Jim Nelson
Member
can you change the live reel from 2 to 21/2.
thank you jim.
thank you jim.
Butler live reel
- Thread starter Jim Nelson
- Start date
could you?
in theory, Yes.
I have one here in the shop that i am attempting to do just that, but it's gonna be a project, and I'm not sure the average guy will disassemble and reassemble what I need him to, to make it work.
In the mean time, just replacing the factory reel hub 2.5" elbow with one of my 2.5" high perf. elbows does indeed help. I'm just not sure all years of production use the same interface.
Can you unscrew yours and be left with 2.5" female threads on the hub?
in theory, Yes.
I have one here in the shop that i am attempting to do just that, but it's gonna be a project, and I'm not sure the average guy will disassemble and reassemble what I need him to, to make it work.
In the mean time, just replacing the factory reel hub 2.5" elbow with one of my 2.5" high perf. elbows does indeed help. I'm just not sure all years of production use the same interface.
Can you unscrew yours and be left with 2.5" female threads on the hub?
Jim Nelson
Member
Well I'm up for it I made my last TM I have a 06 butler.
Mike Draper
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It will work, but it won't.
I've taken my entire live butler reel apart and extended it as well to hold my 2.5 inch hose. My friend has a machine shop and we looked at it, took all the measurements and drew up the plans to make it possible. First , it is a major pain in the ass to do, second and most importantly, we realized that the hole in the PVC pipe where the hose comes out on the butler is really made for 2" hose "obvious" but when you stuff your 2.5" hose in their and wind it up on the reel day in and day out the 2.5 hose starts to kink and collapse after about 2 weeks. It does this right at the point where the hose comes out of the hole and start to wrap around the reel. SO in other words, you can make a 2.5 inch live reel, but stuffing the hose in inside the PVC pipe and then winding it up will eventually cause it to collapse. In the end I just wrap my hose on the reel and it does fine, then I take off the needed length and hook it up to a small attachment I have 2 feet away form my filter box. The only way I could see to fix this problem is to have a larger diameter PVC pipe, and that won't work on the Butler reel.
I've taken my entire live butler reel apart and extended it as well to hold my 2.5 inch hose. My friend has a machine shop and we looked at it, took all the measurements and drew up the plans to make it possible. First , it is a major pain in the ass to do, second and most importantly, we realized that the hole in the PVC pipe where the hose comes out on the butler is really made for 2" hose "obvious" but when you stuff your 2.5" hose in their and wind it up on the reel day in and day out the 2.5 hose starts to kink and collapse after about 2 weeks. It does this right at the point where the hose comes out of the hole and start to wrap around the reel. SO in other words, you can make a 2.5 inch live reel, but stuffing the hose in inside the PVC pipe and then winding it up will eventually cause it to collapse. In the end I just wrap my hose on the reel and it does fine, then I take off the needed length and hook it up to a small attachment I have 2 feet away form my filter box. The only way I could see to fix this problem is to have a larger diameter PVC pipe, and that won't work on the Butler reel.
Jim Nelson
Member
cant you cut the pvc to fit the hose or put a 90 degree elbow on it. :?:
Mike Draper
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The hole is already big enough for 2.5 hose. The problem arises when you start to wrap the hose around the pipe. You may be able to make some sort of 90 degree angle, that might just make other problems though for the amount of hose you can wind up.
yea....at this point, I'm convinced I'm gonna tell the "new" butler guys to just omit the butler reel form their order, and we can make a 2.5" version, but it's gonna have to be made from the ground up.
Mike, how much longer did you make your "hub" ? as far as I can tell the fresh tank prevents extending it very far or the hose will bind?
Mike, how much longer did you make your "hub" ? as far as I can tell the fresh tank prevents extending it very far or the hose will bind?
Mike Draper
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Here is the alteration. Reel was extended from 23" to 33" inches. Since we decided to take the power reel off we had to make alot of custom parts. It took us about for hours to machine all the parts needed for this. If you are running a manual wind up reel the extension should be pretty simple.
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Fred Homan
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- Oct 7, 2006
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Try a mandrell bend elbow on the recovery tank. Talk to Greenie about that.
cool!
Soo.......it appears the powered reels have a hub that is 2" narrower (23 vs 25"), that explains the reduced capacity some guys experience with 2.5" hose.
I can see where splitting the difference made it possible, can you still get the "dog house" off easily if you need to?
Soo.......it appears the powered reels have a hub that is 2" narrower (23 vs 25"), that explains the reduced capacity some guys experience with 2.5" hose.
I can see where splitting the difference made it possible, can you still get the "dog house" off easily if you need to?
Mike Draper
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Actually the fresh water tank doesn't get in the way of winding up the hose, it just looks that way. The reel only sits about 1" behind hte fresh tank. I can say though that winding up the 2.5 inch hose is a pain in the ass, especially when it's ten degrees outside. This ones got to last me 3 more years then I'm all Aerotech and never turning back. My auto reel sucked bad anyhow, it wouldn't pull the 2.5 hose so that's why we took it off. Here is a pic with hose 120 feet 2.5" + 25 to 50 feet if needed of 2"
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Mike Draper
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not sure what the dog house is. Is that the half dome support at the bottom of the hose reel???
G
Guest
Guest
I have the tall Butler hose reel and this weekend I'm changing it to the short reel and installing a area rug platform over the hose reel.
Mike Draper
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This may seem like a dumb question, but how does the doghouse go into the filter box? Does it go over the filter socks?
no no...sorry
two separate items.
the doghouse I refer to is what covers your Blower and Pump.
The perforated plate is a replacement for the Butler plate that sits down in the bottom of your in-line filter box, as you can see one is an improvement over the other, probably the best $39 vacuum improvement on a Butler.
btw: If you remove that "Y" and just use a single 2.5" hose off of that filter box you will have just as good of vacuum, the Y creates turbulence, the single pipe is more efficient.
two separate items.
the doghouse I refer to is what covers your Blower and Pump.
The perforated plate is a replacement for the Butler plate that sits down in the bottom of your in-line filter box, as you can see one is an improvement over the other, probably the best $39 vacuum improvement on a Butler.
btw: If you remove that "Y" and just use a single 2.5" hose off of that filter box you will have just as good of vacuum, the Y creates turbulence, the single pipe is more efficient.
