[cutntrim]

Had a little snow yesterday so I loaded up my new AirFlo stainless with 2yds and headed out to see what she could do. Worked great at the first two properties but at the third I went to engage the spreader cluch and...nothing happened. Just a "clunk" noise without any salt being spread.

Jammed up? Nope. Opened the gate all the way and the salt was flowing freely. What the heck!?! Too cold to stand around trying to figure it out, called my dealer and said "I'm coming in and I'm not happy!"

He had me try to engage the clutch with him at the rear of the spreader and by watching he was able to see the problem. The driveshaft has two "pins" through it where it exits the gear box above and to the side of the spinner. Well, one of the pins had sheared in half! So an hour later, we'd replaced the two pins (which looked to be made only of cold steel) with grade 5 bolts and lock-nuts. After that it worked great again.

So, if you've got a AirFlo and the driveshaft mysteriously stops spinning the drag chains, then look at those pins.

 

[Prosno]

What do you think of that new airflo stainless? I'm considering getting one but dont know if I want the airflow or the ice o way. Give me your honest opinion. Thanks.

 

[cat320]

$2,900 for that one at the show only thing is it's only a 9hp brigs no honda.

 

[cutntrim]

My honest opinion? I've used it one day and had that pin shear in half. Other than that it worked fine.

It has the B&S engine. No comment so far.

 

[mikegamb]

prosnow

i have the downeaster SS V box.its electric and holds 1.5 yards.works great well worth the money

 

[Snowboy]

Too bad we cant Get Down Eantner here in Canada Kooy bro's only sells the gas units. I'm not 100% sold on electric. Salt clumps jam it up and it might not have the power to break it up.

Smith spreaders arent sold in canada either. I dont think i would want to drive to Buffalo or New York to get any one of them puppies..

 

[AndyN.]

CutnTrim,
What are the chances you had the idle all the way up and slammed on the spinner / feed chain. That would shear the bolts. I did print out your thread though. I am going to my shop tomorrow and having my mechanic beef up that hardware. Thanks for the heads up, as I have the same spreader. So far so good.

 

[BWhite]

were those pins supposed to act a shear pins ?

 

[cutntrim]

Andy - I knew not to have the idle turned up when engaging the clutch. Similar to engaging blades on a mower. I had it turned down. The pin just sheared in half...don't know why, other than it wasn't strong enough in the first place.

 

[cutntrim]

Another new problem with the AirFlo. This time I went to start it up in order to clear out the snow in the hopper and it wouldn't start. Wouldn't turn over at all. Nothin'...dead!

Called the dealer, he suggested changing the 5a fuses which I did...still no go. I jump-started by hooking up to our other truck's battery and it fired up immediately. Once it fired up I couldn't get it to release off of CHOKE from in the cab. I had to go around to the engine and manually move the choke lever. After shutting it down, I tried to get it to start again and nothing happened. Not even able to pull start it from the back.

Strange...I'm taking it to the dealer probably on Thursday since I can't get there any earlier than that. Just illustrates why backup equipment is soooo important.

 

[urethane dino]

Check the grounds on both your controller and in the engine compartment. We had a spreader on sunday that would not run, the driver had moved the ground in the engine compartment on Friday, and didnt secure it on clean metal.
Dino

 

[cutntrim]

Hmmm, nobody (meaning me) has fooled with the grounds but I will check them out. Good thing we don't have any active weather predicted for the next few days...just rain.

 

[wyldman]

It does sound like a ground issue.Check the power and grounds at the spreader with a DVOM,and see what you get.

Do you have a remote spreader battery ? or a battery elimination kit ?

 

[mikegamb]

thats why i love my electric downeaster.just flip a switch and your off once she kicks down which takes like 3 seconds.haven't had any problems yet and its almost a year old.works fine no problems with clumps or wet sand.

 

[cutntrim]

It has a 12V battery back there with the Briggs engine. Possibly a bad battery?

 

[urethane dino]

Where does the control panel pull power from? If it is from the battery in the rear, make sure you have a good ground connection in the cab. If power comes from 12v ignition in the cab, make sure that you have power to the cotrol box.
Dino

 

[cutntrim]

Update -

Incredible that my non-starting issue would have gone this long, but it's finally been fixed. It turned out to have been a bad battery all along. Should have been discovered immediately but the dealer never checked the battery (he checked everything else) , and I had no way of checking it myself. Too many snow/salt events to get the time to keep running over to his shop (not close by) to get it fixed sooner.

All this time I'd been waiting for a replacement 'on-off' switch for the controller. When it came in the dealer installed it but still couldn't start the spreader. That's when he hooked the battery to his charger and...VOILA! Spreader now works!

So, I ditched the battery it came with and replaced it with a lawn tractor battery. Starts instantly now...FINALLY!

 

[Mustang]

I was considering the AirFlo stainless unit myself. Saw it around here for $3,100. Seemed very cheap for stainless as compared to others so, never having owned a v box and having little experience in snow services I was suspicious as to the quality and reliability. Anyone know why there is such a big difference between Air Flo stainless and other brands?

 

[cutntrim]

AirFlo bought a lot of stainless steel from China of all places, and got it real cheap. So, they deep discounted their stainless spreaders for this year.

 

[cutntrim]

This spreader is seriously pissing me off. Yesterday morning we had a freezing rain warning for our area issued at 4:35a.m. so I went out to pre-salt. Hadn't touched the spreader in over a week so I wasn't particularly surprised when it wouldn't start from in the cab. No problem, I'll pull start it then when it's warmed up it'll run from in the cab. Right? Wrong.

No problem pull starting it, and I let it idle while waiting at the yard for the salt guy to arrive and fill me up. Shut it down when he got there and drove 'round back to meet him by the pile. Something told me I better test fire it just to make sure.

Would not start from in-cab. Dead...nothing. Not even the "click" from the solenoid at the back. Pull started no problem. But...the auger clutch switch was dead. No movement from the chain, total silence. In-cab choke switch worked though, 'cause I choked it before walking back to pull the recoil.

Shut it down and had my other truck hook up jumper cables to the salter battery to see if that would help. Nope. Engine runs but no spinner action.

So I had to do the whole damn route with the tailgate salter in the other truck, and then had to do that again tonite. All my bagged salt is gone now and my $6,000 AirFlo is once again DEAD!

Gonna go to Crappy Tire (Canadians know what I'm talkin' about) and pick up a battery charger and multimeter tomorrow. I'll charge the battery and see what happens...

Very, very angry with this spreader.

:headwall