Are you sure you just don't have a lemon, I've got a QARL? 36" actuator on the 1.8, it was only about €70 from Germany. Been up for four years, the rubber boot split and fell off after about a year and it might get a wipe over with some grease once a year but so far it's not missed a beat. Everything here is subject to a lot of salt water as we're in spitting distance of the sea so I normally just treat the bits that may need adjusting in copperslip. The only mod I've done is to replace the mag wheel with one off an original Superjack as it has double the amount of magnets, apart from that it's been good value for money.
I could accept that maybe I have a lemon ...
but in light of the failure of so many ..approx 1 per year ...
that's a whole crate of lemons ..
Yes the Qarl failed ..but so has the more recent Venture ...and the list is a long one going backwards ..
Now I know that Christina is a heavy weight but nothing I cannot swing accross the arc by hand with gravity assist ..
So not a bearing stiffness or mount issue ...
the actuators simply aren't up to the job imo ..unlike the Jaeger that on the same dish lasted about 10 years ..
cest la vie..
On my mount I have to push the dish to 1W - ish under compression...and lower past 1W to East under tension ..
I guess this is the reason I get so much play introduced over a period of time ..Constant changes from compression to tension and back again ..
Plastic nuts simply aren't up to this..and play creeps in..
£100 for eight last you years ;), seller has other sizes ok for someone with small dish