Motor truss cradle

[DonkiDonki]

While working in a venue which has a relatively low ceiling the other day we were having the usual issue of such places where the rigging height lost with the truss motors was an issue.

 

I remembered a company I worked with many moons ago that had special cradles made that effectively provided a pickup point below the truss and was designed for the motor to fit inside. This allowed the truss to sit dead to the ceiling. (Was somewhat unstable for straight runs but great for boxes)

 

I wonder if anyone has come across anything similar, it would be great to find these as a stocked item somewhere?

[Cameroon]

Doughty do what I think you want... basically 2 half couplers on a plate with a hook pick in the middle?

 

http://www.doughty-engineering.co.uk/shop/118/index.htm

[Seano]

It's nothing particularly special. As long as the truss is big enough to fit the body of the hoist inside, just about any old hard fixing will do.

Eg, er... <quick rummage around t'internet to find an example> this: clicky

[mackerr]

While working in a venue which has a relatively low ceiling the other day we were having the usual issue of such places where the rigging height lost with the truss motors was an issue.

 

I remembered a company I worked with many moons ago that had special cradles made that effectively provided a pickup point below the truss and was designed for the motor to fit inside. This allowed the truss to sit dead to the ceiling. (Was somewhat unstable for straight runs but great for boxes)

 

I wonder if anyone has come across anything similar, it would be great to find these as a stocked item somewhere?

 

Here is one that also has multiple pick up points so you can level an unbalanced truss. LINKY

 

Mac

[Seano]

Here is one that also has multiple pick up points so you can level an unbalanced truss. LINKY

 

That's a chunky looking beast, very nice. Might be useful for balancing an unevenly loaded truss if used on the top chords, but if the object is to tuck the hoist body away inside the truss there is most likely insufficient space to pick it up off-centre.

 

Also, as the OP notes, there are problems with stability if a straight truss is picked up on a hard fixing on the bottom chords. However carefully it's balanced it will invariably end up flopping over one way or the other, which makes this a trick perhaps best saved for a box truss (or possibly a 'T') for which stability (and the potential need to bias a pickup to level an unbalanced truss) are less of an issue.

[DonkiDonki]

It's nothing particularly special. As long as the truss is big enough to fit the body of the hoist inside, just about any old hard fixing will do.

Eg, er... <quick rummage around t'internet to find an example> this: clicky

 

 

 

Obviously the cradle is not needed if the truss is large enough to accommodate the motor. However as this is for height-challenged venues the most commonly used truss is 12"x12". It would be relatively simple to make a cradle up (I think the ones I had seen before were based around a short piece of 18"x12" with adapters to attach to 12"x12") but then you have all the game of making them up and getting them certified.

 

I guess an other issue is while the end customers would certainly appreciate a rigging company offering the ability to rig tight to the ceiling, would they be prepared to pay out enough extra to cover the cost of the cradles?

[Seano]

Oh, I see. In that case no, I've not seen anything like that but as you say it wouldn't be desperately difficult to get something fabbed up.

 

I guess an other issue is while the end customers would certainly appreciate a rigging company offering the ability to rig tight to the ceiling, would they be prepared to pay out enough extra to cover the cost of the cradles?

 

Probably not would be my guess.

 

It would be slow and subject to truck space and all round pain-in-the-arseness, but perhaps another option in such a low venue would be to ditch the hoists altogether - lift the truss on Superlifts or similar and dead them off directly (before taking the Genies away again).