Ttrak 3 legs vs 4 legs

[cteno4]

The issue of using 3 bolts/legs vs the traditional 4 bolts/legs for Ttrak modules has come up many times in various topics, but they get buried in other topics so I thought I would give it its own topic.

 

Many years ago I got very tired of leveling Ttrak modules when bolts were used. 4 bolts is a PITA to get things leveled and all 4 legs down. I figured why not just do 3 leveling bolts, one in each front corner and one in the center back. It worked like a charm as you could quickly use the front two bolts to do the side to side leveling and then use the single rear bolt to level the module back to front. All the time all 3 bolts are on the table as a tripod. With 4 bolts it’s always a challenge to keep fiddling to get all 4 bolts down and level. 
 

Also manipulating the bolts in the back are always a challenge, having to be working sort of upside down and backwards to reach the bolts behind the module. It always flummoxes my orientation for up and down screw directions so having to do 2 bolts in the back to properly get the back to front level is a PITA. Having only one bolt in the back greatly simplifies this as it only takes a single adjustment to get the module leveled back to front.

 

3 legs means 25% less in bolts and inserts as well, cheaper and easier.

the main pushback I have had from the Ttrak community over the last decade plus pushing the 3 leg idea has been the module will be unstable on 3 legs without the back two corners directly supported by legs. Well this really is not true as it would take a very big weight in the back corner to make the 3 leg tripod unstable. Certainly the biggest structure only on one corner would not tip a single or double module. A couple of folks have put forward 4 legs would prevent disaster if someone were to lean on the back corner of a module in a setup somehow. Well in 15 plus year of doing Ttrak I’ve v ever seen anyone end up in a position of having to lean on the back corner of a module.

 

There is just some stubborn resistance to the concept of 3 bolts over 4, it’s like speaking heresy! OK burn me at the 4th Ttrak bolt!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

Makes sense to me!  On the rare occasion someone has heavy scenery in one corner, it's easy enough to add a 4th bolt to support that corner as well.

[Cat]

Seems far too sensible to catch on.

[tossedman]

I'm going to give it a go. Sounds so logical.

[cteno4]

I tried a tall Tomix high rise tower in the corner of a 1x 12” deep and it was not tipsy at all…  I’ve done 2x modules no problem. Folks will use this reasoning like you need to design this with a brick being placed on a back corner.

 

I really hate Ttrak Leveling with 4 legs, so much fiddling. Even if I always set the right leg short and left leg at running height to start with and use the left leg to get level back to front after front is leveled side to side, then just extend the right leg down to touch the table. But then something changes and it’s back to fiddling with all 4 bolts…

 

I’ve also done corner modules with 3 bolts. I put one in the center of each front side of the corner and one in the very back corner. Use the front ones to adjust each side to the modules off that side then the back corner last to just pick it up to be level front to back.

 

even when with my old 25mm tram modules I would cheat and made a small frame to plop 4 1x modules on (they were thin modules only 1” tall) to level 4 at once it was a pain with 4 legs on the frame when we were on very uneven surfaces (sloping lawn). After many years I went to the 3 bolt and it was a lot easier to level the tripods to get the 4 frames leveled up and then just plop the modules down.

 

LOL I do get strange looks (like you just grew pointy ears) usually when I hold up my hand with sensible, logical ideas!

 

jeff