Conveyor Replacement/With Who?

[RAATCB]

I have a 15 year old 75ft conveyor (front wheel pull) . A local car wash equipment company made the conveyor as a clone/copy of the hanna style "over and under" with the spring tension. Due to the wear, I am in the market of putting in another conveyor. I have seen many companies such as motor city, avw, hanna and belanger. They are all pretty similar but wondering which is the best conveyor for the money. I have gotten quotes and they are all close to the same price. I want to use the new style X458 chain so I don't have to use a come-along to change rollers and to shorten the chain. Also is the new "air cylinder tension" reliable compared to the old school spring tension?

I am looking for a conveyor that is simple constructed and easy to replace parts if ever needed. On my old conveyor, there are no bearings to grease, only plastic bushings. Now I seen more bearings than bushings.

Can anyone help me out with a decision I need to make soon? I am located in Los Angeles

 

[John Logan]

I have a front wheel pull 7 year old 70 ft Belanger Dura Trans with six roller dollies. I'll replace the original chain this winter. I've replace a third of the rollers over the last couple years. Other maintenance, just replace chain tension air cylinders and sprockets. Roller up air cylinder has been replace three times and have replace half of the plastic guide rails. Overall, I've been pleased with its performance - it's a work horse washing close to 700k cars.

 

[RAATCB]

Did you change the sprockets, cylinders yourself? Were they hard to replace?

 

[John Logan]

i had my local maint co do the work. Easy and quick for him. On a closed rain day, I might have did the repairs myself with a employee but haven't been closed for weather since December. He was in & out in about a hour. Most of the take up assembly is pinned in - plug & play for replacement. Removing links to shortenthe chain is easy, I have 4ft roller spacing and rollers are easy to replace. It's a hydraulic unit.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Just put in my 4th AVW. Use X348 Chain. Was going to go with the heavier X458 but my distributor said it wasn't worth the trouble of the extra weight. Also it tended to hang on the sprocket with wear. So, I listened to him.

Chain tension is great, and the lighter weight rollers and Chain make it easier to work with without a come a long like we needed on the Flapan conveyors with Chain tension and heavier SC78 Chain.

Plastic Bushings on the roller Up and Tension Sled are great BUT you need to spray them with WD40 weekly. While you figure these would get looser with time they got stiffer, Perhaps it was crud and corrosion buildup and temperature.

 

[RAATCB]

Just put in my 4th AVW. Use X348 Chain. Was going to go with the heavier X458 but my distributor said it wasn't worth the trouble of the extra weight. Also it tended to hang on the sprocket with wear. So, I listened to him.

Chain tension is great, and the lighter weight rollers and Chain make it easier to work with without a come a long like we needed on the Flapan conveyors with Chain tension and heavier SC78 Chain.

Plastic Bushings on the roller Up and Tension Sled are great BUT you need to spray them with WD40 weekly. While you figure these would get looser with time they got stiffer, Perhaps it was crud and corrosion buildup and temperature.

Is your conveyor spring tension and front wheel pull? I was told AVW uses the weaker X348 chain. I want to use X458 chain. Currently I use C188 chain but after seeing how easy the X458 chain I decided to go with that.

 

[Ric]

We recently replaced a MacNeil conveyor with a Motor City Wash Works conveyor. Both use x458 chain. Very pleased with the new MCWW conveyor.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Is your conveyor spring tension and front wheel pull? I was told AVW uses the weaker X348 chain. I want to use X458 chain. Currently I use C188 chain but after seeing how easy the X458 chain I decided to go with that.

Air Cylinder Chain Tension. Rear Wheel Push. AVW offers your choice of X348 or X458.

As far as "Weaker" goes, I have only had chain break after substantial wear irrespective of type of chain. Now, how much longer will X458 Wear? Don't know. Also don't know if any longer wear would be offset by the PITA factor of dealing with heavier weight.