Tow behind spreader / sander

[asgard]

Well, another day tinkering in the workshop.
This year so far has been hard work with rain instead of snow and above seasonal temperatures making for an icy mess.
I had been looking for a cheap tow behind spreader and thought of modifying it to become a 3 point hitch unit with a small motor.
Well. as luck would have it I found a new in the box Blue Hawk 80 lb spreader just along the road, if fact the seller even delivered it.
Looking at the assembly and remembering I had some snow tires from a stripped down snowblower I decided to modify the tow along one with the winter snow tires.
Easy enough fabrication, a bit of cutting, welding in bushes for the shaft diameter and some nylon spacer and hey presto.
I did a picture showing the standard wheel and tire vs the snowblower versions.
It mounts nicely to my extended drawbar and attachment coupling- a previous fabrication job.
The hopper does not have an agitator which I thought was strange, but, I will try it before I add one.

 

[ipz2222]

That's the same tire I have on the front of my JD Sabre, holds good on hill sides.

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

I have a JD tow behind spreader that I hooked up like that to spread salt on my icy driveway. I found that I needed to add weigh or it would skip around on the ice and fail to spread. I put a piece of plywood over the top with a cinder block strapped on to it. Not ideal but it gets the job done.

 

[Greenhead]

Just as Charlie F stated I see a flaw. I always found it odd for a traction device to spread traction material in a non traction environment...
Perhaps running small hex head screws in the tires or should I say tyres would help with traction. Also, I think you will need some sort of pig tail going into the bin to help the material come out.

 

[Russell King]

In a smaller push style I had the "agitator" was a simple hairpin that went through a vertical shaft in the hopper.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[asgard]

I like the R clip type idea, that would save a bit of fab work.
Like the "Tyres", I come from the UK and my US spell checker has me spelling badly.
I can if needed add more weight for traction but thought that these snowblower tyres would offer a reasonable starting point. Might try it out today on some ice.
Testing will prove the viability.