I've used the sheet metal screws in snowblower tires and never had one pull out. The spreader tires are hard so I doubt you'd have a problem.
Mike

I know that they make specific ones for salt. When I lived in snow country we sold them. Nice stainless steel ones with nice price tags. Plastic ones too. In either case, they needed to be cleaned out after use. Studding hard tires makes sense to me.

Thanks for the responses. The problem wiith studding the drop spreaders is there isn't much "meat" to deal with. A lot of them have spoked wheels with 3/8"-1/2" of "tire" on it. Maybe drill through and put in bolts with locknuts pointing out.

Ev

What's wrong w/ 3/8" screws? That's what I used on snowblower tires.
Mike

As previous poster mentions, high end walk behind drop spreaders with pneumatic tire are expensive, ranging from $400 to $700. The pneumatic tires can then be fitted with chains, just like a snow-blower. Possible choices are:

SnowEx SD95 and SD95SS )$600 to $700)
Gandy 24H13 ($550)
Salt Dogg WB400 ($500)

If you are "reasonably handy" and creative, you might be able to able to fabricate a side skirting system to attach to a rotary, tow behind spreader, or even rig a push type rotary spreader for towing.
The side skirting could be made from inexpensive 1/4" plywood.
The purpose of the side skirting would be to block the path/trajectory of the thrown salt to prevent long range scattering beyond the periphery of the skirting panels.
I envision the skirting as a 4 sided, rectangular affair that encloses the left side and right side areas, and the front and rear of the impeller discharge flight path.
The dimensions of the side panels would be made to however wide your "drop zone" needs to be.
The front and rear panels would fit as close to the spreader as you want as those are there to prevent long range scatter to the front and rear if you make a sharp turn near a surface where you do not want salt to land. And of course the front panel will keep the salt from being thrown onto you and the tractor.
You might want to look at some rotary spreaders to see if they afford more clearance for the addition of tire chains as you say there is too little clearance between the tires and hopper of a drop spreader.
And you can also think outside the box a bit on what material you use for "chains".
You can use 1/2" or 5/8" diameter twisted nylon rope.....spiral wound around the tire and wheel rim to provide "teeth" for traction. The twisted nylon rope at those diameters will provide a good grip and give reasonable durability.
The worst that can happen is the rope will eventually shred, but the shreds and fibers are not going to puncture a pneumatic tire.
Those are just my thoughts on a different way you can spread salt (or fertilizer) using a rotary type and still keep a tight rein on where the salt/fertilizer lands.

This post was edited by mownie on Sat, Jan 25, 14 at 20:05

I guess I'm too low rent 'cause I've never seen a $400 walk behind spreader.
Mike

I think a homeowner could get by with anything as long as the wheels turn and it is used with the small pellet type deicer. The maintenance people that really had to use them bought the stainless models w/ a grippy chain. Some would make due with rotaries, dialing the spreader back some as using deflectors as put out on the narrower walk ways as stated. If there were lots of narrower walk ways, then they had a drop spreader. Some did plastic, but they did not last as long. BTW, if it is not horribly cold- you can use fertilizer to melt the ice -which is obviously easier than the salt on the grass and such. I don't recall exactly, but the phosphorous reacts with the water and generates heat. Maybe potassium. All I remember is selling fertilizer when we ran out of ice melter and salt after a succession of ice storms.

Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil makes a heckuva snow/ice removal concoction :^)
Yeah, we were having a problem finding salt late in the season one year at work due to an icy/snowy winter. Our building maintenance guy bought some sodium nitrate fertilizer on a suggestion made by a farmer at a local Co-op store.
It worked OK and the weeds growing in the pavement cracks sure liked it when spring came.

Yep, and if I remember my HE training, used motor oil is even better than fuel oil. Good "low order" snow and ice remover......

Only in this forum could a discussion on fertilize spreaders end up in something Homeland Security would be interested in.....:-)

Just came in from plowing the driveway, plowed it yesterday, no more snow, but the wind drifted it worse than it was yesterday! C'mon Spring!!

I saw a black helicopter hovering low above the tree line across the meadow from my house an hour ago. ???

This post was edited by mownie on Sun, Jan 26, 14 at 19:09

Here in the country, we see Helicopters a lot during the summer and fall, looking for "illegal crops" in clearings in the woods. I think they found one once. Good to see my tax dollars so well spent.

I'm old enough to remember the FBI, etc. going "undercover" wearing regulation white socks and black shoes.....

We'll miss you mownie.....

Found the perfect drop spreader for this application. It has an "aerator" which drives the "rotator" so it digs inito the ice just fine!

Now, where did I find it? In my barn! I was telling my brother about this when he looked at me and said, "you've got one, I gave it to you." HUH??? Yeah, someone gave one to me, I didn't want it and thought you might as you play with the small tractors. You were at work and I put it under the rear end of your fishing boat.

Hmmm, wonder what other treasures I don't know or have forgotten I have?

Just tried it out, does exactly what I want! I didn't use salt, used a half bag of "triple 19" fertilize. It actually melts ice, not as well as salt, but also won't kill the grass when it starts raining again.

Ev

Here is a link that might be useful: drop spreader/aerator

Very clever! You get the "pull the rabbit out of the hat' award for that one!

You know, I have one of those too, though mine is not a Brinly.
I came this close to suggesting it but I held back because I did not want to suggest that it might work because it has the metal spikes. I was reluctant to speak up because on one hand, I figured you might not want to risk pock marking your paved surfaces as the spikes literally slam against the pavement.
The other reason was that I felt the spikes themselves would suffer from the harsh beating and abrasion.
I guess if you did not even know you had it, the wear factor to the spikes might not be too painful, now that you know you have a use for the spreader.
Let us know how it works out as to marking of the paved surfaces and wear to the spike tips.
I know that a couple of times I had forgot to raise it up off of the spikes when I crossed my concrete driveway and it rattled my teeth when the spikes hit the pavement. It did leave small white scratch looking marks, but no real damage to spikes or concrete. But.............that was only a run of maybe 15 feet and 2 occasions, so your results may vary.

Mownie, no issue here, have a graveled drive. Also will only use it when there's ice

I've only used it once and it was perfect. The only down side would be "guesstimating" how much product you'll need as emptying for cleaning would be difficult.

Thanks again for all the responses guys,

Ev