I’ve been using an Earthway crank type seeder for doing my fall food plot work. I plant plots for other property owners, as a side hustle , along with some of my own. So 3 properties, about 4-8 plots per property at 1/4 acre to 1/2 acre average size. Cereal grains, brassicas and legumes, lots of clover in particular. My earthway finally bit the dust, after 5 years of use. Can’t complain, I’d buy another if I stick with the crank type. I’m contemplating a 12 volt atv front mounted spinner spreader. Access is no issue, as I already use the atv with cultipacker on all of the plots. If I mount the spinner on front of the atv, I could seed and cultipack in one pass.

However, I want a dependable spinner. The hand crank was dependable and I could slow down the spinner in narrow sections, to avoid over spreading. Does anyone have experience with 12 volt atv spinners for seeding? I use a 3 bushel pull behind spreader for lime/fertilizer so this new spinner will be strictly for seed. Stick with the crank type? Or move to a 12 volt? Brand recommendations?

Thanks, John

I have never used the ATV type but walked a lot of fields over the years with an Earthway hand crank sewing clover mostly, frost seeding. Never did food plots.
3 properties, with an average of 6 per property and 1/3rd of an acre each means you have 5-7 acres to seed and I don't know how many times per year. Sounds like enough for a spinner but you can get an Earthway at Amazon for less then $70. A battery spinner with mounting etc. will probably be $200-$350 or more depending upon bells and whistles.
The one concern I would hav is with all those small plots you have a lot of spreading near at at edges, so controling speed and distance to me can be an issue as you probably have almost as much square footage near an edge as you do in the middle or centers.

Bryce

Put a dimmer switch inline on the 12v and mount it on the handle bars so you can slow it down when you need to.

I would continue using the crank spreader after you bought a new one.

I have been thinking about the same. I have always seeded my with a bag seeder because I like the control. I’m thinking real hard about a front mount seeder and installing a little dc drive on it for speed control. The little drive can be had for $7-10 on Amazon and they work great. They have a potentiometer for setting the speed. I would use it for my large seed and like you mentioned pull the cultipacker behind to kill two birds with one stone.

I think I’ll stick to the bag seeder for the small clover and brassica seed.

I have used both. Our food plots are usually a acre or two and I usually use a hand crank one. Just on the real big areas I use a 12 volt ATV seeder. My problem is that either way I usually seed to heavy.

A one pass seed and cultipack would save a lot of time, and some gas, since I can barely walk to the mailbox that's what I'd do, but as usual, YMMV.

Get the electric one on ATV. Mine mounts on back rack and I use it a lot- doing some planting but mainly feeding doves and turkeys. Not sure about spreading and cultipacking at same time- my spreader covers a wider area than cultipacker. As small as your plots are it won’t take any time. Mine is a Moultrie and has lasted 10 years so far. Only moultrie product I’ve had for anytime that didn’t become fish structure in my pond in short order. Wasn’t expensive and when motor goes bad many places sell the replacements….I’m still on original motor.

Thanks guys! Might look into one for the ATV. Will always have a bag seeder available in case I need it. Hard to control those small seeds, I also tend to overseed as well. Especially chicory and clover.