Best tow-behind spreader

Spreaders are sold on hopper size, which is the least useful way to compare them. A hopper is a number of pounds; what you want is a number of square feet, and getting from one to the other needs the application rate off the bag. Here is that conversion for the largest tow hopper and the largest push hopper we hold specifications for.

The short answer

Pounds converted to square feet

Application rates live on the product bag, not on the spreader. Pick a rate and the hopper size turns into an area.

Tow against push, on published figures

1. Agri-Fab 45-0463 — best for big lawns

A 130 lb poly hopper, an enclosed gearbox and pneumatic tires, at 37 lb empty and 46 inches long assembled. Poly matters here: fertilizer is hygroscopic and corrosive, and a steel hopper that sits with residue in it does not last.

The enclosed gearbox is the second point. A tow spreader's impeller is driven off the wheels, so the gearbox lives directly in the fall of grit and product. Enclosing it is the difference between a spreader that works in year five and one that grinds.

The honest failure: the product page publishes no spread width and no operating speed. Those are the two numbers that let you plan pass spacing, and without them the only route is calibration — run a known weight over a measured area and see what happens.

#ad Check the Agri-Fab 130 lb Tow Spreader (45-0463) price on Amazon — how we're funded.

2. Scotts Elite — when a push spreader is still right

Eighty pounds, a published 6 ft dual-rotor spread width, up to 20,000 sq ft per fill, EdgeGuard to keep product off the sidewalk, and foam-filled tires that cannot go flat over winter.

It publishes what Agri-Fab does not: a spread width. Six feet against a five-foot standard is about 20% fewer passes, and knowing the number is what lets you space them.

It is here because a tow spreader is the wrong answer for most lawns. Under about 10,000 sq ft, or on a lawn cut up by beds and paths, walking behind a hopper you can steer beats towing one you cannot. EdgeGuard also does something no tow spreader here offers: it stops product landing on hard surfaces, which is where runoff starts.

#ad Check the Scotts Elite Spreader price on Amazon — how we're funded.

Calibrating a spreader with no published width

1. Weigh out a known quantity — 10 lb is convenient — and put it in an empty hopper.
2. Run it over a measured strip at your normal towing speed until the hopper is empty, keeping the passes at a fixed spacing.
3. Divide the weight by the area you actually covered. That is your real rate in pounds per 1,000 sq ft, at that setting and that speed.
4. Adjust the gate setting and repeat until the measured rate matches the rate on the bag. Faster towing broadens the pattern, so calibrate at the speed you will use.

Who should skip both

• Small lawns. Under about 5,000 sq ft, a small-lawn spreader or a drop spreader puts product exactly where you steer it.
• Anyone without a tow vehicle. The Agri-Fab has no drive of its own — the wheels turn the impeller, and something has to turn the wheels.
• Lawns bordered by water. Broadcast spreaders throw product sideways. Near a pond, stream or storm drain, a drop spreader is the responsible choice.

What we cannot tell you

Agri-Fab publishes no spread width, no operating speed, no tire size and no warranty term on the 45-0463 product page. Scotts publishes no unit weight or assembled dimensions for the Elite. Neither publishes a calibration table for any specific product, which is why the procedure above measures instead of assuming. And we have not run either spreader across a season to compare pattern consistency as the hopper empties.