There are members here that operate plows for municipalties, transportation, etc. What type of spreader controls do you have for spreading salt & sand? How about you private contractors? We use Dickey-John controls.
A lot of towns run dickey-johns around here, our town has the old fashioned hydraulic dials on everything, even the newer trucks. In our sand truck, the starter, clutch, throttle is all controlled from a little box that we mounted to a pedestal. It works pretty well, but I would like to be able to control the chain, and spinner seperate.
I never looked to see a brand name on mine, but it's a rectangular aluminum box with a throw lever and two speed dials for the auger (conveyor chain in my case) and spinner.
Yes, we use to have a similar set up. That system seems to work really well. I remember my first salt run was on the back of a truck feeding the salt through a hole in the box. Then onto the pup motor operated sander, what a pain in the butt they were! Still, better than shoveling by hand. I've operated many different types of sanders since then and have seen how much they have evolved throughout the years. I'm really impressed with Dickey John controls as they are very user friendly and cause us little problems.
We use GL400 (Storm guard) units. These units are computer controlled. The unit must first be calibrated and then after that it is set and forget it,when in use. These will tell the operator how much material they used in a shift, average speed, max speed, and total tons for the year probably someother stuff also. I don't know how much these cost but he have had them probably ten years. I like them better then the 2 knobs and lever set up. No hyd noise no leaks, Better tracking of salt use age. telescooper
Never heard tell of Storm Guard. Dickey John is computer controlled as well. They are calibrated every year (I calibrate them in my area). They will put on the amount that you punch in regardless of speed (within reason). As you speed up the conveyor chain speeds up as well. First picture is a ICS200. This is the type that we have in most of our fleet. Second picture is a Control Point. These are the type that we are buying now
The thing I like about the dickey-john is say you set it to spread 220lbs of sand per lane mile, you set it to that and go, and it adjusts accordingly, if you go somewhere that you might want more sand on, hold the blast button. I think its a slick set up myself.
So if I'm understanding this, these units calculate truck speed vs. spreader rate so that you're applying at a consistent rate regardless of travel speed? If this is the case, how hard is it to override for hills or intersections?
Yes, you're right Steve, but if you go to fast it will flash "application error" and an alarm will go off. Basically telling you that the system can't keep up to you. When you calibrate them, the speed is done first using a measured Kilometer. Then you do a catch test and enter the weight of the material into the dickey john. Salt is calibrated at 3 inch gate setting and sand at 6. The system does all the calculations, so whatever you punch in for an application rate this is what you will get, providing that your gate is set right. As you slow your truck down the bed chain slows down as well. Stop and your bed chain stops. On these systems there is a blast button. As the name implies you press this switch when you want to "blast" the intersections or hills. Blast can be used with the auto switch turned on or off. It just opens the spools and the bed chain will go wide open. One cool feature about these systems is if you are having trouble with the automatic as I decribed above, you can place it in "manual mode". This allows you to run it like the old system. Just turn on the switch and the bed chain goes. You speed up the chain by increasing the application rate.