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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Best wheels for killer a round-rails skateboard dolly?

Stephen Pruitt

Stephen Pruitt

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Hi all. . .

I had been thinking of buying a Cam-Tram 2500, but we think we have come up with a better plan on our own. In particular, in addition to the usual ladder dolly shots, our elevated skateboard dolly will easily allow us to do 90 degree overhead shots (i.e., with the camera pointed straight down) with almost no loss of overhead ceiling space.

While we have built a prototype, and it works very well, I'm not 100% happy with the noise that the skateboard wheels we used on the first model make as we do quick runs up and down the track. What I'd like to know is if anyone happens to know of any not-terrifically-expensive rails-type skateboard wheels that are really, really smooth and quiet. We are looking for wheels that work on round track, as we are mounting round rails to the top of our extension ladder to provide both added smoothness and greater stiffness.

Once we have the final version of the dolly finished, I'll post here in REDUser so that others can see what we've done.

Thanks much.

Stephen
 
When I was playing around with dolly designs, using in-line skate wheels on aluminum angle stock I didn't notice much noise, but maybe I wasn't moving the camera that fast. I assume the larger the wheel, the less noise because it rotates more slowly for a given horizontal speed. So scooter wheels should be quieter and tricycle or bicycle wheels even better (as long as they have good bearings, of course).
 
This article about Porta-Jib has some useful information about best materials for dolly wheels and the problems with those materials.

http://www.theasc.com/magazine/new_products/200505.html

Also, I found this post on DVInfo.net regarding same subject:

Mike Teutsch
August 19th, 2007, 08:20 AM
Nathan,

I buy my wheels and such on ebay in bulk, but those from your local shop should be fine. Don't forget to get bearing spacers. They are little metal tubes that go between the bearings. If you don't have them you can't tighten the wheels bolts/axel up tight. Any bearings at your local skateboard store should be fine. Most use class 5 or class 7. Some will come packed with more grease than others, which will be displaced with use, and will take a little time before they spin freely by hand, but will make no difference at all on the dolly!

Hardness will make a difference if you put someone on the dolly but not for just the camera and tripod. Most dolly's are built with 8 wheels, two on each corner. These are fine for camera and tripods, but will pull or push harder with a person on it. Most all dolly's that are built to hold the weight of a person are built with at least 4 wheels on each corner. This makes them move easier with the extra weight on.

Plywood is of course the material to use and 3/4 inch will hold an elephant! I use thinner material, but when I get on it I use a chair or stool that placed the weight at the corners where the wheels are.

One last note, I just paint my wood and then I put cheep carpet on the top. Keeps camera and such from getting scratched and such, no slivers either. I also put a removable eye bolt in the center of the top to hook a bungee cord or strap on to hold the camera tripod to the dolly. Remember that with a tripod on the dolly, the majority of weight will be way at the top and will want to tip over. Strapping the tripod to the dolly will make it much more stable.

Good Luck----Mike

Hope that helps. Please let us know how yours turns out, what ended up working and please post pics when it's all done. I'd love to see it.

-shooter
 
Have you tried "Pledge" (as in Furniture Polish) on the rails, and oil on the wheels?

I've been thinking of using French Polished wooden planks to slide a cine sadle along as an alternative to traditional dollies for what I need..
 
Stephen

I have sold about 3000 skateboard dollies/dolly kits since 1992. Our trucks are the ones copied by everyone else.

www.longvalleyequip.com

You may notice that our trucks hold 4 wheels, and each truck not only swivels on a central pivot, but slides from side to side on teflon coated UHMW bearing plates. The sliding action allows them to go around tight curved track (ours or others) as well as straight track. They are made from laser cut, mig welded steel, very strong. Never had one fail.

We use Abec 5 bearings which are very smooth and quite silent, and recommend that you coat new wheels and track with Pledge furniture polish to keep things quiet. Also it's good to lay our track on furniture blankets as PVC can make noise against gravel or creaky wooden floors. Our track works on dirt, grass, pavement, gravel, etc.

We offer our wheels as a kit, or complete dolly, and we sell straight and curved PVC track with track connectors that expand and join the ends of the track from the inside so the joints have no bumps.
 
I bought one of Doug's dollies about 10 years ago and use the heck out of it. Never had a problem with it.
 
Douglas Underdahl said:
I have sold about 3000 skateboard dollies/dolly kits since 1992. Our trucks are the ones copied by everyone else.
Click to expand...

Doug,

I didn't see any info/photos of your skater dolly on your website? what am I doing wrong? I have a need for a skater and have heard nothing but great things about you and your products, so let me know. I'm looking for something like the PS Technik skater, is that what you're referring to as well?
 
Rudi

We don't make a skater type dolly, like PS Technik. We make a skateboard dolly, one that you can actually ride on, with your AC.

I think skater dollies are cool and I can think of some nice shots to do with them, but they are made for a different purpose than our dolly. Skaters need to roll around on a near perfectly smooth surface, so you either have to have such a surface at your location or haul around a piece of smooth plywood. And then, when you come to the edge of the plywood, you have to stop. Our track joins together so you can keep going.

Now skater type dollies also crab, meaning they can, for example, move in one direction, then you turn the wheels and you can go 90 degrees in another direction. I can think of shots where that would be useful. But I don't do shots like that very much and to be honest, the PS Technik Skater is, in my view, unbelievably overpriced. So if I needed it I think I would just rent it.

Day in and day out, I use my dolly (actually a one-off version that folds up) for all my tracking shots.

I do think that I may offer a dolly that runs on standard pneumatic tires, though. I just shot with the RED in a hospital (very smooth floors) and I thought that a wheeled dolly of this type would have been useful. It was a working hospital and we actually laid my track in the ICU around 2 am. I think that this was one instance where regular rubber tires filled with air, running on the floor, would have been useful. I'm also thinking about a hybrid that has both track wheels and pneumatic, so that it runs on pneumatic wheels, but when you lift it onto the track, the pneumatic are lifted off the ground.

But also I have a feature that I want to shoot, so I don't know when I'll get to this, and Pawel's PL mount Canon 50D is on my bench, too, so . . .
 
Hi Doug,

Another reason for pneumatic tires, is they allow the use of planks. Pine planks in 8,10,12, and 14' on the grip truck are great. If you are shooting in a building with level floors, you just bring them in and toss them down. They are light, and when you are in a weird 7'6" room you just cut them down.

Nick
 
Shooting with planks and a doorway dolly are the reason I created my skateboard dolly. Sometimes I want a ten foot run. Sometimes I want 30 feet. Fifty feet for a long walk and talk. Or I need to make a 90 degree turn, go ten feet, then turn 45 degrees and go 12 more. Easy with my dolly. For me, a doorway dolly is a way of moving film equipment between shots, unless, as I say, you happen to have a really smooth floor, which I don't seem to have very often.

If you want to, you can saw PVC pipe to specific lengths on the set also, and it's cheaper than pine planks at about 5 bucks per ten feet.
 
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