Eventually all pre 2003 master and Ultra vests seem to develop movement between the spar and the hip pad assembly.

This looseness reduces the operator’s ability to steer the rig using his hip and body movements.

The problem is caused by the mounting bolts moving as they pass through the plastic spacer between spar and plastic hip pad.

The holes in the spacer eventually get chewed out allowing the bolts to slop around no matter how firmly they are tightened.

A simple fix is to copy the spacer in aluminium making it slightly wider so that it snugly fits the slot on the back of the spar.

By drilling very accurate clearance holes the bolts are held firmly at the correct angle.

An even better solution is to introduce an extra plate behind the plastic hip pad, which further reduces any movement.

More strength can be also gained by adding an extra pair of bolts above the four original bolts fitted by CP and Tiffen.

Current Steadicam vests have been improved with a similar modification and no longer suffer from this problem.

This seems quite common and I’ve found it in several arms. The problem is caused by aging of two little rubber end stops inside the upper casing.

These are fitted to smoothly stop the arm in its uppermost or closed position. When they begin to perish the rubber deforms to the shape of the black plastic guide around the end of the spring and some sticking may occur.

Either section of the arm will operate sweetly but if the rig is taken to the top of its travel one or other sections of the arm will stick at the top causing a bump as it eventually follows the sleds downward movement.
Eventually the Allen screw heads become exposed and they in turn begin to scrape parallel grooves in the guide. The arm is now closing slightly beyond its designed end stop and this coupled with the rubbing screw heads causes an even worse sticking effect.

The end stops are easily replaced but the bones of the arm of course needs to be carefully held in a slightly opened position.

As Genuine Steadicam parts seem to take an eternity to reach the UK, I have found that Prestige pressure cooker valves make an ideal temporary replacement. They can be found sold in pairs in Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s and cost around 3 pounds sterling.
The metal valve assemblies are easily pulled out of the grommets and the remaining hole is perfectly shaped to enclose the Allen screw’s head.

A well-known cure is to very lightly lubricate the moving joints on the ratchet assemblies using Silicone Spray, available from RS, Farnell or Maplin Electronics.
I like the vest nice and snug. The mounting screw head on the ratchet assembly for some reason holds the rubber arm slightly open so that a violent movement or heavy stopping action makes it lever the ratchet open.

I originally cured this problem on my Ultra rig by carefully reaming out the back of the ratchet arm around the screw head with a Dremmil.

Lately I have replaced all of the ratchets with a new design available from Tiffen, these improved bindings have a clever latching mechanism that locks them closed. The buckles that fit onto the Velcro straps also have a lower profile that stops them from being flipped open if touched by the arm.

It is well worth a routine check on the Vest every few weeks. The single nuts and bolts securing the ratchet buckles to the under arm straps tend to un-screw.

When the nut finally drops off on a shoot you are in trouble if you cant find it again.

Occasionally check the socket block mounting screws that attach it to the bridge.

Also look at the stainless steel clamp mechanism that attaches the bridge to the spar. I have always maintained that the threaded hole is too close to the edge and have already had one that became bent.

You will eventually notice a change in your top threads and perhaps a bit of movement between bridge and spar. A bent clamp needs replacing as your entire livelihood, and safety hangs on this one screw.

I lost an iso elastic arm on a shoot because of a problem with the cables, Luckily I had my second rig nearby and was able to continue.

The arm had been recently serviced and the cables looked fine. In fact it wasn’t the cables that failed but rather the two cast end connectors, which apparently slipped off the ends of both cables.

This obviously is unacceptable as these castings should be stronger than the cable itself. The collapsing arm managed to destroy one of its springs as it snapped back into its adjuster.

This problem may be limited to the newer non CP cables, I know several operators who have had similar problems. Tiffen have now inproved the cable ends using a longer casting that encloses part of the cable and these cables have been fitted to my arm.

The elbows that secure the arms bones can easily be fractured as the arm drops, they cost £500 each so I would recommend changing up to the new cables as soon as you can.

I tend to do a lot of whip pans and as a result have problems with all of the post clamps. The factory settings don’t seem to survive a good whip pan and the only way to keep the sled from twisting out of dynamic equilibrium is to tighten the clamp adjuster screws.

Trouble is, if too tight the whole clamp can pop open if jarred, which is quite embarrassing when the bottom of a new Ultra sled decides to go bungee jumping on a shoot.

A simple cure is to make up some Velcro straps by sticking self-adhesive hooks and loops together.

Keep the fuzzy loops on the outside and leave some of its adhesive protruding so that it sticks to the clamp.

The Velcro straps act as a safety catch for the post clamp, but can be easily undone if in a hurry.
Optex can now fit a much improved stainless steel clamp to your Gimbal, the stronger collar resists the bending effect of the clamp lever so that tighter settings can be used without it popping open.
I have come across a problem where repeated docking causes the short arm spigot to creep down through the arm’s retaining spring.

If you don’t notice this on a long day with lots of docking the spigot can move down far enough to make the connection unsafe. The sled’s handle feels well seated but is really only held by the tiniest contact with the spigot.
I have almost dropped two sleds in this way and know a couple of other operators who have actually bounced their sleds, one of which I witnessed just after asking him if he had seen this problem!

The cure is to get an engineer to copy the CP / Tiffen Spigot milling it from a larger billet so that a flange can be left that sits on top of the hole in the iso elastic arm.

If you don’t have access to a friendly engineer, or a single setup or tooling fee is too expensive please check out my ‘Products for Sale’ page.

Almost always something loose on the sled, picking up and amplifying the tiny vibrations that make it through the iso elastic arm.

Have a feel around to see if there is any movement to be found on the monitor, battery arm or mounted accessories. Some camera wedge plates leave a lot to be desired and you may find a small loading strap will cure the vibration.

If all is rock solid you may have a little wear in the stage bearings, this is easily adjusted by your Steadicam agent and is inexpensive. Motorised stage bearings have to be a little looser than manual bearings and as a result need more regular adjustment.

Early Ultra tilting stages were prone to similar vibrations no matter how tightly you adjusted the thumblocks. In fact over tightening causes the tiny 1.5mm axle in the thumblock to fail with disastrous results. My ultra was fitted with temporary threaded rods for months whilst I waited for these parts.
Current Tiffen Ultras have been re engineered with closer tolerances in the millings that the clamping mechanisms ride in. The new post top should be available to those with early Ultras.