Agri-Fab 45-0463 Pull Behind Broadcast Spreader,130 lb. Hopper Capacity Designed for Seed, Fertilizer, Salt, Ice Melt with Universal Hitch,12 ft. Spread Width for Riding Lawn Mowers and Lawn Tractors

Bought this tow behind spreader for my husband and then read the other reviews and became worried. I told him about all the complaints and that maybe we should just return it. He said that he wanted to check it out first and see for himself. He put it together and it took about 2 hours. He said the directions were clear and easy to follow but you need to read! All the parts were there and fit correctly. Solid construction, good quality and worked as expected! Very pleased and highly recommend. Easily cut his fertilizing time in half if not more.

Assembly instructions OK but make sure you do a parts count first and then follow instructions exactly- tightening nuts too soon may make it difficult to fit other pieces later. I came up short one hopper brace, probably because the shipping box was flimsy and the part just slipped out. Operates just fine, though on/off handle can be difficult to reach, and if you start the flow before putting your tractor in motion it will dump excess whatever it is you're spreading in one place, which might kill the grass. So it's a bit of a contortion act. Hopper will not empty completely if hitch position is low because material will slide toward the front of the hopper and not reach the dispensing slot. I have contacted the vendor about getting a replacement brace, we'll see how that goes. All that being said, it can put down more in an hour than a smaller spreader can do in a day. I can also use it to salt my driveway in winter, so that's double-duty for me.

Very heavy duty, not a lot of fun putting it together but once it was done was impressed with the quality, used it right away and worked great.

I read a number of reviews on Amazon about this product and was surprised by how many were negative. Reading them, I noticed a number of features spoken of negatively that aren't even related to this product. Makes me wonder if the reviewers were referencing the correct model? With that said, consumer rating services rated this spreader as #1 out of 11 that were reviewed, and so we ordered it from Amazon. It arrived when estimated - actually a day early. The box was in good condition and showed no damage. I opened it, laid all the parts out in the back of my pick up, and made sure the materials were all there. Nothing was missing. Assembly took me about an hour, mainly because I was unclear what was being called a bushing and a spacer in one step. No big deal, and it was my error. I have several slopes on the yard, and the wheel-base is wide enough to limit the possibility of tipping. There are several reviews on Amazon that offered tips on assemply and I did reference those. The main thing when assembling is to follow the instructions that tell you NOT TO TIGHTEN hardware until near the final steps. I did add grease to the gear box and oiled points mentioned. Recommendations are that it not be washed down and then put up damp/wet. The parts are not stainless steel, and they could develop rust if not maintained properly. Common sense. I've used a push spreader on my little half acre for years. As I am nearing 70 years old the appeal of that was no longer there. (Too many slopes.) So, this AgriFab tow spreader is just the ticket.

It seemed fine after I assembled it (which was easy to do) except the spring clip that is used as an agitator near the hopper gate looked like there is know way it would stay in place so I made a mental note to safety wire the clip to prevent it from coming out but said I will use it once then fix it. 20 minutes after using it the spring clip was missing and I had also purchased the screen (which is a flimsy ripoff that should have come with the unit) to prevent clots from jamming up the hopper gate and easier on the agitator. I spent an hour looking in my 1 acre yd and did not find it so I figured my tractor tire would some day. The gate lever locking wing nut assembly is plastic (maybe nylon) never the less it makes you fear tightening too tight as to break it and I imagine they put the stupid engineer from the agitator on this design to insure lost or broken parts and yes i have dumped my load twice even though I have tightened the wing nut to its max so I drive constantly looking back to insure it does not slip. The gate lever pops out of the dentent (closed) position when hitting a bump. I have a Kubota BX2370 tractor and the hopper hitch is to high for this size tractor thus it leaves media in the hopper because it travels tilted down when near empty. The gate lever is too far away from tractor but I manage to strain leaning back as far I as can to shut gate off& on. I am going to attach a permanent clamp probably a C-clamp on the Gate lever, I added a cotter key in place of the agitator, I am going to rigged an extension arm to the gate lever and find a long hitch pin using pipe will shim up the hopper to travel level. So far this has saved me know time vs my hand spreader and I have been using foul profanity loudly scaring my wife back into the house. This is not going to beat meat unless the gearbox fails like others then I will shoot it. The plus is I will make it work and I will end up being satisfied because most of the design is great to me but a moron (yes you product engineer and Director of Test Engineering) who ok'd this into production almost like it never went to a test lab you can visually see the defects without using it. I have the Agri Fab Lawn Sweeper it works great, the Plug Aerator works great love both of these and are ruggedly built and the Dethatcher kind of cheap but beats raking.

