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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => Lighting Forum => Topic started by: Mal Brown on December 18, 2018, 10:12:37 AM

Title: Truss trolley
Post by: Mal Brown on December 18, 2018, 10:12:37 AM
https://briteq-lighting.com/bt-truss-29-trolley-stack
Found this on line.  Not available on this side of the pond.   Looks like a starting place for a DIY experiment though.

I have Global F33.  11 7/16” triangle.  Would like to space them a few inches apart for transport with LED ‘slim pars’ attached.  Truck ramp is a little over 27 wide so there would be some hangover...  maybe over the holiday break I’ll get a little time in on it.  2 wide 4 high would solve some transport issues for me.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Taylor Hall on December 18, 2018, 12:05:52 PM
We built something similar for our box truss but without the braces going over the top. Just took some 2x4" box aluminum, mounted wheels and heavy duty lighting clamps to it and then strap it all together with ratchet straps. The bottom two sticks are secured by the clamps and everyone else gets strapped to those.

Since you're using triangle, you could pretty easily go three sticks per level if you rotate the middle stick 180° to fit in the valley created by the other two, like this: \/ /\ \/

Just be sure you space the two dollies out properly so you don't high-side your sticks rolling them onto the truck.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Mal Brown on December 18, 2018, 12:14:10 PM
Spacing - good point !

3 per level. Trying to leave my led par washed attached. I don’t think I could accomplish that at 3 per level.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: TJ (Tom) Cornish on December 18, 2018, 12:21:23 PM
https://briteq-lighting.com/bt-truss-29-trolley-stack
Found this on line.  Not available on this side of the pond.   Looks like a starting place for a DIY experiment though.

I have Global F33.  11 7/16” triangle.  Would like to space them a few inches apart for transport with LED ‘slim pars’ attached.  Truck ramp is a little over 27 wide so there would be some hangover...  maybe over the holiday break I’ll get a little time in on it.  2 wide 4 high would solve some transport issues for me.
Probably not compatible with your truss, but here's another take on the issue: https://trusst.com/products/ct290-dlykit-truss-dolly-kit/ (look at all the pictures to see how they space the layers out)
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Taylor Hall on December 18, 2018, 12:56:34 PM
Spacing - good point !

3 per level. Trying to leave my led par washed attached. I don’t think I could accomplish that at 3 per level.
Ahhh, right, forgot that part. Do all your sticks have lighting attached? perhaps the bottom row or two could be three wide then move to two wide for all the pre-mounted sticks. Lowering the center of gravity with these will help out a ton, maneuvering a 5-high stack of 16" box taught us that very quickly!

Probably not compatible with your truss, but here's another take on the issue: https://trusst.com/products/ct290-dlykit-truss-dolly-kit/ (https://trusst.com/products/ct290-dlykit-truss-dolly-kit/) (look at all the pictures to see how they space the layers out)
That's what we emulated when making ours, and for way cheaper than the $300 they retail for.

Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Mal Brown on December 31, 2018, 09:05:18 PM
Trollies are fabbed so most of the way there.  Need to mount hooks for strapping and fab more of inter layer stacking guides.  Have the patterns created though so for 1 day in, good progress.

https://www.facebook.com/923463794403865/posts/2009886299094937/

Unfortunately I don’t have a way to shrink my photo to 512k on my iPad
Here is a link to the same info at Talkbass if you are interested and not a facebooker.
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/diy-truss-trollies.1380868/
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Taylor Hall on January 02, 2019, 08:59:46 AM
Looking good! Careful with those casters going over thresholds and large bumps, though. There's not much meat there for those bolts to grip to, so a few good jolts could rip them right through your wood. We ran into that issue with some older sub dollies we made, so we used a few metal plates to sandwich either side of the wooden base and never had an issue since then.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Mal Brown on January 03, 2019, 12:00:48 AM
Hmm.  Maybe a set of fender washers would do the trick?
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Taylor Hall on January 04, 2019, 07:42:16 AM
Hmm.  Maybe a set of fender washers would do the trick?
It's a good place to start, I'd get the beefiest ones you can find and see how they hold up after a gig or two.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Mal Brown on January 05, 2019, 08:14:52 PM
One more set of layer guides to go. Think I may do a redesign on the rolling basses.  It’s close but what the heck, it’s just plywood...  I added a second guide for the inner two rails on the bases.  That stabilized things a bit.  I think a slightly square base may be helpful.   Also, I want to accommodate some support for the bolts as Taylor suggested and that will mean new basses anyway as my guides are glued and screwed...

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/diy-truss-trollies.1380868/#post-22168900 (https://www.talkbass.com/threads/diy-truss-trollies.1380868/#post-22168900)

Same thread link at TalkBass.  Work in process pic at the bottom.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Joel T. Glaser on January 06, 2019, 03:52:10 PM
Looks great Mal ! Be sure to post picks when you're finished.

I started using 4" locking wheels on all my caster plates. Less trouble with rough surfaces (like gravel!). On the other hand, truss shouldn't get to be too heavy.
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Taylor Hall on January 07, 2019, 08:56:06 AM
Nice and tidy, looks great!
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Mal Brown on January 13, 2019, 07:57:28 PM
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/diy-truss-trollies.1380868/#post-22197426

rolled all 80’ in one trip, solo move.  Going to redesign the layer guides but for the moment, thus is pretty close
Title: Re: Truss trolley
Post by: Brian Jojade on January 21, 2019, 01:17:09 PM
I just use 2 4 wheel furniture dollies.  They are dirt cheap and work fine.  Having 4 wheels for each end means they can stand on their own vs having to fumble to get the first row attached.  I made up some spacers out of plywood that can set on the dollies as well as between each row of truss, or on top.  Once the stack is done, a simple ratchet strap around the whole mess, and it's ready to go.