Sunday, December 30, 2007

Talk About The Hustler 4

All this dolly talk and Drld's comment about not having much time with the Hustler gave me the idea to write a little column/review of it. Anybody can go to the website and download the specs but here is a Dolly Grip's perspective..

First are the pros:

The sideboard system is the best I've seen on any dolly. It's also the heaviest- with good reason. It is a sliding system. Loosening a knob under the sideboard allows you to slide it all the way forward, or back. There is also a reciever for a seat at the front of the board. Now having the dolly on the "dumb" side is not as big a deal. The front board also extends and has seat receivers. The boards are so heavy because of the reinforcement and the extra mechanism for sliding.
The arm has a 750 lb capacity. A jib arm can be mounted directly on it, and it can still boom up and down. On a show a couple of years ago, I mounted a 4' offset, and two 12" risers, had the operator stand on the offset and boomed up and pushed in up a staircase rail. I wouldn't have tried it on a Hybrid but the Hustler 4 didn't even blink.
6 lifts to a charge.
The improved arm is pretty rigid.
Every Hustler I've gotten has a pristine arm. The movement and the actuation has been perfect. I don't know if this is because the 4's have lower mileage because they're relatively new or what, but they've been great.
The low mode (starship Enterprise) is excellent, with footpegs. The leveling head can be removed and a seat attached in it's place.
It's extremely stable.
It has roundy-round.
Cons:
It's a heavy sunofagun at 465lbs. (This is also a plus in other ways).
The sideboards are very heavy, and grab it wrong and you could lose a fingernail.
I'm not a fan of the brake. It's engaged by pushing it down and pushing in a button on the side. It's sometimes hard to engage and if not engaged properly, can pop out during a take with a loud noise.
Low ground clearance. This ain't the dolly you want in a swamp, or the mountains.

Overall, though, it's my favorite. I still use Hybrids for rough locations, but in a studio, or on asphalt you can't beat it.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:58 PM

    Are you swapping between solids and pneumatics? Full eight or just four?

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  2. I put the pneumatics on the outside, and then spin them around to go on track. Lately (over the last few years) I'm becoming less and less enamored of Pneumatics, though, and the track wheels on the Hustler seem to work fine for dance floor.

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  3. Anonymous7:34 AM

    No problems with the pneumatics hitting latches? Cool

    Do you order a specific wheel shore (soft, super soft, etc?).

    What are you using for dance floor?

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  4. Never had a problem with latches (on standard American, nor precision track) I think the track wheels are Medium softs, which is what I've begun to prefer anyway. Most Chapman dollies out of the shop come with MS. I use the old standby-3/4" birch covered with Sentra ( I don't know how this translates Canadian, but it's 1/8" plastic sheets). What do you use?

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  5. Sorry- 1/4" sentra.

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  6. Anonymous10:54 AM

    yup, we use Sentra / Centra too.

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  7. Bị khó ngủ là vấn đề đang xảy ra ngày càng nhiều trong xã hội ngày nay, bị khó ngủ phải làm sao ? Có nhiều cách trị khó ngủ như dùng thuốc , ăn món ăn trị khó ngủ ,.. Giảm cân không phải một sớm một chiều mà phải theo lộ trình dài hạn và khoa học , thực đơn giảm cân cấp tốc trong 1 tuần cũng là một trong số các cách giúp giảm cân hiệu quả. Trên thị trường hiện nay có nhiềuthuốc giải độc gan tốt , giúp giải độc gan hiệu quả và an toàn. Đau mắt đỏ là bệnh rất dể lây lan , vậy cách chữa bệnh đau mắt đỏ nhanh nhất bằng nhiều phương pháp khác nhau . Bỏng bô xe máy là hiệu tượng gặp nhiều nhất hiện , vậy bị bỏng bô xe máy kiêng ăn gì ? Những thực phẩm nên kiêng như hải sản , đồ tanh , trứng và các món gà và nếp ,...

    ReplyDelete