Another question about compact manure spreader -- pulling by hand

[PonyRiderMom]

I am still looking to get a compact manure spreader (the kind you pull behind a lawn mower or such) and I’m wanting to learn all I can before I make a decision, as they are quite pricey.

What I’m wondering right now is, can a person pull one of them for short distances, like between stalls in a barn? In my mind, I had thought that would be possible. A lot of these manufacturers are pointing out how convenient they are because they can be pulled right into a stall for mucking. I had assumed they meant pulling by hand, because doing it with a mower seems ridiculous if not impossible. But then I was looking at specs online and it looks like these spreaders can weigh several hundred pounds empty. So now I’m thinking they couldn’t be pulled by hand. My muck cart gets hard to pull when I load it up with, IDK, maybe more than 150 pounds.

I know a lot of people here have them – can you pull them short distances by hand? Or can they only be pulled by a machine?

[Bluey]

Not pulling into stall, but along the aisle by stall doors, similar sized, Millcreeks can be pulled here and there by hand, ABIs are considerably heavier, not so easy to move around
We had both and occasionally had to move them by hand and we could push around the old Millcreek, not the newer ABI.

[endlessclimb]

I can move my Millcreek empty, but loaded down with poop only if I had concrete floors.

[LCDR]

I have a Newer brand compact ground driven drop spreader. It weighs about 140 pounds empty. Even filled it is nicely balanced and easy to pull by hand down my barn aisle over rubber mats. it is just narrow enough to fit into a stall too, but pulling it back out when loaded up over the lip between stall and aisle can be a challenge. It holds approximately 13 cubic feet.

If you are talking about a compact ground driven spreader like the Millcreek Model 27 or ABI 25 cubic foot model these are longer and heavier and lifting the tongue to move it by hand will be harder. That makes sense because thr Newer spreader has the load over the wheels, and the Millcreek and ABI have the load forward of the wheels.

The negative about the Newer spreader for me is that it clogs frequently if there is any hay mixed in with the manure, or pine needles or leaves from picking pastures. I am currently shopping for a replacement myself and have narrowed my choices to the Millcreek vs ABI compacts. Frankly I am swaying the Millcreek direction simply because I find the ABI sales people too aggressive.

[Djones]

I have a Titan brand, it’s 163 lbs empty.

Compact Manure Spreader | Titan Attachments

While I can move it by hand, it’s unweildy and doesn’t want to cooperate like a 4 wheeled wagon would. If the heavier stuff is toward the rear of it it might stand itself upright once you lift it to move it.

[PonyRiderMom]

@LCDR

Frankly I am swaying the Millcreek direction simply because I find the ABI sales people too aggressive.

100% !!! If any ABI people are reading this – tone it down!

I contacted them for pricing, but all I got was sales pitches, and when I responded to an email and asked if they could just give me a quote on shipping, they stopped responding. There’s not a lot I dislike more than aggressive sales people. That combined with non-transparent pricing means that I’m not going with ABI, no matter how good their product is.

[endlessclimb]

Their spreader was 400 pounds heavier than the Millcreek.

There’s “durable” and there’s “piggy”. I agree that they were way too aggressive about sales and it really turned me off. They called every day for over a week.

[Christa_P]

I have a 25 bushel Conestoga spreader, it’s like the Millcreek spreaders. Empty I can move it around on a level surface and if I had a little wheeled cart with a handle you can get for the front I would probably be able to move it loaded.

[LCDR]

The third compact ground driven spreader I inquired about was the Conestoga. They responded quickly by email, but they never followed through with the mailed brochure and pricing information they said would arrive in the mail in a “few days.” So Conestoga was crossed off of my list early on.

I know folks with ABI and Millcreek spreaders so I have seen them up close and in action. But no one I know in my area has a Conestoga so I’d be blindly going in to an order anyway.

