I wasn't sure the best pre-fix or thread for this, but wanted to share, this may be something you want to do to your FOR tripod. I have a couple of these tripods, which I like a lot, not on par with RRS of course, but I get along with them pretty well. Anyways, one thing that has thoroughly frustrated me is the clamping mechanism on their arca clamp head. I was on an antelope hunt a couple weeks ago, and the pin fell out, I assume because enough times locking it closed had stretched the aluminum to the point the hole was too big to hold the pin. That was the last straw, so I decided to fix the problems I had with the mechanism. If you have a FOR tripod head, the following is what I did, you may find some ideas here that help you if you like to tinker like I do.
First, I hate that the clamping lever can rotate, whenever I get the ARCA clamp width set perfect, it doesn't take long for it not to be perfect from carrying it around since it turns and who knows how many times around etc, so I replaced the bushing with a new bushing, I cut the hole in the new bushing in an oval shape rather than the original round hold, and I flattened the bolt that slides through it, see picture below.
Next, the bottom of the original lever was gradually flattening and widening, and apparently the pin's hole was stretching out, naturally, since it's aluminum. So I replaced the aluminum lever with a lever I made from a piece of stainless key stock. The original lever was actually getting tough to clamp because the aluminum was moving to the inside too and rubbing against the bolt. That aluminum simply does not wear well, obviously it's way softer than stainless. I did put a new pin in the new lever.
Finally, I put some very short rods behind the springs that push against the moving part of the arca clamp. The newer heads didn't have this problem, but the first ones, the springs simply didn't move that arca clamp far enough.
I'm super happy with the final result, locks up nicer, opens nicer, won't rotate and shouldn't wear out the lever where it contacts the bushing. I know it would have been easier to just buy an RRS head, but like I said I do like to tinker, and I'm still money ahead. I ran into some others at a match who were struggling with this mechanism, maybe this will help someone with these same issues.
Since making the fixes I did take it on another antelope hunt and an elk hunt and it worked great, better than it ever has. I made the same mod to my other tripod, now it's ready to go for an NRLH match.
First, I hate that the clamping lever can rotate, whenever I get the ARCA clamp width set perfect, it doesn't take long for it not to be perfect from carrying it around since it turns and who knows how many times around etc, so I replaced the bushing with a new bushing, I cut the hole in the new bushing in an oval shape rather than the original round hold, and I flattened the bolt that slides through it, see picture below.
Next, the bottom of the original lever was gradually flattening and widening, and apparently the pin's hole was stretching out, naturally, since it's aluminum. So I replaced the aluminum lever with a lever I made from a piece of stainless key stock. The original lever was actually getting tough to clamp because the aluminum was moving to the inside too and rubbing against the bolt. That aluminum simply does not wear well, obviously it's way softer than stainless. I did put a new pin in the new lever.
Finally, I put some very short rods behind the springs that push against the moving part of the arca clamp. The newer heads didn't have this problem, but the first ones, the springs simply didn't move that arca clamp far enough.
I'm super happy with the final result, locks up nicer, opens nicer, won't rotate and shouldn't wear out the lever where it contacts the bushing. I know it would have been easier to just buy an RRS head, but like I said I do like to tinker, and I'm still money ahead. I ran into some others at a match who were struggling with this mechanism, maybe this will help someone with these same issues.
Since making the fixes I did take it on another antelope hunt and an elk hunt and it worked great, better than it ever has. I made the same mod to my other tripod, now it's ready to go for an NRLH match.
