I have heard of using troughs rather than trays to do big prints, as a matter of fact, a friend and I have tried (successfully) - it seems like this man devised exactly what we had to play twister and master juggling to achieve! If you want this size print, and you do it often enough, I'd say go for it!
And the "scrambling motorcycle prints" are worth it alone!
He says he will charge whatever it costs to post plus a fiver for the packaging which seems reasonable to me. However, I suspect his 60 quid estimate will not in fact cover it: the whole thing, including the washer, is made of metal - shipping to the US would probably not be practical due to the weight.
The printing drum looks like a good idea tho - surely someone could knock up a commercial version from plastic? Cheaper is probably a couple of Nova print clips and a few wallpaper soaking trays...