Where in Iowa are you? We had a little trouble with the cold weather but we spread a mix of sand and de icer that is premixed for us by our vendor. If its really cold we dump 50 pounds of high grade deicer on top of the hopper and in an hour the sand is broken up enough to run through our spreader. We do have to keep our sanding truck inside at night to keep the sand from seizing up but it is on an old Chevy 6.2 Diesel so it just made it easier to start the diesel truck. If your in the Des Moines area let me know and I can let you know were we get our sand/de icer mix at they are open 24 hrs a day if you give them a call they come out and load you for no extra charge.