A "whirly bird" type hand held spreader works great for spreading de-icer on small areas in the winter. Walk behind or pull behind spreaders are good for larger areas. They work great for yards, but wouldn't be real practical for spreading de-icer or sand on sidewalks and driveways while plowing snow which involves frequent back up moves. The best bet would be to finish the plowing or snow blowing and then hook a pull behind spreader and go over the area second time.
I would like to see a broadcast spreader that would attach to the rear of a lawn tractor in the same way as a bagger attachment, maybe even hooked onto the bagger bracket. It could be used to spread de-icer and sand during snow plowing as well as fertilizer.
I think converting a walk behind spreader to mount to the rear of a tractor would be fairly easy, but I'm, not sure how to power it. It would have to be able to operate on demand so I wouldn't waste most of the de-icer. Since the battery on most lawn tractors is under the seat, I tend to think that some sort of electric motor would be the way to go. Any ideas?
I like the idea about conversion to a tractor-mounted device but all the same, I am sure the modifications would pretty much need some technical know-how. All the best.
