Agri-Fab 45-0527 110 lb. Tow- Behind Lawn & Garden Broadcast Spreader for Seed,Fertilizer,Salt,Ice Melt; Easy to use Flow Control from Seat of Riding Lawn Mower

Assembly is pretty easy.

Great spreader perfect size and easy assembly , fast delivery , would buy again !

I, like so many other reviewers, had the issue where the gears would stick or bind, causing the tire to stop rotating. Assembly was a nightmare because the only thing that comes pre-assembled is the main gear, axle, and drive shaft. Everything else has to be done by the buyer. Unfortunately, after troubleshooting for two hours and reassembling the entire thing three times, I noticed at the very end that the main drive was assembled incorrectly. That means that the only thing that the factory assembled themselves, they did it incorrectly.The first issue I noticed was that the wide black spacer for one side of the tires did not fit at all. I needed another half an inch or more of space to fit the spacer. But without the spacer, the second tire did fit the assembly, so we put the tire on without the spacer. Unfortunately, the gear would get stuck every once in a while while rotating. If I used it in this manner, it would lead to the issues that other reviewers are seeing, where the retaining piece of plastic would break or melt if it got stuck while going 4 mph on a tractor.That's when I noticed that in the picture, the drive wheel was on the opposite side of where I mounted it, so I had to turn the drive shaft 180 degrees. This change corrected the first issue I had run into, and now I could get that wide black spacer on both wheels. However, when I tightened the bolts on the frame, the axel leading to the auger became crooked, binding the axle in the frame. This was the enlightening moment. If the wheels were on the first way I mounted it, the axle leading up to the auger was off-center by half an inch and it caused too much friction in the frame and stopped the wheels from turning once in a while. But if I rotated the whole drive shaft to match the tires to the assembly picture, then the axel would be offset even more, by an entire inch, and the tire would not rotate at all.That's when I noticed that the gear was on the wrong side of the pre-assembled drive shaft. In the picture, both the drive wheel and the axel are on the same side, and the gear is on the opposite side. The proper assembly at the factory would allow the axel to be aligned straight in the center of the frame and auger, but with the gear that's half an inch wide sitting on the wrong side, the axel will always be off-center no matter which way you orient the drive shaft to the frame.The gear is held in by a tension pin, and even at the factory they only drove it through the shaft about 20 percent of the way. The pin is stuck in there and I couldn't get it to budge with a plier, so I can see why they gave up on pushing it through at the factory. At this point, I didn't want to bother trying to hammer out the friction pin to move the gear to the other side of the drive shaft, so I initiated a return.

This is a good tow behind spreader. Quality overall is good. Spreader worked well and looks like it will last for many seasons.The weak point is, that many people will have problems with assembly. The diagrams in the instructions have all the details needed for assembly but, the diagrams are not as good as I would expect. It is easy to have problems with getting the components positioned properly unless you are very careful to match the diagrams. Details that are needed for proper assembly are poorly highlighted. More diagram insets would be very helpful as well as larger and clearer diagrams. "Push in plugs" for the end of arms on the spreader had to be hammered into place with a rubber hammer as they were exceptionally tight and difficult to install. The handle for the on/off spreading arm was a bit undersized and a bit of oil or grease is helpful to get this to slide on with a reasonable amount of force.

I am very pleased to write this unique review. I recieved my Agri Fab pull from behind spreader and after a half day of assembly I finally reached the final stage - putting the wheels on !!Putting the wheels on should be the easiest part of the assembly process, but it was'nt. The included wheels did not fit the axel. Obviously I was very upset, and in my best "south western Connecticut aggreesive attitude" I was ready to make a major case of this problem with Agri Fab or demand my money back.Well at the very beginning of my phone call "Agri Fab cut me off at the pass". All of the Agri Fab staff was so courteous, polite, understanding and obliging (I could go on) that I realized that my "south western Connecticut attitude" was out of place.Agri Fab is located in Sullivan Illinois the mid west of the country. As soon as I was exposed to the understanding culture of the mid west I realized that my aggressive south western Connecticut attitude was wrong. The Agi Fab staff obligingly listened to problem and quickly resolved it by agreeing to promptly replace all of the problem parts free of charge.Coming from a part of the U.S. where it is so common to be dealing with people who are so self centered and bordering on being the next "hit and runs" it was so pleasant to deal with genuinely considerate people ( particularly Sandy M. in their customer service area) I am almost pleased to have had my spreader assembly problem.I highly recommend Agri Fab and would very definitely buy from them again !!Ron Knettel, Southport Connecticut

This spreader by agrifab is about as cheaply made as possible. The thrower is driven by a pot metal gear tack welded to the axle shaft. That drive relies on one wheel connected to the axle shaft by a cotter pin. In soft prepared earth, the thrower auger became blocked by seed causing the single drive wheel to lock up and drag. After 15 minutes of spreading and dragging the wheel, the cotter pin broke and it came without extra pins. Now I have 40lb of seed to scoop out to investigate the impeller and I have to wait for more pins. This poor quality is not what I expected from Agrifab.