Glide Gear SYL 960 Floor Tripod Track Dolly Hybrid with Caster and Track Wheels

I like this item. It's great to have and works well with the rubber dolly track (but needs lots of practice to use correctly). I like that it comes with the dolly track wheels, and then regular swivel wheels.The bag it comes with though is too small for the dolly track wheels to fit in. You will need to purchase another bag to keep it in. I bought a bag to store the tripod in with the rubber dolly track.

07/30/2013: I finally got to use this on a shoot a few weeks ago. It was only for one scene and they were used on a slight grade so gravity helped it slide smooth. I also tested it on even ground and it seemed fine.I switched to 2" black PVC pipe for the track. I left them in the 10' sections they come in and had 2 on each side for 20'. I am going to buy 4 more so I can have a 40' run if needed. I used a smaller white piece of PVC pipe to go inside to hold them together. I simply used duct tape wrapped around the ends to make it fit tight.The wheels can move in and out to compensate for uneven track. It slid just fine in the places where the track was not perfectly even. Better than I expected.The wheels were fine. I did have to loosen the center nut on a few but after that they were smooth. I did not even have to add any lubricant. I did not have to replace them as others said they did. Unsure if they got different wheels or not but mine worked great. Smooth shots.I do think more shoots and testing is required before I say it is 100% great but so far I liked it very much. I will use this again and will report any issues. I still do not have any flexible pipe to test it with.One thing I wish it had was some type of break on the wheels. I am going to try to make something. Probably only needed on slight grades but I did use it this way and of course I had to keep it at the bottom in between shots when a simple break would have held it.01/03/2013: With winter I have not really had the chance to test this on any long track properly. I got four (4) 10' long 1-1/4" round electrical conduit pieces and had Home Depot cut them in half. Hopefully when I figure out the best way to join these I can have up to a 20" track. I really want a flexible track but no idea what to get that works and is cheap. I may have to save for the proper stuff which is not cheap.Please comment if you find anything that works well.Anyone use PVC? If so how think did you use and how did you join them? Would that maybe hold the weight of a jib on it?Anyway I do have that short segment, 5', that I tested it on and a few wheels were too stiff. I loosened them and it seems better but I may replace them with the roller skate wheels I bought to build my own rig. I think this may be the best option.This is worth the price for the dolly arms etc... alone. Trying to build your own is a pain unless you have the proper tools, welder etc...10/17/2012: I decided to give this a try. I received this in a timely manner, no complaints.I have not built my track yet so I have not been able to test it on a track as yet. Hence the 4 stars. :)I will edit this review once I do.I like what I see but the case cannot be used with track wheels on!In the description it says, "Folds up with carry bag for easy transportation and storage"This is only true with the normal castor wheels on it. You cannot carry it in the case with the track wheels in place, it is simply too large. I think most of us buying this will leave the track wheels on it. It would be a pain to remove them just to slip it in the bag. The bag should have been larger. That was disappointing.With that said it does have a cool handle on it to just carry it. I like the build quality.If I had one complaint on the dolly itself it would be that the arms do not extend quite as much as I thought they would. They pull out about 5" as the descriptions says, it should be a few more. I tried my cheap tripod on it and even with only the lower segments pulled out I could not have the legs stretched all the way out and have it fit, I had to pull them in a bit. I seriously doubt this will be an issue though but it is worth mentioning. I will try it with my good video tripod and report back if this is an issue.The description says "These wheels are not only full 360° swivel, but also able to freely slide within the wheel housing in any direction by an extra 1". This means that the track can be as uneven as 2" in places and still not effect the smooth operation of the Glidegear SYL-960 track dolly."The dolly wheels do have a slot at the top where they can move back and forth in case the track is uneven. I am unsure if this will work on a flexible track or not, I will also test this later when I get some.I am not a fan of the way the wheels feel when they slid back and forth though. It seems like there is too much friction. It should have had at least a Teflon washer (I may add myself) or ball bearing there to make it smoother. I may have to lubricate it heavily. This is all conjecture though and I will report when I actually get to use it.Otherwise so far it seems very cool.Like the other reviewer I bought all kinds of stuff to build my own but this is cheap enough and seems much more professional. I just decided to get this and take the parts back.Since money is tight I started building my own jib in the past as well but gave up and just bought a Pro Am one. I do not regret it, it is much better than a self built one.I think just investing a bit in this type of equipment is best so I think this will be a good purchase for the money.

I had my concerns when I bought these. Many people were complaining about the drag and that they were not smooth. I have had no problems with these wheels. They are easy to use and are very smooth. Only thing I can figure is that the people with problems my be using them with plastic pvc pipe and not metal tubing. Or they may be using a very light tripod and camera on top of them. We used the Sony FS700 with a manfrotto tripod most of the time and have no issues at all. We just throw down the pipe and a couple shot bags and we are ready to roll. the only issue i have had is that one of the grips cracked the center triangle piece that hold one of the arms. It hasn't seemed to hurt the performance at all. I just wish it would have been made of metal. But for the price, these have been a great set of wheels.

It's a nice little device that serves the purpose of a dolly.Couple issues:First of all, one of the extendable legs was broken. While still 100% usable, one of the legs can fall out of the housing due to the fact that the part that prevents the leg from extending too far out apparently broke. This can cause the little part that pinches the leg to secure it to fall out and possibly get lost. Not a huge issue, but for almost $200 you would think there would be better quality control.Second, the main swivel wheels (not the TRACK wheels) are garbage. They're incredibly small, thus making any sort of maneuvering with them useless because they pick up ever single bump in the ground. I don't imagine anyone is getting this for the simple cart wheels anyway, but it just feels cheap due to the fact that the case is built to house the dolly with the tiny wheels and not with the track wheels.And last but not least, the track wheels. Like everyone before has stated, the track wheels do not glide one bit. They are gummed up with some sort of axle grease or something, causing shots to be jittery or inconsistent with movement. Luckily, the fix for this is easy: WD-40. I just went to my local Walmart and picked up a little can of WD-40. I then took apart all the wheels and sprayed the inside, front, and back of the wheel bearings and spun the wheels while holding the middle of the bearings. They freed right up and now they feel almost frictionless. It's a slight annoyance that you even have to do this, however.This is my second product from "Glide" Gear. I personally find their name ironic, as every product I've received from them has never really glided. They have always been gummed up by some sort of bad lubricant. Luckily WD-40 is cheap and you can get little cans to carry around in your ditty bag.With all its pitfalls, it's still a very very nice tool to have. I can even attach my ProAm jib to it and use the crane to make some really amazing shots. And for it's price, I'm not sure it can be beat.