait till the last minute.

Last year, I covered my sand pile with a tarp and with the snow over the top, it never really froze too much. The dryer portions were a lot easier to work with by far. Until I can come up with something better, I shovel it in the spreader by hand but filter it through the expanded metal.

I have found that it really doesn't take a lot of sand to do the job on the ice. It just needs to cover it. If you start spreading it, you'll quickly figure out how much you will need to gain traction.

I'll tell you, this set up I have now sure beats the way I used to do it, which was sanding my 1/3 mile driveway with a shovel and a truck bed of sand. It was a huge job and was only done when absolutely necessary. Now it's not all that bad. If I could just figure out a way to load the spreader without having to shovel it in by hand, I would be set.

I would like to build some kind of covered structure that I could keep that sand under so it wouldn't get rained or snowed on but easily accessible and cheap to build.

 

[Ford850]

I wonder if you could fabricate some short vanes to reduce the tip speed of the PTO spreaders. After looking at the King Kutter pdf manual from their site, the vanes look like they could easily be duplicated as a shorted version using some tin. That should reduce the tip speed and reduce the throw distance. Might be worth a try if you need to cover a narrow width.

 

[pane056]

Hello;

I just left the Herd Site. Was not able to find a model 5.5 I have found quite a few spreaders but they are not approved for sand and or salt. We have I think a Bultimatic, thats not right, spreaderr but it will work only with seed.

thank you, nicholas

 

[MHarryE]

Not sure how this idea will work but won't dropping the spreader down really low get the job done? My KK spreader has a decal with all kinds of different vane positions and the spreading width obtained., but at a high spreader height. I got the metal body because I had no intention of ever spreading salt - stupid thinking because fertilizer is just as corrosive. Around here the spinners on the salt/sand trucks are just barely spinning - way faster than mine would be at low idle.