Pros and Cons of Botex trailer

[Brushcutter]

Ah the Botex. I've driven a lot of them roof and trailer mounts.

 

Pros:

Will lift nearly 3 tonne close in.

Big grapple.

Easy to get spares.

Good value.

You can spec them how you want them i got mine with a 1m extending bunk.

Old skool bolsters none of these modern thinning bolsters so you can do big stuff easily.

Steering drawbar is standard.

 

Cons.

Getting hold of Wilson to buy one can be hard can often involve a lot of chasing to get things.

Some of the grease points need to be changed when you get it to grease the crane folded up. ie go from straight ones to 90degree ones.

Valve block leaks.

Crane is slow.

As far as i know you can only get the one option of spool block so you cant get one with the grapple and extension linked onto the two main leavers.

As said the legs do drop but it will only be one, normally the left one.

Support legs are not that good.

Some of the rams and hoses are exposed.

 

I had a 5050 on a 11tone trailer and recently a 570 on a 11tonne trailer. For the money you cant really do better. If you need lift for big hardwoods (as i do) then botex is your only bet unless you have mega money for a big FMV or Kronos (£50k+).

 

I've been using them for 6 years now not as nice as the proper forestry cranes in terms of speed and smoothness but make up for it in lift and simplicity. My only real gripe is if you get a 570 or 580 the extension ram is very exposed. There is no guard on it and the fittings and welded to the ram so if you knock one its a new ram they're 500 quid a go! oh and a total pain to fit. I don't think the 560 has the same problem.

 

Other issue is that i've herd of at least twisting and breaking while doing big wood. I don't know the operators personally but did see one of them working and he seemed very smooth. Given that one of our guys has bent the rotor attachment link on ours it could be a think with heavy wood.

 

Would i have 3rd? Yes although i'd want some better guards on my rams. Although if i did only softwood i'd have a Vreten trailer with a Kesla crane.

 

Hope that gives you an idea. Depends what you want if for really, its a good start to agri forwarding. Oh and i've had it over once and taken the legs off once too. Now once i've got weight in i try to avoid putting the legs down.

[WoodED]

we get on with ours really well, it does a lot of road miles around milton keynes, strong lift,

[codlasher]

I only had a roof mounted 560 on a county tractor it was great for lifting big stuff, never any issues there. I agree with the leaky valve block, I fitted a bigger oil return pipe and that cured the problem. The slew ram seals wore out fairly quickly and this resulted in an oily shower in the cab but as has been mentioned spares are never a problem. Irritating things like the grease points were never easy and I ended up stripping every one and meticulously cleaning them, after that no problems. Nice big grapple too.

The Botex was the second crane to be fitted to the machine in 30+ years. It was fitted with a Wartsila ships crane originally by Chieftain Forge.

codlasher

Edited June 19, 2013 by codlasher

[cooks]

Seems if you have to handle hardwoods.....then Botex is the way forward. Good post Brushcutter:thumbup1:. Seems strange they cant provide any options on the spool block and they all leak?

[Brushcutter]

On the orginal one it had an 7 leaver block on it rather than the Parker haflin (or what ever it's called) and i don't recall that leaking.

 

Some pics of both of the trailers the old 5050 and the new 570. Note the hose attachments on the top of the extension ram on the 570. You don't get that on the shorter 560. Very easy to knock that connection off the top (i've done it) also the pipe that runs down the cylinder is held on by 3 welds ( 2 on mine now and a bike inner tube). It come off easily if you knock it durning thinnings.

[cooks]

There was one in the art trader bit on here with vertical legs instead of folding legs 10 k was the asking price was keen but never replied to me this looks like a good option http://arbtrader.arbtalk.co.uk/wp-content/themes/classifiedstheme/thumbs/2606-127-2012-07-15682380.JPG good pics woodED

[cooks]

did it really handle that hung up tree woodED ?

[Brushcutter]

There was one in the art trader bit on here with vertical legs instead of folding legs 10 k was the asking price was keen but never replied to me this looks like a good option http://arbtrader.arbtalk.co.uk/wp-content/themes/classifiedstheme/thumbs/2606-127-2012-07-15682380.JPG good pics woodED

 

Used that one. The vertical legs are interesting makes the crane base very narrow it's very tail twitchy even with the legs down. Once you get the weight in it's all good. Slewing the drawbar with the narrow legs makes it ok.

 

Pics that didn't upload.

2x bays of 8' Ash(a little extended)

2x bays of 3m Scotts (Full extended bunk)

2x bays of 3m Oak (old euro trailer)

[N1ck]

These were large lime butts so not oak but still heavy. The big ones I couldn't get over the bolsters and everything was creaking and groaning, but still managed to wrestle them on. I try not to make a habit of serial equipment abuse but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

Nick

[cooks]

Did the extending bunks add massive cost as that looks a great addition. The 570 extender ram is bloody long and exposed also the pipes look precarious