Live reel conversion

It is 97 degrees out and I look like a lobster working on this F-ing truck again. I found that I had to go back and re-plumb the water tank as I forgot a drain line...just a line to feed the pump,,,so now I am trying to re-engineering things.

On top of that, I was getting ready to load my solution reel and dug out my conversion assembly to make one reel a live one. Problem....how the hell does this work using below:

http://www.jondon.com/high-pressure-swivel-assembly.html

I assumed the swivel slides into the axle of the reel, but with no cutout in the axle of the reel, I ran the psi hose through the reel on the other end of the axle and connected. Made sense at the time, but that leaves a hose that really doesn't wind up at all .

What the heck am I missing here?

I have no experience with live reals, sorry...

But it's crazy what the suppliers charge for stuff like this! I'd bet money I could go to my hydraulic hose supplier and have the swivel hose made for half or less that price they charge.

WE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF, if you let them.

Davey Cracker wrote:I have no experience with live reals, sorry...

But it's crazy what the suppliers charge for stuff like this!  I'd bet money I could go to my hydraulic hose supplier and have the swivel hose made for half or less that price they charge.

WE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF, if you let them.

I agree, but I got mine for about half that price local.

On my butler, there is open cut out that you connect your solution hose to that swivel which is installed at the end of the reel's axle. My Rokkan reels do not have such a thing, yet this kit was supposed to be for use with this reel....I don't see how.

You all have the parts to make a poor man's live sol swivel on your trucks right now.

Sure, but I don't want to just waste this swivel lead either.  It just irritates the hell out of me that I can't find a way to make this work.

Like everything on this project, things went side-ways.  I plan it out, shop the parts, and get to it only to find that there is a brace behind the wall that I can't drill through or things don't line up, etc.  I'm fed up with starting over all the time!

Just in the last hour, I connected my APO...just like it was planned.  I had a victory only to find out that the pump was reversed from what I thought the inlet / outlet were.  There were no markings on the pump to indicate direction and the tech sheet never specified which direction you were facing on the pump so the diagram was meaningless.

50/50 shot and I lost.  Now I had to re-drill the mounts, flip the head, and now the fittings do not line up so I will need to go shopping again for parts and my inline filter will not be accessible without unbolting the bracket and flipping it over.....that is just swell.

I was supposed to finish it up this weekend, but now I think I might be farther away than when the weekend started, sunburned, irritated, and lost another $350 in misc parts, bolts, etc. for little gain.

I am actually afraid to order the propane tank now....probably be a reason that it will not work either.  End up having to bolt to the roof or something.

At least I can take comfort in knowing that I have to be up 6.5 hours for another fun-filled work week.

The only good thing is that I should be getting to attack that reptile exhibit this week.  After seeing that, it will feel really good to come away with a victory for a change.

Oh great, my leg is bleeding...probably get lockjaw now from it.  Don't even know what cut me.

Rob not sure if this us helpful but from what I recall on mine  the swivel is inserted into the tube on the reel and its held on there by an Allen bolt the water line from my pump inserted into the inlet of swivel on reel.

I dont have the swivel anymore but I used an air hose swivel for illustration purposes

That is how I set it up on the reel tube with the other end of the pigtail running to a tee off my main solution line to the panel.  I'm good there.

Where I scream is connecting to the swivel.  The reel tube is hollow and so I ran the end of a 100 ft solution line into the tube and threaded into the swivel.  That all made sense and it should give me what I wanted.

Should have, but didn't because there isn't a way to wind the hose onto the reel with a severe bend and I still had to contend with the vacuum reel clearance as well on my stacked reel.



I have this same set-up and you can see that it has the swivel assembly attached in the picture....just can't see how it is set-up.

You can do the same thing with a q connect set put the female side in the pipe with the live feed hose attached tighten the bolt and jam nut put a elbow on the male end and attach it to the sol hose, then put the Q connects together now roll your sol line up on the reel. If you use a SS male connect it will last longer. Cheaper than 65.00.

Nice tip ACE Thanks!!!

Ah, that was the problem....I was trying to connect it like the butler units and it just didn't make any sense.

I added a line onto the swivel assembly to reach the pump tee.  What I need to do is connect a separate psi line from that tee to the reel and then use the swivel pigtail to connect to the 100 ft hose via QC.

Still seems like it would cause a bad bend to the line without a swivel or at least an elbow on the other end of the reel shaft....pretty crappy design compared to the butler which leaves the hose straight.  Maybe I need to ditch these little reels and buy a used butler reel to run live?

Here we go again......getting farther from the finish line.

Scratch that idea....no room for the butler reel, I just ran out and checked.