Model 200

Not only did it arrive in a matter of a couple days after ordering (arrival was much sooner than estimated), but assembly was fairly straightforward. We scratched our heads on a couple steps -- they were not intuitive, but careful studying of the pictures made it clearer. Now that I've used it for 2 days, I'm amazed and kicking myself for waiting so long. I'm a fanatic about property appearance and fly control (central TX) so I pick up the 3 acre paddock routinely, and put it into a compost pile. Well, 3 large compost piles now. I've tried to spread it back out using the tractor bucket, but only made a mess. This spreader is wonderful!! It breaks down the large clumps, spreads a fairly thin swath of manure, excuses my smaller rocks, and is super easy to use. I've spread wet fresh and I've spread dry composted and it is superb with either. Even loaded with manure, I can easily pick up the tow arm to attach it to the tractor. With the drum engagement levers on the wheel, you have the ability to keep it from spreading while moving to another part of the property. It appears to be made of very sturdy aluminum panels and we expect it will hold up a long time. A must have.

I have borrowed a friends Model 100 and was impressed. His spreader had been sitting out in the weather so the pressure treated boards finally fell off as I used it. Don't know how long he has owned it but it does an excellent job of spreading horse manure and shavings...some hay was in the mix too but we let it mulch down a few weeks before we spread it around. I had offered to buy his Model 100 but his wife said no sale...so off to the Internet to find a spreader. His spreader didn't have the "NS" markings in the wood due to age and the trailer itself had no decals. I had to Google manure spreaders and see what I could find. Google images led me to several places who sold this Model 200. Their main website, a few companies in PA and FL and then Amazon. The main NS website had higher shipping costs. So I had looked on Amazon and instead of the $120 from the main website of NS, NS had shipping at $80 with Amazon. Plus they threw in a vinyl cover for the spreader and a ball hitch coupler to convert the mower pin to a ball hitch. It arrived UPS in a 144 lb box. Upon opening I realized it was gonna be a nightmare to put together. So I slowly removed all the pieces from the box which is pretty well packed. They did an excellent job at this. Just about every piece of aluminum still have the plastic film on them so as not to scratch the finish from the laser cutting or packing and shipping. The instructions showed a diagram of each piece laid out as an "exploded view". Took me about 3 hours to put it all together. There were a few pieces I had to remove and put back together correctly as the pictures and description sometimes wasn't clear until I had tried to piece it together. These pieces are somewhat huge and can be clumsy if doing it yourself. I can tell you this, each hole that was square cut for the carriage bolts lined up with each round hole perfectly. Nothing had to be filed or reamed with a power drill like some things you have to put together. The design and parts are very very well thought out. And if you hadn't noticed, the Model 100 is 8 cu while this Model 200 is 13 cu. When it was all said and done this unit is a monster as compared to the Model 100. I bought this because we had a pile that took me 25 loads in the Model 100 to spread on two acres. So I'm pretty sure with the size of the Model 200 that I can cut my work in half. No flat tires, no real maintenance to speak of ( I did squeeze some grease in the zerk fittings since it was upside down), a vinyl cover, and a ball coupler all for $1340 shipped. Seems pricey but trust me, this lays it down like a powder/granule spreader. It doesn't fling the manure like the other heavier spreaders that are made of metal and will rust or have a chain to fall off and have to adjust. This thing really has no need to be tweaked or adjusted or anything. Just use it and park it when your done. The only thing I would suggest is not leave manure in it overnight and after it's use to rinse it out. Also, even though the trim boards are pressure treated, I will be coating them with polyurethane clear to keep them from absorbing and drying from the rains. But it, you will not regret its use.

good kart.. you will like it..

While we love the general design of this equipment and its ease of use, both axle pins have randomly broken and been replaced. Now the black rubber/plastic ball hitch joint has broken. While parts can be replaced, the inconvenience has been annoying. We are a small family barn with 8 horses.

This thing came extremely well packaged. Was indeed a lot of little parts to assemble but easily done in a day. When fully loaded with manure, it still has a very light tongue weight by design. Enabling my 9yr old son and aging mother-in-law to be the ones that usually dump it. It does an incredible job breaking up the horse and cow manure into tiny bits! After a hard rain the bits even disappear completely. Best part is, I don't have to compost manure or need a tractor with a bucket loaded to turn compost. I just put it into the pasture directly (so no flies from piles of manure) and the seed inside the manure remains viable... aka... my pasture has already begun greening up AND has new grass germinating everywhere. What does that translate into? Me not having to buy and spread seed anymore!!! Which means the Newer Spreader was in fact... FREE

I wish I'd gotten one years ago. No more difficult stall cleaning and no more manure piles! This little spreader is easy to handle, easy to use. We had few complaints AFTER it was assembled except - make sure you don't let any small rocks get into your load! The assembly was difficult (and frustrating). The directions were not very helpful and some of the photos were really hard to see and decipher. We had a terrible time lining up the tongue. It took 2 people a few hours... (however, we're not real mechanical.) But, I'm glad we didn't give up. Now that it's together, the manure spreader works great. Benefits include better fly control in the barn. We're building a better lawn too.

I assembled the spreader by myself this morning. Scooped all four horse stalls and spread the manure by pulling the spreader behind a garden tractor. I could not believe how fine it spread. Wow. This thing is incredible. Easy to maneuver and held all 4 stalls in one load. No more manure pile. Pretty straightforward to assemble with decent instructions. No problem spreading even with some hay mixed in. Great piece of equipment.