A new heli stand in town - review

[TheBum]

Fantastic! You've sold me. Now all I have to do is dig up the funds.

[Finless]

Holy crap! You have really spent some time improving on the stand that I originally reviewed! Nice job and it looks really good! Where's mine????

Kidding....

Anyway, nice to see a guy stick to a product and keep improving it based on customer and OWN use feedback! I think that is probably the best stand out there right now. Love the indexing handles and stuff....

Only comments based on the video... Is again a larger catch tray would be nice. Other than that..... nice stand Pronto!

Bob

[ChuckL]

I bought one of these a couple months ago and it is an awesome stand, no chance of it tipping over and great quality. Heli can be put in any position and it sets up in seconds.

[Pinion]

Prontow... Looks like a nice product.... How about some information posted here on how/where to buy your heli stand! Freaks are notorious for having $$$$ burn a hole in our pockets.

John

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by kitfox

Prontow... Looks like a nice product.... How about some information posted here on how/where to buy your heli stand! Freaks are notorious for having $$$$ burn a hole in our pockets.

I think you can just use PM. I just PMed him a minute ago to purchase one, so hopefully I'll find out within the next day or two.

[Pinion]

good thinking Bum.... I just PM'd him myself......

Blue Skies,
John
:glasses2:

[TheBum]

PM worked just fine. Thanks, Prontow. I got the shipping notification.

[mwillack]

"File does not exist please contact the systems administrator"

http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=...=*******nd.wmv

[TheBum]

Duplicate post

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by mwillack

"File does not exist please contact the systems administrator"

http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=...=*******nd.wmv

That's an old video that does not represent the current design. Prontow posted a YouTube link to one of three new videos at the end of the previous page. Here it is again:

Tilt A Whirl Fixture Adjustments (8 min 26 sec)

I hope Prontow doesn't mind, but here are are all three videos embedded:

[TheBum]

Prontow: Is the tray in the YouTube videos the larger one you mentioned in your PM this evening or are you including an even larger one with the kit?

[Prontow]

No, the tray in the vids is the old smaller tray. The old tray was 16"x11", the new tray is 18" x 14". Really does make a difference in the amount of space you have to keep parts and tools close.
Thanks for posting the videos!

[k4mon]

To all who might be going to order this stand

I received my stand from Prontow today and I could not be more pleased. Super workmanship from George,plus a good old USA product, solid workmanship. If you extend the tripod (As Instructed) there is no danger of it tilting over. Good heavy weight stuff-any part that has stress is metal.

You really have to have a hands on to appreciate the quality. You can look at previous posts from other purchasers and it is easy to see they recognize this is one fine product, as I do.

I am going to make an adapter to hold even smaller helis. The skid holder will close down to about 3 and one half inches as is.

If anyone is considering buying one, don't hesitate, you won't go wrong. George does not lag around about shipping either. I ordered in the PM and was shipped early next day-can't beat that for service.

Regards to all,

John

[TheBum]

I got mine today too, but I got home from work rather late, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow evening to set it up. Boy, I must be tired if I put off assembling a new toy!

[erbrou]

I bought one, it is a well built product, robust and well designed.

[TheBum]

OK, so I couldn't wait. It went together really easily and feels solid. I love the head on it and it holds my T-Rex 600N very securely.

The only suggestion I would make is that it would be nice if there were some sleeves around the bolts going through the tops of the legs. It would keep the tubing from crushing, especially on the one leg with the clamping knob. It's nothing I can't do myself for very little cost though.

[k4mon]

Originally Posted by TheBum

OK, so I couldn't wait. It went together really easily and feels solid. I love the head on it and it holds my T-Rex 600N very securely.

The only suggestion I would make is that it would be nice if there were some sleeves around the bolts going through the tops of the legs. It would keep the tubing from crushing, especially on the one leg with the clamping knob. It's nothing I can't do myself for very little cost though.

Bum:

Good idea I am going to hardware store and pick up some spacers, cut them to proper length and install.

Thanks for the idea, maybe George can install these in future shipments.

John

[Prontow]

The spacers you are talking about, are you talking about placing them between the steel leg and plastic mount on both sides of the leg?
Unfortunately the top if the legs get deformed during the punching process that is used to make the holes in the top of the legs. This is done before I get the stands, that causes a little bit of space between the top of the legs and the plastic clamp.
I have had no problems with this part of the stand yet but since it has been brought up I have been tossing around the idea of machining out a new piece with a different clamping method and get away from the original molded plastic clamp. I did this with the bottom mount with pretty good success.
Just takes time tooling up and programming the machines. But that is the fun part!
So I guess as a general question, think I need to do this??
I want to do what ever I can to keep improving on what I have started, I take all of the feedback I can!

[TheBum]

No, I was actually talking about putting them inside the tubing. I'm thinking that a long nylon spacer could be cut down to the diameter of the tubing and the ends rounded to match the curve of the tubing. It would act as a brace to keep the tubing from deforming further; I could possibly even make it long enough to force the tubing back to it's original diameter.

[TheBum]

The stamping of the hole created a flange on the inside of the leg, so I wasn't able to get a spacer all the way across to the tubing wall on one side. However, I think it'll do the job quite nicely.



I bought enough spacers for all three legs, but I don't think I'll do the other two legs because, not surprisingly, the tubing is really high quality; I couldn't budge it to undo the crushing effects of the stamping process, so there's little chance the other two legs will crush any further, especially since they won't have a bolt torqued down on them like the leg with the clamping knob.

The more I work with this stand, the more impressed I am with it. When I took the leg off to fit the spacer, I was amazed how heavy it was on the bottom end. Is that a solid piece of steel attached on that end?