ugh!! butler blowers are killing me..

[davegillfishing]

this is the 3rd blower in 7 years..

first one on this truck was a grease blower and went out after 2k hrs..it was warrantied (love that)

then the blower in our other truck went (bearings went on both) not warrantied but replaced with a dual splash

now today after 2500 hrs the blower froze on my truck mid job..i ran out and shut everything off and checked for broken belts or anything
that could have caused it..i was even hoping for the driveshaft being bad lol..

after calling armand for some advice we trouble shot it down to the blower..ugh!!

dealtimeman mink is searching for a replacement for me also but i will see what butler can do to help monday..

this thing only has a few thousand hrs on it..

guess i will be scrambling to get the judson dialed in easter sunday and crossing fingers that she runs like she is supposed to..

i love my butlers more than anything but man ether im running the dog crap out of them or i am just pulling the unlucky lottery ticket on the bad batch lol

fingers crossed that butler will help me out on this being such low hrs on it..we will see.

 

[bob vawter]

do you ever clean them out?

 

[Larry Cobb]

Sorry to hear that Dave.

Three blowers seems excessive with those hours.

Let us know what Butler covers.

I feel that PTO mfgs. will have some difficulties,

with new Vans designed for 27.5 mpg Fed standards.

One other customer is switching from B_____ PTO's to slide-ins,

to lessen his fuel costs for seven trucks.

Larry

 

[davegillfishing]

Yes I service them monthly. I'm a maint freak.

I run hot water through them and wd40 through the service port.

Oil change with synthetic every 400 hrs instead of 500 and we never let the sit more than a weekend without running them. The longest they have ever sat is 4 days.

Larry I sure will
Thanks

 

[bob vawter]

sounds like yor doing what yor supposed to......side tension?

 

[hogjowl]

That's probably the problem.

Ignore them, and they won't be a problem.

 

[davegillfishing]

Side tension?

When I take the belts off the blower I can get a tiny bit of play when I rock the pulley back and forth. Just a little click. Then when I spin it I get some grinding like a bearing or something.

The other 2 that went were grease fitting blowers. This is a dual splash.

It's crazy because its been running perfect for several years. Not a peep. Then all the sudden bam like something just popped.

I am the one that does all the maint on the trucks because I'm kind of a nut with all my vehicles and toys. I like it almost over maintained if that is even possible.

Are they rebuildable? Even worth rebuilding?

 

[Larry Cobb]

Are they rebuildable? Even worth rebuilding?

Dave;

They are rebuildable .

The cost to rebuild is too high, at most factory authorized service centers.

It is usually about 55% of new cost, and there is no warranty.

Larry

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Wow, that sucks, Dave. I'm on my 6th Butler with never a blower problem, grease or dual splash. One with almost 6000 hours. Hope you get a reasonable settlement.

 

[KevinD]

I think I would be looking for another cause.
Clogged filters to the blower? Do you keep them clean?
Faulty blower relief valve or set too high?

 

[John Olson]

You can't just bolt In any blower.Butler has the blowers made for them and they are proprietary. You can make modifications to accept a different blower but it isn't really worth the hassle. Which blower do you have? They have two different ones. I think I might have a rebuilt one still sitting in the shop. Email me a picture of the shafts and ill check Monday.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I think I would be looking for another cause.

My thoughts too, Kev

Dave, do you/have you "enhanced" the stock factory settings in any way?

I know Fl is hot, do you run with doors open or closed?

that many blowers in so few hours suggests something other than being so unlucky to get three defective blowers.
They typically last MUCH longer than that routinely .


..L.T.A.

 

[FB7777]

That's a shame Dave, like Steve Lawrence I have had zero problems with Butler blowers. I have 1 with over 5000 hours and I don't maintain them as. Often as recommended

No mods to my trucks, other than 2.5 hose which actually helps the blowers

 

[davegillfishing]

i run with windows open unless its raining..dog house lid open at all times..metal screen filter cleaned once a month and we have the filter bags located at the back door and they are changed
every single day..

this is the 3rd blower to go on 2 different trucks..

i always run on full speed..never in mid range..so its ether idling or running balls out..we run 2" hose from the filter box to the wand..we by pass the live elbow because of restriction..

these trucks are truly babied and handled with kid gloves other than they are work horses..

on the grease blowers i was told that there were some problems with them..they were covered under warranty also..

but i thought i would get many many years out of this dual splash..

i run synthetic oil in them..its the aeon oil not the tuthill..

john i will post a pic of the blower..thanks!!

i am actually such a nut about checking the fluid levels DAILY that i will put anywhere from a 5 to a 50 dollar bill in the dog house a few times a month to spot check
the guys to be sure they are checking the levels before the fire up..if i dont get a call thanking me for the tip before they fire up the truck they are not eligible for their
next bonus..sounds harsh but i demand certain things get done and if they dont it comes with a consequence..

 

[davegillfishing]

 

[davegillfishing]

Faulty blower relief valve or set too high?

the relief valve open and closes with no restrictions but i have never reset or changed it..wouldnt know how to..i just know when we suck down on something it opens a bit then closes back up..

