# Tornado spinner height setting question



## AllHands (Dec 16, 2015)

hey guys, as you guys know we got our first tornado poly spreaders this year. i dont have the experience with these yet so im looking to avoid some trial and error by deffering to your judgment for the guys who have experience with the Tornado's. We are running them on 3500 pickups and would like your advice on the height adjustment for the spinner housing. I know the higher setting is supposed to be for pickups and the lower for dumps, but is there any reason you dont want to put it on the lower setting for a pickup? besides the obvious reason for being lower and possibly coming in contact with snowbanks or obstructions? we tried the adjustment today just to see what it looked like and it seemed to us that having it at the lower setting with a fast spinner speed would allow for ample spread width but would not put so much salt into the bumper area and such and get it more directly onto the ground and not so much into your bumper and under body. Any feelings on this guys?? like i said, we are new to these tornados so feel free to educate us if you have experience with these. Thanks a tons boys


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## bliz&hinikerDLR (Dec 30, 2011)

I don't like low hanging spinners. Buy a couple semi mud flaps and pinch them under the salter to protect the back of the truck. The spread pattern isn't quite as good but a bent/broken spinner is useless.


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## dieselss (Jan 3, 2008)

Agreed with the rubber protection.
Up high will give you the best spread pattern.


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## AllHands (Dec 16, 2015)

yeah we have skirts on them, we were just wondering if there were any reasons not to do it other then worrying about coming into contact with something


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## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

The one on are pickup is customized height... as the highest setting us way to high IMO, and the lowest is to low. So I drilled a hole in the middle of the 2 factory slots and have it set at a mid location.. I remove the adjustable gate BS mounting cause its cheap and wears out..


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## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

Here are a few pics..
First one shows both are spinners aside, note the factory stainless steel extention has been cut down to account for the mid position mounting vs are lowest setting on the other one which is on a dump body(blur arrow) also drilled one hole to account for the pin (top blue arrow). Also if you look at your spinner shoot on the side were the mountING slots are you mite be able to notice in the black plastic that there is already a round indent in the mold, that is where I drilled the hole for the new pin location.. it's like western already knew they could have a mid point height but never incorporated it... however mine are a little older so the mold mite have changed..










Next pic shows how I removed the adjustable gate cause its a really flimsy brackets wear out, and fixed it with no adjustment.. if we need more flow we just crank up the conveyor speed, also this pic shows how the bottom holes for mounting are now the fixed pins and we use the top holes (where the gate adjustment was) for the removal.










This Last pic shows the height at the custom mid position


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## 1olddogtwo (Aug 6, 2007)

Higher the better, huh?

How do you whip salt under cars?

How do you keep it off the grass, sidewalks?

I've always thought lower the better, the salt with skip better as opposed to bounce.


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## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

1olddogtwo;2082381 said:


> Higher the better, huh?
> 
> How do you whip salt under cars?
> 
> ...


Agreed lower is better.. I just found on these that the lowest position on a pickup is gonna get wrecked... so mine is 10 inch higher then lowest and 10 inch lower the highest


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## AllHands (Dec 16, 2015)

Great ideas Hysert, thanks alot for all your info. I will play with them this season and see how it goes. Im kinda scared to start drilling and cutting brand new units. We just used them both tonight with the skirts on and they both seemed to work great and the skirt kept the salt off everything it was supposed to. we use a full width of the bed skirt and have it down to 4 inches off the ground. ill keep playing with them though. thanks alot for the info brother!


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## Ice hockey (Jul 1, 2015)

Hysert;2082270 said:


> Here are a few pics..
> First one shows both are spinners aside, note the factory stainless steel extention has been cut down to account for the mid position mounting vs are lowest setting on the other one which is on a dump body(blur arrow) also drilled one hole to account for the pin (top blue arrow). Also if you look at your spinner shoot on the side were the mountING slots are you mite be able to notice in the black plastic that there is already a round indent in the mold, that is where I drilled the hole for the new pin location.. it's like western already knew they could have a mid point height but never incorporated it... however mine are a little older so the mold mite have changed..
> 
> 
> ...


Did you have to do anything besides drill the holes to make the new position?


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## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

Ice hockey;2085228 said:


> Did you have to do anything besides drill the holes to make the new position?


Alittle... this salter I bought used! If you look in the second pic I removed the adjustable feed gate bar (which the spinner hangs from) and mounted the gate at a perminate position, the lower holes on the spreader for pining the spinner are now the perminate hanger and the upper hole (were the gate bar was) is were I put the pins in to hold the spinner. And drilled one hole on each side on the spinner. The last pic shows its new mid height, which is almost the same as the lowest position on my 2.5yrd on the dump body in the background. Personally don't find it as affective at the highest position as the salt pelts cars and lawns etc.. and ofcourse the lowest position will most defiantly get smashed by something, so bc the feed gate brackets on my unit were so worn out I opted for this solution... I also used the old feed gate bar for the 2 new upper pins... I know it sounds confusing but look closely at the pics and you will get it... this position works just as good as the lowest on the dump, shoots right under cars np... oh and the arrow pointing at the stainless steel plate extention was cut about 4-5 inches too... as the first pic shows the left spinner from the dump with factory western extentions and completely untouched... ive owned 3 of these units and have lots of little mods to them over the yrs...


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## gottaloveOT (Jan 6, 2009)

We have one of these and one of the Fisher units. The Fisher is in a F350 and the chute assembly was installed in the lower position for a year or two. When the spreader was loaded, the spinner was very close to the ground due to the truck squatting from the weight. One of the guys took out the spinner a couple times with snow banks. These units were maintained by our central garage but I finally decided to raise the chute assembly myself to keep this from happening. I had to move the metal pin sleeves to the proper hole. Since moving the chute, no problems with hitting anything. I believe the garage put a rubber flap behind it to protect the bumper.

We have the Western in an F350 dump and the chute is in the lower position. Different user so no snow bank damage.


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