Directions were very good in my opinion. There's plenty of YouTube assembly videos if you need help. I did make a couple of modifications though. I added flat washers to the two braces that bolt up to the bin and tow bar. I also believe there should've been some shoulder bushings included to put between the control flow mounting plate and the hitch tube. The company specified thin washers but the plate will still ride up against the hitch tube which offers no real stability and will sway on bumpy terrain. They warn about over tightening the bolts on the control flow plate knowing fully this is an issue. What I did, (see pics) is slip a couple of slightly larger, M8 metric, thin, acorn locking nuts as spacers over the 1/4 inch bolts. The rounded locking end of the nut fit perfectly into the indentation hole of the tow bar and made the whole control flow plate and handle much more stable and secure. If you go this direction, make sure and use the included washers which will go between the mounting plate and the flat surface off the acorn M8 spacer.

The spreader has fairly sturdy parts. Of note, the broadcast mechanism has metal gears and a solid axle. Assembly is fairly simple and straight forward and would have been easy and painless had Agri-Fab correctly assembled the axle and drive gear assembly at the factory. They/Amazon shipped the factory assembled parts incorrectly assembled. A call to Agri-Fab revealed they knew some of the spreaders had assembly issues and they promptly offered to send new expendable parts so the unit could be disassembled and reassembled by the customer. It took a week to receive the new parts--only to discover the wrong parts had been shipped. Another call to Agri-Fab and the response that they were familiar with the parts problem and would happily ship the correct parts. It took four days to receive the spreader and almost three additional weeks to receive the right parts. Upon receipt of the correct parts, the required repair and reassembly took 20 minutes. Customer service reps were friendly and helpful. That said, attention to detail/quality control were less than acceptable. Several points to note about the spreader and operations. First. Hitch height can be an issue. The hitch bar/tow bar needs to be approximately 14.5 inches from the ground at the tractor attachment point so the spreader barrel exit point distributes all fertilizer etc. to the broadcast disc. Hitch attachment points less than 14.5 inches from the ground will result in the spreader bowl not disgorging all fertilizer--instead leaving a fair amount in the spreader bowl. This adversely effects use of all product and results in uneven distribution of product on declining slopes. Second. The release handle is too short to easily reach and turn on/off while driving a Craftsman garden tractor. It is short by approximately 9 inches. It can be remedied with a 12 to15" by 1/2" by 3/16" piece of steel and several drilled holes into the existing too short handle. Absent such a remedy, one must stop the tractor and turn around 90 degrees in the seat to open or shut off the product flow--resulting in burned spots from over fertilization. Third. Agri-Fab says they do not offer suggested settings for various manufacturers products and there appears to be no reference table available. They suggest the buyer conduct his/her own test and through trial and error develop their own appropriate settings. And indeed, the way Agri-Fab has fabricated the sliding product "door" that may be best. The instructions tell you to line up the door at the halfway open point with the "adjustment nut" at "5". There is no registration mark on either the unit floor or the door. My experience has been that with the door adjusted as per Agri-Fab use .5 to 1 for most granular Scotts lawn products. Fourth. Agri-Fab does not offer hitch height adapters to insure the tow bar is parallel with the ground, that all product can be/is used and to avoid missing areas on downhill slopes. This point is worth considering if you are uncomfortable having to fabricate you own adaptor to raise hitch height approximately 9 to 10 inches. This is the right kind of spreader for large areas, but its effective use on large "lawns" as opposed to fields and meadows may be compromised by the second, third and fourth issues above.

Works well Took a while to assemble as the instructions aren't great. Found myself having to remove pieces that were put on early per the instructions but removal was needed to complete.

Molto ben fatto .. solido e capiente...

I bought the spreader and it arrived on time but was missing a support arm. I contacted the seller gave them all the information needed to get me a replacement. They then went to work in getting me one sent out (some days later it arrived). The support arm arrived and as you can see by the picture they sent out a black one instead of orange. Bearing in mind they have all the information of what I bought you’d think they’d get it right. I’ve had the spreader for a couple of weeks and I can’t wait for them to send out another to replace the black one. I need the spreader in action now so I’ve bit the bullet and cracked on. I’m happy with the product and happy with the customer service. I’m just miffed at their attention to detail. Very poor. 🤬😖😤

Hallo zusammen, heute habe ich meine Wiesen eingesät bzw. nachgesät. hat wunderbar geklappt. Auch der Zusammenbau war kinderleicht. Beschreibung absolut ok.

My in-laws have had one for years and they’ve lent it to us several times. Was so impressed with it once it came on sale we nabbed one for ourselves. Decent size hopper , don’t have to fill very often on a 1 ac yard. Works great for pelletized lime and granular fertilizer. As mentioned improvements could be made to the spread rate lever to accommodate zero turn mowers but I just leave it closed until I get to where I left off , dismount the mower to re-open then carry on. Very little spills out while not moving.

Funciona a la perfección y esparce muy bien el producto. No es muy robusto, pero mientras no se le “sobrecargue” y se le dé el mantenimiento adecuado te servirá mucho para jardines muy grandes. Una cancha de futbol sin problemas. Buena compra.