 

[John Olson]

Ok i might have one ill look tomorrow.

 

[davegillfishing]

Fingers crossed
Thanks
904-483-7307 is my cell

 

[FB7777]

I've only operate our Butlers a handful of times a year on high

A couple of times I shred the blower belts on the jobs

Pretty big difference in heat under the shroud when I run on high, blower runs a lot hotter.

Seeing how you are considering other machines such as slide ins , maybe you should be looking for a slide with a bigger blower

Running the Butler on high all the time may be prematurely killing the 47 blower

 

[davegillfishing]

Well I gotta say I'm truly a butler guy to the heart. It's just to awesome of a machine to not have as my fleet rigs.

I asked Tom and Peter both and they said its cool to run it on high all the time.

I would hope so considering there is nothing in print advising me not to unless I missed something.

 

[Ken Snow]

Ours pretty much always run on high.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[hogjowl]

You have to just "know" that 99% of us guys are going to run it on high.

So, that can't be it, or everybody would be having issues.

 

[Dale]

Hi Dave:

I've rebuilt a lot of blowers, and assembled quite a few Butlers @ MDPneumatics. One thing I've never figured out is why a dual splash is supposed to be better-because virtually everyone I ever worked on the problem was on the single “splash” end-never the grease end. Has anybody else noticed this? Give me a single splash blower any day.

Another thing I never figured out is why TM manufactures don’t demand a blower NOT made of all cast iron. The technology was out many years ago for a partially ceramic one, and nowadays plastics can stand the heat a blower produces.

Bottom-line Butler is not to blame-but if any TM manufacturer really cared they would demand blowers to be used in wet conditions. The blower manufactures love it that they don’t.

In looking at those picture-even though I’ve never had a Butler dual splash in front of me-it appears that the belt tensioned is no longer drilled/bolted into the casing like with the single splash ones. Is that correct? If that is so any 4007 MD (and possibly others it the casing bolt pattern is the same ) could be used.

Sincerely,
Dale

 

[Desk Jockey]

We've had 4-Butlers and never washed them out but we do required maintenance. Of the four only one had a Blower go bad after 5000-hours...it was sold and a week before the new owner took possession we took it to a WDR job.

She came apart on the job, so we ended up putting a brand new blower on a sold machine.

We always run on high vac.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

I find it interesting that so many run on high van for every job.

We don't find much difference in performance between high and low speed at close ranges, say under 125 feet. And the gasoline savings at lower speed can be significant. If our trucks run on high speed we cannot get 2 full days out of the 29 gallon gas tanks. If running on low speed we can always get 2 longer days without refilling the gas. Big savings on gas and trips to the gas station.

 

[davegillfishing]

Hi Dave:

I've rebuilt a lot of blowers, and assembled quite a few Butlers @ MDPneumatics. One thing I've never figured out is why a dual splash is supposed to be better-because virtually everyone I ever worked on the problem was on the single “splash” end-never the grease end. Has anybody else noticed this? Give me a single splash blower any day.

Another thing I never figured out is why TM manufactures don’t demand a blower NOT made of all cast iron. The technology was out many years ago for a partially ceramic one, and nowadays plastics can stand the heat a blower produces.

Bottom-line Butler is not to blame-but if any TM manufacturer really cared they would demand blowers to be used in wet conditions. The blower manufactures love it that they don’t.

In looking at those picture-even though I’ve never had a Butler dual splash in front of me-it appears that the belt tensioned is no longer drilled/bolted into the casing like with the single splash ones. Is that correct? If that is so any 4008 MD (and possibly others it the casing bolt pattern is the same ) could be used.

Sincerely,
Dale

i agree totally its not butlers fault at all in any way..its just a part in their beast..

it is a bracket that is bolted on the blower..it is one of the things i had to switch over when replacing the other blower in the past..

do you think this blower is worth rebuilding and keeping as a back up? or am i just better off not dealing with it?
thanks

 

[dealtimeman]

Spoke with my tuthill rep and she said the casing is different than that of a standard for ex 4007-21l2. So the bolts are in different places. Also butler has different milling to the end plates from a normal blower.

Which means if you don't want to have the tensioner milled or drilled for the holes on a different cased blower you have to buy it through butler.

 

[Dale]

Hi Dave:

I'm sorry I can't help. I really don't know what it will cost you to repair-where your at. However if it's just the bearings- it will reqiure a bearing/seal kit. Most Rebuilders charge $600- $800 for that to install and re-time. The problem you have though is if they find more wrong with it- IE: gears & shafts. Then it's probably not worth fixing-but most Rebuilders will not charge you to tell you that if they can keep the core.

Just so you know I emphasize-last month my son had a pump go bad on a 1500 hr machine. We waited to find a used pump, unknowing that he did not lube the blower when he shut it down. I rebuilt the pump for him and went on home. Well the blower had locked up and he really put the wammy on it with a pipe wrench. He damaged it so much that it should be a boat anchor. But I had all the used parts that he needed, including gears- and his bearings were still good. So I'm letting him by with just new seals, and a whole lot of my labor.

Sincerely,
Dale