Actually, I’m really impressed with Rears. I talked to one of the owners and he told me the machine I bought was 25-30 years old or more. Yet they have every part still available.
When I wrote my original post about it, I was pretty aggravated, as anyone could probably tell. I could have simply ordered the bushings already pressed in the pipe from Rears.
I don’t know if your Rears have the same set-up, but on this one there is a stainless steel shaft which runs through the sprayer, which the paddles for mechanical agitation, are attached to (Mine runs from the front where the PTO shaft is, through the tank with the paddles attached, to the other side where the same SS shaft also runs the pump.) To keep water from leaking out where the SS shaft runs through the tank, the manufacturer used a couple of SS pipe nipples (one at the front of the tank and one at the back). There are two self lubricating brass bushings pressed into each end of each pipe nipple. The SS shaft runs inside those bushings inside the pipe nipples.
I think you mentioned you have one or two 50 gal. Rears sprayers, which I believe have the pump and motor both on the front. The shaft probably runs through the tank, like on mine, has the paddles attached to the SS shaft like mine, but the shaft probably terminates to a blind hole bushing, inside the tank, instead of running through the tank on the back end (so the shaft can power the pump).
The person who owned this sprayer before me had somehow bent the front SS nipple and the shaft inside it. I tried to straighten the SS nipple, but the place where they had milled the threads was so thin, it broke there instead of bending back.
To repair it requires a new SS nipple to be welded in the tank. I could have simply ordered the new nipple from Rears (with the bushings already pressed in) but the bushings they used have a bigger O.D. than I wanted. Imo, it makes the pipe too thin, where they milled a cavity for the bushings inside the pipe nipples. So I ordered my own bushing and pipe. I’m sure the pipe and bushing Rears used would be fine as long as someone didn’t hit it with a tractor. But it’s also cheaper for me to buy the bushing and pipe separate and fit them myself rather than purchase the one from Rears (even though I had to buy 3 pipe nipples to get one to work).
I really wasn’t frustrated with Rears, just that nowadays, cheap imports (mainly from China) don’t seem to adhere to any standards. I’ve seen cheap Chinese pipe which the threads aren’t cut right, so that a pipe fitting will only screw on a couple turns, which isn’t anywhere near enough threads for a good seal, according to long established pipe fitting standards.
Rears is actually a very high quality sprayer, imo. Everything is stainless steel, and it’s a good design. Even the hose they use is high quality hose from Japan. I recently talked with one of the guys selling Rears sprayers at the Expo. He said they still have Rears sprayers going strong after 40 years (probably with heavy use too).
