Thanks for the response. My run will be completely flat in this case, but I was just wondering which would be the most versatile in different situations.

You mentioned about curving... have you or anyone else attempted DIY solutions for curved track such as coiled PVC or another type of coiled hose? This stuff almost looks like pipe... http://www.porta-jib.com/flex-trak.htm ...except for the price.

I did an awful lot of dolly, jib, and crane work in my 12 years as a grip, and once in a while worked on PVC, and once on the flex track you're citing.

The good thing about steel Matthews track (or Fischer Square track) is that it's rigid. From crossbar to crossbar the track should stay flat.

If you're building a dolly that can handle curves then you need all of the wheels to float, and the wheel sets in opposite corners need a few inches of side-to-side float in addition to just plain free rotation around the point they mount to the dolly.

Floatation wheels are totally unstearable and useless off-track. Because of this, a nice solution for you might be something more like Losmandy's Portaglide wheels. With these you could drop a Pee Wee on top, or a kid's red wagon, or a piece of plywood that you've prepared for the job.

As far as track goes, the nice thing about the flex track is the runs are long and without seams. The bad thing is that they conform to the ground and if you're tring to do a slow move in an area that goes a tiny bit down and then a tiny bit up you'll feel it. I found this sort of thing always posed the risk of stopping the move dead. But for fairly rapid moves the flex track might not be too bad if you're on a surface you think is flat.

In my experience, there's no such thing as a flat surface. Even brand new office buildings were never truely flat.

Rob

Thanks for the response.

For now, I think I'll keep it simple (a linear dolly).

Thanks again, everyone!

Yes, that's the simplest first project.

Rob