Gitzo GHF2W pan screw working loose (1 Viewer)

[Steve Babbs]

I nearly lost the screw to my Gitzo head in February when it worked loose (as illustrated in the photo) and fell out. This has nearly happened several times since. I do keep trying to remember to tighten it but I know one day it'll go. Anyone have a solution to this problem or are others just better at remembering to tighten it?

 

[Ignatius]

Yikes! Never seen that happen before. Can you unscrew it completely, and then reinsert it with some threadlocker like Loctite blue (242)? That one is easier to remove again than the red one (271) which is a more permanent solution.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Yikes! Never seen that happen before. Can you unscrew it completely, and then reinsert it with some threadlocker like Loctite blue (242)? That one is easier to remove again than the red one (271) which is a more permanent solution.

Yes it does come out completely and that happened. Luckily I found it. I've never used a threadlocker. It does need to be able to be undone slightly.

 

[StuartReeves]

I had that problem with mine. I wrapped a thick elastic band around the outer knob so that it would result in friction with the outer knob and reduce the risk of it unscrewing completely. It reduced the frequncy of the knob becoming unscrewed but I still had to keep an eye on it.

 

[Ignatius]

What do Gitzo have to say about this?

 

[Hermann]

I've had this problem with various heads oder the years. The picture shows a lightweight Manfrotto video head, where all three screws could unscrew. Rather than mucking about with Manfrotto I got out a drill and some cord and fixed the problem myself.

Hermann

 

[henry link]

I noticed this from the first day I bought a GHF2W 5 years ago. It did seem odd, but I've never experienced the knob falling off. I think that's because it takes less than one turn of the knob to completely free the the head's panning motion while it takes 13 turns before the knob actually falls off. The knob starts to become pretty wobbly after only about two turns. I can't see any purpose in loosening it more than a turn while the scope is in use and then tightening it back up for carrying the scope.

Anybody know whether the same knob on the Swarovski version of this head also completely unscrews in the same way?

 

[Steve Babbs]

I noticed this from the first day I bought a GHF2W 5 years ago. It did seem odd, but I've never experienced the knob falling off. I think that's because it takes less than one turn of the knob to completely free the the head's panning motion while it takes 13 turns before knob actually falls off and the knob becomes very wobbly over the last half of those turns. I can't see any purpose in loosening it more than a turn while the scope is in use and then tightening it back up for transporting the scope.

Anybody know whether the same knob on the Swarovski version of this head also completely unscrews in the same way?

I only do one turn too but it works free while I'm walking with it if I forget to tighten it again. With my memory, that's often.

 

[henry link]

Guess I've been well conditioned by enough painful pinches delivered by a flopping scope when I forgot to tighten the knobs before trying to shoulder it.