Here in the wintery part of the world, snowblowers do the trick of clearing snow very well, but there is always a bit left over which makes slipping a danger--usually throwing some salt on those areas will melt the ice and all is well. However, this requires making two trips. Why not combine the two? Create a device that attaches to the back of the snowblower which automatically dispenses salt as you walk. I don't think it will add too much weight to the blower--if it does, then maybe it should only be recommended for the blowers you ride.
-- Qualiall, Dec 06 2000

Aristotle has apparently never lived in the "wintery part of the world". Salt is very much used on an "industrial scale"; it's only the little guy using the hand-push snowblower to clear his (her) sidewalk that doesn't get the benefit of combined salt/sand/plow/blow snow management.

It doesn't salinate the water table, but it does work hell on car underbodies, and it's not really very good for roadside vegetation.
-- egnor, Dec 07 2000


Simple and effective. Nice job. I'm surprised this isn't on the market already.
-- redshift9, Dec 07 2000


I could do with the hairdryer extension to dry up all this bloody rain we are getting
-- Fletche, Dec 07 2000


I also live in a cold part of the world, and one of the solutions the highway departments use up here in Canada is a combination salt/sand mixture. This not only cuts down on the amount of salt in the mixture (which may address some of Aristotle's concern- there's more sand than salt) but it also creates a surface with much better traction than salt alone. The salt melts a bit of the top layer of ice and allows the sand to freeze to the ice itself.

If you positioned this device pointing down instead of out, it would also keep the salt/sand mixture from getting all over your pants as well.

I'm also surprised that suc a device isn't marketed already. After a large snowfall I often see huge graders, followed by snowplows, followed by dump trucks to collect the snow, followed by sanding trucks. Something like this idea would even work on an industrial scale and save a lot of money.
-- BigThor, Dec 08 2000


The UK Court of Appeal has recently ruled that local authorities have no duty to salt/grit the roads at all. Thus saving both the water table and money.
-- DrBob, Dec 12 2000


The salt-scattering snowblower may not be a good deal for people who only wish to clear a driveway-sized area. The amount of effort saved would be pretty small -- it's not much trouble to hand-scatter salt over a few square metres, certainly not much more than it would be to load it properly into a snowblower and then push the (admittedly little) added weight about. When hand-scattering you can also choose how thickly to lay it, concentrate it where the remaining ice is worst, and so on.

The extra expense might just not be worth it to people who buy snowblowers. Then again, it might.
-- Monkfish, Dec 12 2000


I've never seen a snowblower that can be ridden without serious injury resulting. Snowplows already have salt-spreaders on the back of them. If this idea could have worked on snowblowers, i think they would already be available, right?
-- Danzig626, Dec 13 2000


The salt would be spread too uncontrollably and could corrode some substances. A minus.
-- pogoman59, Feb 13 2002


I agree with Pog. When you snowblow there's always alot of backing up, taking little slivers, turning corners awkwardly and repeatedly. The salt would get spread very unevenly, and probably too thickly in some places. Sure you could turn the spreader on and off, but your hands are already doing alot when you're working one of those things.
-- JackyD, Dec 25 2006



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