[Christa_P]

I found mine on either FB Marketplace or Craigslist in 2012. It was a new, demo model IIRC. It was cheaper than than other ones I found, and while it works fine, it has needed some repairs due to some parts being too lightweight for the use.

I can’t say how the new ones are - they may have improved the design.

[LakeEffect]

You can absolutely move it up and down the aisle yourself. You cannot, with a full blast sinus infection, haul it up an icy slope because your mower doesn’t have 4WD

[Leather]

One option for moving it around in the barn is a trailer dolly - they make moving trailers around by hand a breeze. You can get inexpensive ones from Harbor Freight or Amazon that should be able to handle the tongue weight. (Just make sure it’s tall enough for the desired tongue position when moving as the cheaper ones can be pretty short.)

Harbor Freight Trailer Dolly Demo

[PonyRiderMom]

Interesting. So that solves the problem of the tongue weight on the smaller one, right? But doesn’t solve the problem of the bigger one being just plain heavy.

I forgot to note that I was aiming for a “four stalls” sized model, even though I don’t have four stalls. I don’t want to have to take it and dump it every day.

[LCDR]

If not dumping and rinsing out every day I’d be looking at stainless steel construction though it can double the price. It seems that even most lower end ground driven and PTO models now come with stainless chains. That addresses the chain rust problem of having half the chain hidden under the spreader floor if you just park and rinse the bin out from the top. Manufacturers also offer plastic flooring or bed liner to address the problem of steel bodies and floors rusting.

[Badger]

@LCDR

The negative about the Newer spreader for me is that it clogs frequently if there is any hay mixed in with the manure, or pine needles or leaves from picking pastures. I am currently shopping for a replacement myself and have narrowed my choices to the Millcreek vs ABI compacts. Frankly I am swaying the Millcreek direction simply because I find the ABI sales people too aggressive.

I’m confused by this. I’ve been using the Newer Spreader for over a decade without these problems. I do try to minimize hay going into it, and if I have a particularly hay-heavy manure bucket I dump it on top (because early on I experienced a few jams putting hay on the bottom and weighing it down with a bunch of manure), but there is always some hay, leaves and pine needles in what I spread. I do watch the area in the middle of the spreader bars where tail hairs can accumulate and wreak havoc, and remove them periodically. But frequent clogs really should not be happening. I wonder if yours might be bent somewhere to cause this problem?

[LCDR]

I will check mine for “bentness.” Please post how you do this on yours.

[cardinale]

@Badger

I’m confused by this. I’ve been using the Newer Spreader for over a decade without these problems. I do try to minimize hay going into it, and if I have a particularly hay-heavy manure bucket I dump it on top (because early on I experienced a few jams putting hay on the bottom and weighing it down with a bunch of manure), but there is always some hay, leaves and pine needles in what I spread.

Badger, does your manure get wet (rained on)? I wonder whether the Newer Spreaders work fine when manure doesn’t have added water (rain) but don’t have the strength to disperse wet manure.

Recently, I bought a (barely) used one off CL and am waiting to see how it works with unavoidably wet manure (PNW turnouts). Have seen a fair number go up for sale on CL around here so they might not be the best choice for very wet areas–a chain drive probably handles wet manure much better. In the meantime, I put my manure under a lean-to roof to try to let it drain/dry out as much as possible (it’s not going to “dry” until summer weather) before trying the spreader.

[Badger]

@cardinale

Badger, does your manure get wet (rained on)? I wonder whether the Newer Spreaders work fine when manure doesn’t have added water (rain) but don’t have the strength to disperse wet manure.

Fine with wet manure IME.

@LCDR

I will check mine for “bentness.” Please post how you do this on yours.

I would just eyeball the spreader/shredder thing. Just trying to brainstorm what the issue might be. Sometimes I do gun the engine on my gator to bounce things a bit if it’s not spreading, but I really don’t have much experience with clogs over years of regular use.

[cardinale]

@Badger

Fine with wet manure IME.

Whew! I was questioning my purchase.