# Frozen Material Fisher Poly Spreader



## TJohnston (Dec 21, 2009)

Hello All,
Thought we could keep larger polycaster filled with straight salt overnight and be ready for use next morning. Apparently not, and now we have 2 yds material and the 3 beep conveyor error. Anybody have any tricks to free up, without pulling out the shovel? Didn't want to try a manual turn of sprocket w/ pipewrench if not suggested!?
Any help appreciated>


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## Dwan (Mar 24, 2004)

Try hot water. may not work with salt but works great with p-rock


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## White Gardens (Oct 29, 2008)

Do you have a warm shop?

Windshield washer fluid poured in the salt will help free it up, but it's going to take a lot.

.....


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## snocrete (Feb 28, 2009)

Dwan;1922324 said:


> Try hot water. may not work with salt but works great with p-rock


its works, but you better get it out asap as soon as it frees up.



White Gardens;1922333 said:


> Do you have a warm shop?
> 
> Windshield washer fluid poured in the salt will help free it up, but it's going to take a lot.
> 
> .....


this works and would be better than hot water, but a bit more costly....and again, I'd want to get it out asap once its freed up.


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## White Gardens (Oct 29, 2008)

Then Brute force it is! 

A maddock pick is you best freind when it comes to bulk salt. I should know.........:realmad:




.....


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## CMD (Jan 16, 2010)

Remove your spinner unit , a couple of gallons windshield fluid and a grade stake to free the material next to the end of the bed chain , if not you need to warm the TRUCK inside overnight or start shoveling . The first usually works for us


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## gsphunter (Jan 18, 2011)

Torpedo heater for about half an hour will free it up. Works great on steel spreaders, just have to be careful on the poly.

Car washes work too. I had a load freeze in our poly caster last year and it took a solid two hours in the car wash with warm water to get it out.


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## Derek'sDumpstersInc (Jul 13, 2014)

gsphunter;1923389 said:


> Torpedo heater for about half an hour will free it up. Works great on steel spreaders, just have to be careful on the poly.
> 
> Car washes work too. I had a load freeze in our poly caster last year and it took a solid two hours in the car wash with warm water to get it out.


Boy, I bet that cost you more money in carwash tokens than the salt in the hopper was worth. That sucks.


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## gsphunter (Jan 18, 2011)

Yep not fun. Biggest thing is inexperience. One of my guys was running that truck. If I have a load on my truck while plowing, and it's below say 15 degrees, I will just hit my blast button on the spreader for about 5 seconds while driving down the road between lots. This just moves the salt around a bit and seems to help. If you are just running lot to lot spreading, it's not going to freeze up.

Seems like most of the time if you can keep it moving, even a little, it won't lock up. Mixing in calcium or non-tox anti-freeze helps too.


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