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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 :)

Setting Car platform to film from

that would need some serious reinforcement to be considered safe. not only that but because the hitch is not a perfect fit, the tilting back and forth would be a problem i imagine.
 
There are serious safety issues involved with car rigs. I would strongly advise that you hire a professional and get insurance (and permits) before considering something like this.
 
Interesting piece of kit. I would test the hell out of it with about 100lbs of sandbags and drive on some bumpy road. Real bumpy.

Even if it proved to survive that, I'd still rig two to four heavy duty suction cups with hard lines to keep it from flying into the road.

I agree with hiring people with experience if you are doing this type of work. However, I will say if you are using a vehicle like the one in the photograph or just an SUV and you don't need to be so low to the ground you can lock down a tripod and keep your hands on the camera while riding in the back.

Anytime you put your camera outside a vehicle you should have something in front of the lens and often a safety or crash box protecting the camera. Lock that camera down. Tape those filters on. Vibration does some horrible things. If you are looking for more stable material, a K2 Gyro Stabilizer (or two) will help considerably.
 
An accident waiting to happen. There are hundreds of things wrong with this setup. You also need intelligent experienced drivers.
 
So, I have one of these for my ramcharger. I use it for overflow when I have a larger kit. Below is just my experience with that sorta platform, so I will assume you are built of steel and can survive a pavement hit at 55mph :-)

It is nerve racking just to have a a small generator on it, much less a camera rig. I put a screw type pin in mine to firm it up. I also welded the nut on the other side. With all that and a custom hitch mount that was beefed up, it still bounces like hell. It's kinda like shooting with a very long lens, just a tiny bump has a huge movement at the end. The fulcrum for that rig is your rear wheels. The other issue is camera mounting.. All those carriers have mesh metal for the flooring. they are simply tack welded in. Those weld will break. Under a centralized weight point, such as a tripod leg, the mesh will stretch out pretty quickly and pop the weld. If you intend to put a tripod there, you would need to tack in a solid floor. You would also need at least one other mount point other than the hitch point. You need to triangulate. You may be able to get away with a clamp / tubing system that eventually ends up on a suction mount on the body somewhere, but you would need to test to get the proper placement.

For my car needs, I have the filmtools 4 suction kit with a few modifications for secondary mount points. Watch this filmtools bit (~4:50) about triangulation and the other mount point will will make sense.

I will leave it to everyone else to tell you why you shouldn't do this [ because you shouldn't :-) ], but if you do, it will require some fabrication. If /I/ were to fab up such a mount, but inspired to make it still super dangerous, I would take a 2 1/2 inch receiver blank and go 90 degrees with it and weld a 100mm mount on it, sorta like a bazooka mount. If you have a Suburban or SUV that has a window that opens without the gate being opened, someone can operate the rig with something in the way of them and the road. This way, if / when something goes sideways, you are inside the truck and you only hurt the camera and whatever the camera hits.

Bad.Idea.Mount.png
 
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