American DJ ST-132 wind up stand

[cedd]

Hi all

 

I'm in need of a pair of wind up stands. Primary duties are as speaker stands, but it's not unfeasible that they'd find themselves with lighting on them as well.

 

They're not going to be needed THAT often, but I certainly do have enough use for them to make it worthwhile buying a pair. I've now got a new set of Tannoy V12 cabinets in yokes, so it's now possible to het cabinets nice and high with a downward tilt.

 

I've been trawling ebay for a while looking for alternatives, particularly Powerdrive or Manfrotto, but nothing's really come along, plus postage on them is often the killer as they're a big lump. There's also something in me that's not too happy buying a winch stand from an unknown source. I'd maybe feel a little happier buying used from an established hire company who may have looked after and serviced them, rather than an ebay "DJ Dave".

 

Anybody used the American DJ ST-132? I've always thought of their equipment as a nice middle of the road option - not ludicrously expensive but still of a decent quality.

Link to the product page here;

http://www.americandj.eu/default/st-132.html

And there are more detailed photos from Thomann here;

http://www.thomann.de/gb/american_dj_st132_wind_up_100_kg.htm

 

It looks reasonably well made. Zooming in on the welding and particularly the area around the winch gives me an impression of good quality, but looks can be decieving, as can a fancy matt powder coated paint finish!

 

My cabinets are only 20kg each, so the 85kg rating gives me plenty of confidence in them. They also go pretty high at nearly 4m, and have an adjustable leg for levelling. Looks like they'll take a spigot (possibly needing an adaptor - it's not clear) which might be useful in the future.

 

Has anybody got any suggested alternatives?

 

What's the perceived wisdom on hanging 2 cabinets under a T-bar from such a stand? Combined weight would be 40kg so well within the stand's rated limits, but I'm well aware that it's a lot of weight up high and quite wide. The cabinets would be as close to the upright as possible bolted underneath the crossbar in yokes, which at least lowers the centre of gravity slightly. The base is also pretty wide. I guess the best test would be to try it and see just how stable the thing felt. It wouldn't be anywhere near its' maximum height - maybe just above head height. A lot also depends just how much "sway" the stand gives when partially extended. I guess this will increase as the stand becomes taller and the ratio of upright left within the centre tube Vs upright outside of the tube becomes less.

[Ashley R]

After having a look at the pic's looks remarkably similar to something ive used over here in Aust, just under a different name.

 

Off just a pair of these we hung a 6m wide,2.4m high LED screen with no issues, and on a 2nd pair, about 12 Technobeams. (Across a span of truss)

 

They did seem quite sturdy and well built, although figuring out the safety secondary locking system was a bit of a faf, but a welcome safety addition (The Australian made 12ft winch up's have got no safety features whatsoever, a design from the mid 80's I think!)

 

There was an adapter tube of sorts which needed to be fitted to the top, in order to mount a 25mm spigot. It was just a short length of pipe, with a tri nut on each end. As you can see, the T bar in the pictures, is held on with a bit of pipe.

[Paul O]

I have a pair of these (without the pictured t-bar) that I sometimes use for FOH lighting positions in small venues. They are quite chunky and solidly made and wouldn't have any worries about loading them up to their full 85Kg although I don't use them for anything heavier than half a dozen profiles on each one. The top tube is 35mm dia so you could mount a single speaker directly on the top if you wanted.

 

As with any tripod stand I'd be warely of having them fully extended anywhere that drunk punters could crash into them.

 

Paul.

[cedd]

Thanks for that. Both those messages are very encouraging.

 

They do look really quite good for the money. One thing I particularly like about them is the simplicity of the legs. No funny castings or couplers to snap or bend. It's just a plain old bit of square section tubing.

 

Like you Paul I'm not keen on high tripod stands, especially in public areas. These things at least look a little more robust than your average DJ stand.

[Stuart91]

Some friends of mine have some of these stands and I've borrowed a couple on occasions. They certainly seem more than sturdy enough, and compare very favourably with the traditional Manfrotto wind-up.

[Ashley R]

Just one comment now that im thinking about it, is that the footprint aint exactly massive, when compared to how much weight you can put up 4m in the air.. Maybe its just me, but when we used them we ended up using an extra 30kg of lead shot on each stand.

[MarkPAman]

............. and have an adjustable leg for levelling.

 

Are you sure? From you first link:

 

The feet are not height adjustable

[cedd]

I saw that it mentioned that. If you zoom in on the picture you can see one there though. Same's true on the ADJ website so it's not like they've got the wrong picture (I hope) so I guess it's an error.

Won't be the end of the world if it doesn't have one mind.

[Paul O]

They do have one adjustable leg (approx 150mm extension from memory), enough to level the tripod on a shallow step.