Doug.
1. No. That's why you pay more from Bintel. Scopes from bintel come centre spotted and collimated, whereas the andrews come with neither. If you're comfortable with centre spotting your primary yourself(it's not that hard).. collimation would probably be knocked outta whack anyway during transport from bintel.. but u will get better service from bintel.. the staff are very knowledgable and helpful edit: not that andrews arent helpful of friendly, but bintel are more 'specialists'. The plate on the 8" was simple to remove on my 8", so I'd assume it'd be the same or similar for the larger versions.
2. the crayford is awesome. I was kinda doubtful and thought my old r&p was smooth, and asked myself "how much better can it be".. but it IS! definately worth it imo.
el
