After a recent trip to Hole in the Rock, Utah, with 114 miles of rotten washboard dirt road(and 14 of 4WD), I had to tighten up a few loose screws on some bodies and lenses. Sheet film dust scratching isn't a problem for the most part as I have finally figured out how to keep it in the vehicle so it doesn't bounce up and down in the holders. But, anyone have a good and/or foolproof way to absorb all the bouncing & high frequency vibrations or a good way to keep photo gear screws from working their way loose on these roads?

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), October 15, 1999

Answers

From my experience I have found the conditions you describe create multiple problems, which in addition to those you mention I would also add dust contamination. The solution which I have found to work reasonably well for me, is to utilise a large locker or cooler and sleeping bags. In the locker/cooler I place a sleeping bag followed by my gear then another sleeping bag. The sleeping bags seem to provide a type of suspension ride that mitigates or at least limits vibration and jarring. Additionally the locker/cooler does a reasonable job of keeping dust out of my equipment. Secondarily, and it has come in handy in the past for me when stranded, should your vehicle breakdown out in the middle of nowhere it is nice to have a sleeping bag.

-- Simon Allenby (SMArtsInc@aol.com), October 15, 1999.

Similar to the last poster, I tend to wrap my camera bags in a sleeping bag or something similar to cut down on the high frequency vibrations which can occur. I've heard reports of problems in aircraft due to the same effects, i.e. high frequency vibrations causing screws to come lose, but I can't say I've ever experienced that problem myself.

I suspect the low freqency, large amplitude bouncing does more harm to the vehicle occupants than to the equipment!

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), October 19, 1999.

I'm curious, how do you store your gear when you travel like this? I shall try to get Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee to respond as they do this sort of thing alot. They have turned over their Rover and International at least twice that I know of.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), October 21, 1999.

We only rolled a vehicle once and there was no camera equipment in it. But I did have a road collapse on me at one time.

Storing equipment. In the fire truck and in the Land Rover we built beds that are off of the floor. Lenses are in Tamrac backpacks, sit on the sleeping pads for cushioning, and are lashed down with strong bungee cords (the black rubber kind, not the cloth ones). Vibration has never affected the lenses. The cameras are in camera cases similarily lashed down but they sit on the floor. Every month or so we spend a few moments checking for loose screws. They loosen rarely, but it does happen. The knobs on the Ries tripods loosen from vibration frequently, but they are always being loosened when we go to use them. The vibration serves as "pre-loosening"-an advanced technique.

Michael A. Smith

-- Michael A. Smith (michaelandpaula@michaelandpaula.com), October 24, 1999.