Drain Cameras

Pushrods and Tractors - which to use?

Pushrods are the most popular choice of drain survey cameras, being cheaper and quicker to set up than a tractor system. They are designed to survey the smallest pipe sizes in general use, from 3 inches (75mm) up to 9 inches (225mm). Most domestic drains start from 4 inches (100mm) in diameter and, with an appropriately sized skid (the plastic "Cover" around the camera head to lift the camera above the flow level), our pushrods can take excellent surveys of pipes up to 12 inch (300mm) in diameter.

Left: The 60 metre reel and link cable with new skid. Right: Control Box with LCD screen and DVD recorder. A PC can be added if using software like WinCan.

Non-snagging Skids for the Pushrod Camera

Our smallest pushrods (often called a "Look-see") are able to survey pipes as small as 3 inches (75mm) and have the facility to record the survey onto either an internal hard drive, ready for burning to a disc, or directly onto disc. We have a number of control boxes available including a re-chargeable battery powered unit with around 4 hours capacity for those times when power is unavailable. See photo below.

Battery powered control box, using SD or XD cards in place of a DVD recorder.

Our pushrods come with 60 or 80 metres of pushrod with integral wiring and will push the out the total distance of the rod. The unit has a self-levelling colour camera head as standard with ultabright LED's providing the light source. It is the strength of the lighting that determines the maximum size of pipe a pushrod camera can survey. Stronger light sources can cope with larger diameter pipes. In general a good pushrod should be capable of surveying 9 inch (225ml) whilst our system can survey upto a 12 inch (300ml) pipe, after which, tractors are better for the larger diameters. Our standard pushrod system with a DVD recorder/player in the control box costs £6,400.00 + VAT, and comes complete and ready to use with a DVD recorder and a flat LCD screen (15"). A 33Kz sonde (a radio beacon to give a signal for accurate digging) is now installed near the camera head as standard with the locator being an optional extra. The PC version records to a Hard Drive and is a more reliable method of recording than directly onto DVD. Full information and literature is on our Downloads page.

Tractor systems use a powered, heavy buggy (tractor) with an integral colour camera and removable extra lights on top for the larger diameters where extra light is required. They are designed for larger pipes and are designed to be heavy, up to 30 kilograms, for the simple reason that they have to pull up to 250 metres of cable behind them and need the traction to be effective. Our tractors can survey up to 500 metre lengths from a single opening (upstream and downstream).

Heavy tractor with Pan and Rotate camera head with extra lights.

Tractors operate in pipe sizes from 6 inches (150mm) upwards to 6 feet (2 metres). Our tractor system comes complete with a pan and rotate colour camera with 10 times Zoom, automatic and manual focusing, additional lights, a built in sonde (a radio beacon) for accuracy at surface level (the locator is an optional extra) and two extra sets of wheels for larger pipes. A PC that is WinCan ready makes recording to a Hard Drive as standard for later archiving to a DVD if required (usually for insurance and repair validation). The control box is also capable of connecting to the pushrod reel. The tractor system costs just over £27,000, and further information is on our Downloads page.

Left: The Van Control Centre. Right: The Powered Rewind Drum of the R550 Tractor System.

Optional extras are a Null Register Point option which is a button on the control panel which re-sets the pan-rotate camera head to the upright vertical position. Another option is to have the 12-hour clock as an icon on screen, with a mark on the edge showing which angle the pan-rotate head is facing and an inclinometer can be added which shows the gradient that the tractor is moving along and the angle that the tractor is at so that the viewer can stop the tractor from overbalancing within the drain.

An Ibos tractor control box with LCD screen, forward-backward joystick, focus/Pan Rotate joystick, DVD recorder and USB Connections for transferring to another PC.

The Ibos control centre for the tractor unit has a complete set of PC and DVD outlets, a USB port and a DVD recorder. A flat 15" LCD screen shows a brilliant picture and the joysticks, to control the tractor movements, are shown on either side of the screen. The built in keyboard gives on-screen text if you want to highlight a problem image. The zoom lens will show all defects in great detail. Full information and literature is on our Downloads page.

Mini-tractors, weighing around 7-8 kgs, are often used in smaller pipes from 6 inches to 12 inches (300mm) diameter, but have drawbacks in that they do not normally incorporate a gantry to raise the camera head over the flow, and pulling power is limited.

If you have any questions about which pushrod or tractor system to use, please call Roy Dykes on (UK mobile number) 07836 546804 or email on roy@jetmasters.co.uk.

Generators are often used to power this equipment and can be either unregulated or inverter coupled. All our drain cameras are only warranted against a "Clean Supply" or inverter type generator. The unregulated type will blow all the electronics and the typical cost of repair (this is not under warranty) will be around £1,000. .

We are sorry to report that Mick Martin has left us. Mick has been a great asset to the company but has decided to pursue his career in another direction. We wish him success in his future endeavors. Click here to see a video of Mick working hard on the job.