In another recent post, I mentioned in passing of a mod that I did to my spreader, and LR Michaels was intrigued and asked for more details. In case anyone else was interested, I decided to do a write up on it. Here goes.
Working the lever on my spreader from the zero turn mower turned out to be problematic, as the lever was too far back to reach, and coming off of the seat only resulted in the mower shutting off, thanks to all of the lawyer safety switches. I decided to put a 12v linear actuator on the chute lever, so that I could control it electrically from the seat of the mower. The resulting product was this.
Just for reference, the spreader is a Precision 200 lb tow behind spreader. The bracketry was some aluminum that I had lying around, mostly channel and rectangular tube. The linear actuator was purchased from Amazon, similar to this 4 inch linear actuator You will need to check your specific application to determine what stroke length you require.
I rigged up a NC momentary switch to the spread rate adjuster to control the stopping point when closing, as shown here. NC Momentary Switch
And a flat head bolt on the lever, fine adjustable to activate the switch. This cuts the power when the chute closes.
I left the lever on for manual operation, just in case. This all was run to a flat trailer plug such as this one.
And plugged into the mower here.
The additional outlet is a 12v two prong, such as this one, used for my tow behind sprayer. They are the same that you will find for a Battery Tender.
I ran this all to a power block...
And then to a switch bank mounted on the front of the mower.
In addition to the switches, there is a 12V cigarette plug for my Battery Tender, and a USB should I need to charge my phone. The center switch is a two way to open and close the spreader chute, the left one is the on and off for the sprayer, and the right one is for a LED reverse light on the back of the mower.
Since the ignition switch had a position for a front light, but there was no front light, my OCD dictated that one needed to be installed, so after crimping in some nutserts on the underside of the frame, I put another bright LED on the front too. This has made me more visible even in bright daylight, when cutting down by the road.
I started this when I rebuilt the spreader due to some severe rusting on the frame, probably caused mostly by fertilizer. As evident in the pics, there is still a little rust to contend with. I am making a stainless guard/deflector to keep the fertilizer off of the spreader itself. Hope this is of some help to someone. Most everything was in a junk/misc box from prior projects, only needed item to order was the actuator and switches. It all came together and worked very well. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask. I have another spreader that I am modifying to mount on the rack of my four wheeler for spreading salt in the winter while plowing my long driveway. If I can get time to mess with it this summer, I'll post something on that as well.
Charlie
Working the lever on my spreader from the zero turn mower turned out to be problematic, as the lever was too far back to reach, and coming off of the seat only resulted in the mower shutting off, thanks to all of the lawyer safety switches. I decided to put a 12v linear actuator on the chute lever, so that I could control it electrically from the seat of the mower. The resulting product was this.
Just for reference, the spreader is a Precision 200 lb tow behind spreader. The bracketry was some aluminum that I had lying around, mostly channel and rectangular tube. The linear actuator was purchased from Amazon, similar to this 4 inch linear actuator You will need to check your specific application to determine what stroke length you require.
I rigged up a NC momentary switch to the spread rate adjuster to control the stopping point when closing, as shown here. NC Momentary Switch
And a flat head bolt on the lever, fine adjustable to activate the switch. This cuts the power when the chute closes.
I left the lever on for manual operation, just in case. This all was run to a flat trailer plug such as this one.
And plugged into the mower here.
The additional outlet is a 12v two prong, such as this one, used for my tow behind sprayer. They are the same that you will find for a Battery Tender.
I ran this all to a power block...
And then to a switch bank mounted on the front of the mower.
In addition to the switches, there is a 12V cigarette plug for my Battery Tender, and a USB should I need to charge my phone. The center switch is a two way to open and close the spreader chute, the left one is the on and off for the sprayer, and the right one is for a LED reverse light on the back of the mower.
Since the ignition switch had a position for a front light, but there was no front light, my OCD dictated that one needed to be installed, so after crimping in some nutserts on the underside of the frame, I put another bright LED on the front too. This has made me more visible even in bright daylight, when cutting down by the road.
I started this when I rebuilt the spreader due to some severe rusting on the frame, probably caused mostly by fertilizer. As evident in the pics, there is still a little rust to contend with. I am making a stainless guard/deflector to keep the fertilizer off of the spreader itself. Hope this is of some help to someone. Most everything was in a junk/misc box from prior projects, only needed item to order was the actuator and switches. It all came together and worked very well. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask. I have another spreader that I am modifying to mount on the rack of my four wheeler for spreading salt in the winter while plowing my long driveway. If I can get time to mess with it this summer, I'll post something on that as well.
Charlie
