Hello BC I currently own a pros pro challenger 1 and one thing I've noticed is that the supports near the top of the frame become loose and the support at 6 o clock comes loose as well on the crosses. Is there anything I can do to fix it without buying a new machine? I was thinking of replacing the towers but I'm not sure which to get. Thanks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Chudek supports. New machine. You can try stringing bottom up too. I found my pp supports only went loose with top down.
if the 6 o'clock tower support becomes loose then that probably means your cross tension ratio to your main is a little too big. you might want to reduce your cross tension from +2 lbs to +1 pounds. The +2 lbs is simply a general guide to keep the racket head shape the same. Not all machines or stringers are the same so you adjust to keep the racket head shape the same. My top side supports loosen when i do top down like @DuckFeet. I simply turn my knob to tighten slightly the top side supports. The side support issue is nothing to be too concerned about.
Never thought of decreasing my ratio but I guess I could try it after my R4X 110's snap. Thanks Darth! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
By "tower becomes loose", do you then mean that the tower itself moves, or simply that your racket is no longer tight at the 6 o'clock position? On my PP XP+, the towers do indeed become loose, not by much, but at times I noticed that they had moved a few millimeters over the course of some string jobs!! I noticed because side supports didn't place where they used to. That means, that the towers probably had given in 1-2 millimeters on some string jobs. After some jobs, when I loosened side supports, racket was very easy to get free from the towers (as if shape was stretched about 1 mm from initial position. But in fact it was the tower that had moved!! I examined the machine, and found that where you tighten the towers into position at the underside, the big grips you turn had some custom plastic washers that fit into the groove above - these washers are made from a plastic which deforms over time, so you need to tighten the tower grip insanely hard (using a tool) until the point where the washers deform heavily... Only by doing so, I've succeeded in making the towers stay in position! So, keep an eye out for slowly moving towers on your PP machines! ---- If the tower itself is sturdy, and the issue is simply the racket stretching during the string job, the problem might be in your ratio (adding too much on crosses), OR if could be that you tighten your side supports too much with? Try going to +1 or +2 lbs on crosses if you have used more (like, perhaps you have used +10%). And be careful not to tighten side supports too much.
First of all - if you already have the Chudek's then the next upgrade will be to get a new machine. When I still had the Challenger I noticed the same thing. I did two things to get rid of it: a) doing square tensions and b) either streched the racket head slightly (2-3 mm maximum) along 12/6 o'clock axis when mounting it, or re-tightened the main supports again (carefully!!!) after pulling the first 4 mains. Never had the issue again afterwards and the rackets come out in perfect shape. Actually I still do it the same after switching to the Superstringer with the same result. But as others have previously said - be careful not to tighten the supports too much. Especially the side supports can cause a surprisingly heavy deformation along the length axis if they are tightened to hard.
+1 on the moving towers and using tools. I've got a PP challenger II and it was impossible for me to tighten it enough by hand.
