Lime Speader

[Anonymous-0]

Has anyone used one of those small 8' salt/sand
pickup truck spreaders to spread lime. I had one
that came with a Unimog I bought and it looked
like it would spread lime but I had no need at the
time so I sold it, but now a neighbor has a good
looking unit for sale so I'm thinking maybe buy
it for lime spreading. I could buy the lime in
bulk and spread where and when I want. Last time
I had it done the driver had no idea of what he
was doing and was going across the fields at
45mph and lime was blowing everywhere but on the
field. So bad the fire department showed up to
see what was going on.

 

[JT]

First and formost, when you spread lime, there will be a lot of dust in it and it will look like a fire is there. When I used to spread lime, it was in second gear, high side at 2300rpm on the engine, going about 15-20MPH, that was 20 year ago, before all the high speed, high capacity spreaders were brought out. so everything you describe is normall in the application of limestone. Now as for the salt spreader idea, yes it will work, but you will have to do a lot of figuring to get the correct application rate with out overlapping too much or not overlapping anough. And then it is gets kinda fun when you are putting 2-3 tons of lime per acre and you have a 200-300# spreader hopper you are using. just my opinion.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thanks for the info JT. I figured the spreading
rate might be a little tricky at first but I
think that will come with use. I was really
wondering if the chain and drag setup would pull
the lime after it settles and packs from vibration
My problem with the last lime driver was he did
not have a clue as to how to spread. Other drivers
set the RPM and a gear and proceed to spread but
this guy was shifting gears all across the field
and on turns he was peeling sod and leaving ruts.
There is always some dust 20 feet up or so but
this was 100 feet in the air with no wind and
just a light coat on the ground. I'm sorry to say
there is only one company to pick from in my area
and at $58/ton spread I want it on the ground.