tri-pod problem

[trbomax]

Just a heads up to anybody shopping for a 5er or gooseneck hitch tri-pod, I bought a BAL mod25037 tripod last week.It went together OK and before I shoveled the snow out of the way for the feet I tested the fit of the gooseneck adapter into my coupler. Well,it wont go in there no how.I took it back to the shop and started measureing and a 2/5/16" ball measures 2.306 -2.312 inches. Then I miced up the top piece of the adapter and its 2.326,a solid 0.014" to big.I called the factory and the guy that answered was on his cell at a show in arizona. He didnt have a good signal and we had to repeat thigs a half dozen times but the outcome was that he would send me another one and hung up.He cant send me another one because he doesnt have my address and never called back to get it.Doesnt matter anyway because a new one will likely be the same oversize as the one I have.It also has a sharp ridge on the top edge that may dig into my coupler too.My solution is to just chuck it up in one of the turning centers in my shop and cut 0.016" off the od and radius the top edge. I realise that this is not an option for most people as they would have to take it too a machine shop and pay for that which probably would exceed the cost of the whole tri-pod.So, just a heads up on this thing. I dont know what the 5er adapter looks like so I cant comment on that.