# sand question?



## Vaughn Schultz (Nov 18, 2004)

If you are going to sand, what kind of sand do you use (Example- playground sand)?

where can you get it? price range? Any help would be greatly appreciated  

Second, can you put it in a Tailgate spreader?


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## Bob Church (Dec 22, 2001)

*Sand Spreading*

Unless you by bagged sand from a national supplier sand is different in every state. Moist or wet sand can be difficult to spread. Kids make sand castles on the beach because wet sand sticks together. If you are going to spread sand out of your plastic tailgate spreader you need a Sure-Flow vibrator from Karrier Company, 800-709-4434. The Sure-Flow is a great product helping thousands of guys spread material all over the country, but wet sand is tough to spread out of a tailgate spreader. Make sure your sand is dry. No amount of vibration can move extremely wet or frozen sand.

Bob Church


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## Vaughn Schultz (Nov 18, 2004)

Thank you


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## cet (Oct 2, 2004)

I would have thought trying to spread pure bulk sand at any time would be hard. We spread a sand/salt mix. 20% salt. The vibrator might work I have never tried one but if I was buying new then I would buy one that has the conveyor belt on the bottom. Pro flow 2 type. The only time I spread pure sand was at a concrete block company when they supplied the materia and it was heated and I spread it right away.


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## Kaptain_Kurt (Sep 21, 2004)

Sand in my area from the nearest landscape supply is $3/ton. It's heavy, coarse stuff and as this is my first season, I sure hope it spreads easy. I am anticipating some trouble with what I hear about wet or frozen sand. One thought is to find a place, either gravel pit or a larger snow removal outfit and make arrangements to come get a load just before I spread it. Another thought is to just have several tons delivered to me in a pile and I'd have to hand load it into the hopper. For now I have just filled the 3 yard hopper about 1/3 full, thinking that if it freezes up on me, I might be able to break it up with a pick or crowbar or something. We'll see...

~kurt


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## Bob Church (Dec 22, 2001)

*Adding salt to your sand*

Does anyone know if adding salt to your sand actually helps prevent the sand from freezing?


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## jt5019 (Aug 28, 2003)

I have a western pro flo tailgate spreader.i use a sand salt mix all the time with no problems.I have to use the dry bagged sand from home depot witch is a pain in the a**.When i tried using just bagged salt it became solid overnight that wasnt fun!With the sand/salt mix i havnt had a problem.


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

Bob Church said:


> Does anyone know if adding salt to your sand actually helps prevent the sand from freezing?


Yes, it does. I've been using a sand/salt mix for three years. Store the Vbox loaded in the garage when not in use - sometimes for a week or more. Never had it freeze even at -30°F. I've seen other who use unsalted sand having to use a crowbar to break up clumps. Some guys say I'm crazy to pay what I do for sand/salt but I'd rather pay a little more per yard.


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## Chaser13114 (Jan 8, 2004)

*sand salt*

We started out using straight sand for our first few years. Always bulk sand and spread in a v box with apron chain. I can't imagine trying to spread it in a tailgate spreader. It would have to be real dry I would think. Our sand was stored outside and was pretty wet. We tried covering with a tarp put it seemed to suck the moisture right out of the air. If we left any sand at all in a spreader overnight it would freeze solid. Solid enough that we twisted gear box shafts in half trying to start the sander the next morning. We tried parking the trucks in a heated garage and that helped substantially but on real cold mornings the chain would freeze up before we got to the plow site 15 miles away. Two years ago we began using a sand salt mix with positive results. The salt seems to keep the sand from freezing down to about 15 degrees. Below that it would harden right up again. We tried leaving a truck loaded with sand salt mix and tarped at the site. That worked well until the real cold temps came then it would turn solid. We would have to park it inside over night and then it would be fine. Our next thought was maybe if we used straight salt it wouldn't freeze. That was worse. At 20 degrees it would turn hard as a rock. Much harder than the sand salt mix would get. Currently we are primarily using straight salt but we are careful not to leave any in the spreader overnight if it in the 20's or below. I would probably still be using sand salt mix but I can buy bulk salt very inexpensively and with the mess of sand it seems to do a better job for us. We store it under cover but still have problems with it. The Sand freezes and the salt chunks up so hard we can't break the pieces with a 35,000 pound loader. We have to wait for it to warm up then they will break up. When we mix sand and salt, the sand seems to keep the salt crystals insulated from each other so it doesn't chunk up and the salt keeps the sand thawed to much lower temps. In short from a storage point and problems spreading a sand salt mix is much less troublesome than sand alone. I don't have any experience using tailgate spreaders but I don't believe and bulk products would go through them very well. We've changed to all dump truck mounted V boxes and they seem to work much better than the pick up V-boxes did. Speaking of I have a couple for sale if anyone is interested.


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## Chaser13114 (Jan 8, 2004)

Now that I’ve reread your question I guess I didn’t really answer it. 

We use two types of sand. The first is just called screened sand. Similar to playground sand but a little courser so it doesn’t blow away. In my opinion the most important thing is the clay content. The less clay the better it flows and the less problems you will have. 

The other type of sand we use is called, around here anyway, Ice Control Sand. It is a very course grit. It has very small stones, smaller than peas in it. Its made by screening gravel to its finest product. It is very high grit and works excellent as a traction enhancer. It also flows very well and I would guess it would work better in a tailgate spreader than regular sand would. It doesn’t bridge up in our V boxes like screened sand sometimes does. 

The major disadvantage of it is come spring the small sand particles wash away leaving the tiny stones behind. We end up sweeping the lot to clean it up but being that it is an extra charge in our contracts I don’t know if I can consider it a disadvantage. 

As far as where to get it we buy both at our local aggregate dealer. I pay $4 a ton for the sand and $5.75 a ton for Ice Control sand. The company also uses the ice control sand as a base product for making asphalt so your local black top company may be a supplier also.


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## Vaughn Schultz (Nov 18, 2004)

Thank you very much


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