archangel485
Well-Known Member
I have a couple of these tripods, which I like a lot, not on par with RRS of course, but I get along with them pretty well. Anyways, one thing that has thoroughly frustrated me is the clamping mechanism on their arca clamp head. It's just not well built or setup, and I've thought about doing something about it for a couple years now. I was on an antelope hunt a couple weeks ago, and the pin fell out, I assume because enough times locking it closed had stretched the aluminum to the point the hole was too big to hold the pin. That was the last straw, so I decided to fix the problems I had with the mechanism. If you have a FOR tripod head, the following is what I did, you may find some ideas here that help you if you like to tinker like I do.
First, I hate that the clamping lever can rotate, whenever I get the width set perfect, it doesn't take long for it not to be perfect from carrying it around since it turns and who knows how many times around etc, so I replaced the bushing with a new bushing, I cut the hole in the new bushing in an oval shape rather than the original round hold, and I flattened the bolt that slides through it, see picture below.
Next, the bottom of the original lever was gradually flattening and widening, naturally, since it's aluminum. So I replaced the aluminum lever with a lever I made from a piece of stainless key stock. The original lever was actually getting tough to clamp because the aluminum was moving to the inside too and rubbing against the bolt. That aluminum simply does not wear well, obviously it's way softer than stainless. I did put a new pin in the new lever.
Finally, I put some very short rods behind the springs that push against the moving part of the arca clamp. The newer heads didn't have this problem, but the first ones, the springs simply didn't move that arca clamp far enough.
I'm super happy with the final result, locks up nicer, opens nicer, won't rotate and shouldn't wear out the lever where it contacts the bushing. I know it would have been easier to just buy an RRS head, but like I said I do like to tinker, and I'm still money ahead. I ran into some others at a match who were struggling with this mechanism, maybe this will help someone with these same issues.
Since making the fixes I did take it on another antelope hunt and it worked great, better than it ever has.
First, I hate that the clamping lever can rotate, whenever I get the width set perfect, it doesn't take long for it not to be perfect from carrying it around since it turns and who knows how many times around etc, so I replaced the bushing with a new bushing, I cut the hole in the new bushing in an oval shape rather than the original round hold, and I flattened the bolt that slides through it, see picture below.
Next, the bottom of the original lever was gradually flattening and widening, naturally, since it's aluminum. So I replaced the aluminum lever with a lever I made from a piece of stainless key stock. The original lever was actually getting tough to clamp because the aluminum was moving to the inside too and rubbing against the bolt. That aluminum simply does not wear well, obviously it's way softer than stainless. I did put a new pin in the new lever.
Finally, I put some very short rods behind the springs that push against the moving part of the arca clamp. The newer heads didn't have this problem, but the first ones, the springs simply didn't move that arca clamp far enough.
I'm super happy with the final result, locks up nicer, opens nicer, won't rotate and shouldn't wear out the lever where it contacts the bushing. I know it would have been easier to just buy an RRS head, but like I said I do like to tinker, and I'm still money ahead. I ran into some others at a match who were struggling with this mechanism, maybe this will help someone with these same issues.
Since making the fixes I did take it on another antelope hunt and it worked great, better than it ever has.
