Best curtain track to buy for portable use

[Stuart91]

I've got a couple of customers who are going to need curtain track installed for shows over the coming year. For one recent run, I sub-hired some Doughty Six-Track which did the job just fine, but was quite fiddly to set up with multiple small nuts and bolts etc. Fine for a permanent installation, but a bit of an annoyance when the track is going in for a week or two and coming back out again. I'd also worry about so many small, yet vital parts just waiting to get lost. 

The actual curtain arrangement is fairly straightforward, just a pair of front tabs for a stage roughly 10m wide. 

We own nothing ourselves, and I'm not worried about cross-hire compatibility. I was wondering if there were any better choices available? The basic six-track design doesn't seem to have changed in 20+years. Wentex Eurotrack looks interesting, and a google search turns up loads of other brands.

Does anyone have practical experience with other products that would be good for this sort of application?

[J Pearce]

Triple E Unitrack is fairly standard, easy to hire/subhire. Goes together quite quickly and simply. Has loads of fittings/runners options too.

Edited January 4, 2022 by J Pearce

[themadhippy]

Was going to post wot he said above,so another vote for triple E

[sandall]

Hall Stage? Steeldeck have done a lot of work on refining the track & reducing the part-count.

[sunray]

3 hours ago, Stuart91 said:

I've got a couple of customers who are going to need curtain track installed for shows over the coming year. For one recent run, I sub-hired some Doughty Six-Track which did the job just fine, but was quite fiddly to set up with multiple small nuts and bolts etc. Fine for a permanent installation, but a bit of an annoyance when the track is going in for a week or two and coming back out again. I'd also worry about so many small, yet vital parts just waiting to get lost. 

The actual curtain arrangement is fairly straightforward, just a pair of front tabs for a stage roughly 10m wide. 

We own nothing ourselves, and I'm not worried about cross-hire compatibility. I was wondering if there were any better choices available? The basic six-track design doesn't seem to have changed in 20+years. Wentex Eurotrack looks interesting, and a google search turns up loads of other brands.

Does anyone have practical experience with other products that would be good for this sort of application?

I don't have much experience with curtain track so apologies if I'm talking from the wrong end.

Six-Track is the only one I have installed new and agree there are a number of bits involved. However for the tour are you using a 'standard set-up' (track used the same way and size in every venue) and are you able to transport the 2 halves without dismantling them? If so the only fiddly bits are:

1, mountings... you don't have to use theirs,

2, threading ropes.

[Stuart91]

Triple E have been quite responsive to my enquiry, looks like a solid option. (They have already reassured me that they don't use any of the fiddly nuts and bolts)

Sunray makes a useful point about the Six-track. Unfortunately it probably wouldn't fit in vehicles (and we'd struggle to get it into storage) in two halves. Chucking the complete halves into a truck would be excellent if that were possible. 

[themadhippy]

Quote

They have already reassured me that they don't use any of the fiddly nuts and bolts

Its just 4 metal bars and 1 M8 nut and bolt per join.This might be dated,but has some usefull info https://www.rosebrand.com/Downloads/unitrack-manual.pdf

[dje]

In terms of Triple E, I would use UniBeam rather than Unitrack, for touring. It is more robust and you can use regular Unistrut channel nuts for mounting it, so if any disappear on the road you can replace them from the nearest electrical wholesaler rather than needing to go to the manufacturer. Also, once the bits are separated, the track joiners can slide down inside the end of the track section so there's no need to store them separately.

[Stuart91]

16 hours ago, themadhippy said:

Its just 4 metal bars and 1 M8 nut and bolt per join.This might be dated,but has some usefull info https://www.rosebrand.com/Downloads/unitrack-manual.pdf

Yep, that looks far better than SixTrack. At least if I drop an M8 nut, I've got half a chance of finding it on the carpet. 

7 hours ago, dje said:

In terms of Triple E, I would use UniBeam rather than Unitrack, for touring. It is more robust and you can use regular Unistrut channel nuts for mounting it, so if any disappear on the road you can replace them from the nearest electrical wholesaler rather than needing to go to the manufacturer. Also, once the bits are separated, the track joiners can slide down inside the end of the track section so there's no need to store them separately.

That's tempting, but judging from the price I've just been quoted for Unitrack, UniBeam would be a bit too much of a stretch for us. I'd agree that for larger-scale touring it looks like an ideal solution.