Best heavy duty actuator?????

[Achebee]

Howdy folks, I searched using the search tab , but can't find the info I am looking for.
Is there a link here to reviews of actuators???
I really am looking for an actuator that has good old time heavy duty parts, not something hiding behind a name and a high price with light duty parts in it.
I finally have my dual orthomode setup rolling banging in on all Sats, thanks to Pendragon, Stogie, Anole and others who had the patience to walk me through on all sorts of stuff, I've never had such a high performing setup...I am using a Venture 36" Ultra Power mover on my 12 ft. mesh.. It's rated at 1500 lbs, and I've used it for maybe 2 hours of actual running time....
I can not use HH here as I am in a challenging location... Today I was fine tuning the setup using a GBox to an AZboxPlus receiver...all working well, I am sitting back like I own the world, everything running along smoothly hitting sats and transponders that I could never get with my old set-up,and the Actuator starts grinding when I was moving from 99W to 125 W So I take it apart, and sho nuff one of the heavy duty "plastic" crap gear is broken at the neck...It's a clean break, just split in 2 pieces, like it came with a defect...I had adjusted all stops before hand, have my limits set correctly in the GBox and it just folded on me.
So I am going to a friend who makes gears and mill one out of brass as a replacement.
However, I am interested if there is actually a company who makes a true heavy duty actuator, with the sensitive reeds but with real gears, not this plastic junk that you find when you start digging into this stuff...
It would help if the actuator manufacturer sold spare parts, reed sensors etc. etc...
If you guys can give me a link to reviews or recommend a decent actuator I'd appreciate it... Thanks, HB

 

[putney]

I have an expensive Venture actuator in the shed with a broken plastic gear.
I feel your pain.

 

[tofer]

I wish those cheap plastic nuts were available to repair old actuators. I would buy a couple.

 

[tvropro]

Thompson Saginaw Ball Screw. This is one of the best made. My Saginaw worked for 19.5 years before the brushes wore out in the motor. And in those years I beat the crap out of it moving my 12 foot Unimesh. I got a Moteck QARL HD replacement when the Saginaw quit. It lasted 11 months and gave me counting errors. I took the Saginaw apart had a friend of mine make me new brushes out of carbon stock and cut the commutator on the motor. We checked everything else and it was in very good shape. I put the Saginaw back on my dish and once again it is working flawless. I expect much more life out of it. So in short if that isn't quality I don't know what is. Thompson Saginaw simply the best

http://www.tvantenna.com/products/commercial/reception/satellite/actuators.html

 

[eurosport]

Thompson Saginaw Ball Screw. This is one of the best made.

Thomson Saginaw Satellite Antenna Actuators

Absolutely! I just inherited my mom's 10 footer, with a 24" Thompson Saginaw on it. Mom & Dad used this thing for years. The dish is still in pefect shape! It's been idle now for about 8 more years, but just the other day, I hooked up a 12v car battery and the ol' Thompson sprung to life once more! It still runs perfectly and it scans the arc over twice as fast as the Venture on my current 10'er The rubber boot is still on it and in excellent shape! In a week or two, that whole dish, Thompson & all, will be coming over here, replacing my tired 10 footer. As Tvropro said, they are the best. :up

 

[Achebee]

Will go with Thompson Saginaw

Thanks for the links, this looks like the ticket...I wish I was closer to the US and could look for a second hand one, but that's not the case..
I was looking around and Venture has the gears available but would cost me about $120 by the time I ship and get them here...I'll make a brass set to keep with this as a spare unit, and I'll go with a long lasting heavy duty one instead... sure wish I would have looked around and read more carefully before buying this actuator I'm using.
thanks for the good advice one and all

 

[tvropro]

Rebuilt Saginaw

Here are a couple pictures of my rebuilt Saginaw now going on 20+ years. :up

It moves my 12 foot like butter.

 

[tdti1]

I wish those cheap plastic nuts were available to repair old actuators. I would buy a couple.

The nut for the Von weise? I think all big dish dealers have them, I bought some brass ones locally about 2 years ago, fixed a few motors for my friends.