An all-terrain vehicle is better known as an ATV, and it is essentially a personal vehicle that is capable of off-road driving. Many ATV owners will use this vehicle for recreation, but also for utility purposes around the home or business. Attachments can be connected to the vehicle to make it more versatile; one such attachment is the ATV spreader, which is a device used to spread seeds, pesticides, or other fine particulate patter onto a lawn or plot of soil. The ATV spreader is usually towed behind the ATV using a tow bar and/or ball hitch.
The ATV spreader itself will feature its own set of wheels that will help keep the unit on track behind the ATV. The wheels may also be connected to an axle that provides the drive for the spreader mechanism, which is mounted at the bottom of a large container known as the hopper. Fertilizers or other materials are loaded into the ATV spreader hopper, and gravity will naturally pull the materials downward toward the spreader mechanism. An opening at the bottom of the hopper can usually be blocked when the spreader is not in motion to prevent loss of materials.
Once the block is removed, the gravity-fed materials will hit the spreader mechanism, which usually rotates according to the speed of the wheels. The ATV spreader mechanism will essentially throw the fertilizer or other material away from the center of the hopper, spreading the materials in a wide swath behind the ATV. This means the materials can be spread farther than the width of the vehicle, thereby lowering the number of passes the ATV will need to make to cover an entire plot of land with seeds, fertilizers, or pesticides.
The materials used to make an ATV spreader usually include various gauges of steel.This metal tends to be durable, and certain types of steel can be resistant to water damage and corrosion. The wheels of the ATV spreader may be solid plastic, though they are more likely to be pneumatic rubber tires. Such tires are used because they increase the amount of grip the tires can get on the lawn or soil, thereby ensuring the spreader mechanism will continue moving as long as the spreader and ATV are in motion. The size of the hopper will dictate how much material can be hauled at one time; larger hoppers will allow for more materials, which means the unit is likely to be able to cover a larger plot of land.