Royal 542-8

[Corvus Corax]

I have a Royal 542-8 stacker. It's filled with 16.9oz bottles and one row of 16oz deer park vendable bottles. The Deer parks are jamming. I thought the 542 was shimless, is there a setting I'm missing?

[AZVendor]

Are you sure it's not an RV552?  There are no shims available for it but there are shims in the columns for the cans.  They won't interfere with the bottles but the 552 doesn't do bottles very well.  There is a depth setting in the programming that you can set from 1 to 3.  If the bottles double vend on the 2 deep setting then you can try the 1 deep setting but there is truly no guarantee that it will work.  I know this isn't answering your question but I'm just pointing out the obvious flaw in the machine.  Your jamming problem could be caused by the can shims that have anti-theft tabs on the bottom of them.  I don't know why they might cause a jam but remove the shims and see if it helps.  Otherwise try to stay away from the end columns if that is where they jam or the middle columns if that is where it happens.  How the bottles hit the delivery chute can cause issues.

[lacanteen]

The 542-8 is a Merlin IV with plastic motors. 16oz water bottles are too soft to fill more than 1/2 way up the stack. 

[Corvus Corax]

It is definitely a 542, 5 front columns and 5 back, with the Pac-Man shaped rollers.

[AngryChris]

Sounds like a 650 with 10 columns instead of 12.  I have never heard of it until now.

[orsd]

7 hours ago, AngryChris said:

Sounds like a 650 with 10 columns instead of 12.  I have never heard of it until now.

This would be Royal's narrow machine.

Kinda like Dixie's 276 but better.

 

[AngryChris]

17 minutes ago, orsd said:

This would be Royal's narrow machine.

Kinda like Dixie's 276 but better.

 

From what i can tell, it blows a 276 away in terms of capacity.

[orsd]

10 minutes ago, AngryChris said:

From what i can tell, it blows a 276 away in terms of capacity.

That's why I said "but better." A lot better.

Anyhow its surprising to me how bad the capacity of the 276E is. The USI CB 300 is a full 8 inches narrower but holds more. The Royal 550, 542, Vendo 576, and USI CB 500 are 2 inches wider but have double the capacity.

[lacanteen]

It's the non-Coke version of the RVCC550

[orsd]

Just now, lacanteen said:

It's the non-Coke version of the RVCC550

I thought the 550 was a GIII with the chain drive?

While the 542 was a Merlin with the traditional motor and rotor configuration?

 

 

[lacanteen]

1 minute ago, orsd said:

I thought the 550 was a GIII with the chain drive?

While the 542 was a Merlin with the traditional motor and rotor configuration?

 

 

Yes and yes. The 550 is 10 columns, Coke chain drive. 542 is 10 columns motor/rotor drive. 

[AngryChris]

32 minutes ago, orsd said:

That's why I said "but better." A lot better.

Anyhow its surprising to me how bad the capacity of the 276E is. The USI CB 300 is a full 8 inches narrower but holds more. The Royal 550, 542, Vendo 576, and USI CB 500 are 2 inches wider but have double the capacity.

You are comparing can capacity only.  The 276e holds about 200 bottles. The 300 realistically holds about 132 bottles.

[Corvus Corax]

Back to topic, I am using the 16oz vendable deer parks. They keep nose diving. The 16.9oz mountain dew and Dr pepper are working fine. This is strange because the 16.9oz pepsi style are the ones I always had problems with in the Royal 650 / 660s. 

[AZVendor]

Try alternating the bottle stacking or turn them around completely.

[darkinthepark]

8 hours ago, AZVendor said:

Try alternating the bottle stacking or turn them around completely.

Is alternating bottles common practice?  I've never done that, but maybe it's a good idea.

[lacanteen]

2 minutes ago, darkinthepark said:

Is alternating bottles common practice?  I've never done that, but maybe it's a good idea.

Not in a late model Royal, especially in a front column. 

[AngryChris]

Are they white motors?  You might just have motors that are crapping out.

[darkinthepark]

5 hours ago, lacanteen said:

Not in a late model Royal, especially in a front column. 

What do you consider a "late model"?

[AngryChris]

Probably anything that's still in production, like a vendo v21, usi cb 300/500, royal merlin 4, etc..

[lacanteen]

10 hours ago, darkinthepark said:

What do you consider a "late model"?

Any Royal with independent front and rear columns, Merlin III or newer.

[Corvus Corax]

Have you had any luck altenating? It makes sense since the narrower cap side won't be stacked and add to the nose diving. It annoys me because I will test vend like 4 to six botitles to make sure it's working, and then I get a call that it is out of water. Which means another water bottle did a Michael Phelps.