USED MACHINERY: You can easily pay as much for a pre-owned Chafer Guardian or Sentry trailed sprayer as you could for a brand new, mass-market model from some of the leading Continental sprayer manufacturers. So why consider a used Chafer over a shiny, off-the-shelf alternative?
Take a peek at the price of a typical pre-owned Chafer trailed Guardian or Sentry sprayer. Ready to go, and possibly benefitting from a few upgrades, five- to six-year old examples marketed via the firm or one of its dealers may have a sticker price that looks expensive in terms of tank volume and boom width against a brand new, ‘off the peg’ design. Simple question. Why?
When new, a Guardian or Sentry sprayer would have had a standard specification to include pneumatic load compensating air suspension, a steered tracking axle, stainless steel spray lines, electro hydraulics, a hydraulically driven centrifugal pump and Chafer’s ‘trademark’ — the costly stainless steel tank.
Move on to the booms. The up to 30m bi-fold design used on the Guardian and Sentry and tri-fold units of up to 40m offered on the Sentry models, have advanced suspension, with active contour following pretty much coming as a default fit on the larger units. The booms are heavy-duty designs with many being upgraded to dual spray lines for chemical and fertiliser application.
This high entry-level specification in part explains why a used buy can cost what it does, but it is not the full story. Residuals are further copper bottomed by Chafer offering factory-backed upgrades and refurbishment programmes for pretty much all of its sprayers. In effect, you can buy a well-worn Chafer Guardian or Sentry and have it refurbished to as-new condition by the manufacturer. You can even pay for it to be upgraded to feature some of the options available on current ‘Mark II’ second-generation models — see profi 07/2015 for a driving impression.
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