Like many of you, I shoot with the Manfrotto 561BHDV monopod. Recently the ball joint at the bottom has become still and noisy. Is there any way to lube this thing to make it smooth and quiet again?

Thanks for your help.

The thing that drives me crazy is when I tilt it back and forth it suddenly does a ker-thunk and gives the camera a sudden jolt that ruins the video that you are shooting at that moment. This is a good example of a design that isn't finished for the intended purpose. Someone in Manfrotto's engineering department needs some career 'counseling'.

I have the 561B and you can knock the joint apart of my version. There are three bolts that appears to have hexhead inserts on the top and nuts on the bottom.

WD40. Simple as that. I have the same monopod. It started acting up similarly. WD40 made it smooth as ever.

I've tried WD40 and Silicone Spray. But they seemed to dry up and the noise came back. I just tried Tri-Flow Superior Lubricant and that seems to be working. Whatever you use, keep some in your car.

I've had the same issue, or when I do a pan it jerks the whole way, drives me nuts. As for the huge ker-chunk, I make sure that whenever I set the monopod down now that I push down as hard as I can to make sure that it doesn't drop while I'm shooting.

I've had many of the same problems to the point to where I find it useless during important shoots.
It seems like the perfect monopod would be weighted at the bottom and have a smooth tripod
head at the top. Maybe i'm wrong, but the engineering can't be that difficult especially for what
this cost?

just my 2 cents

I haven't seen this problem because I stopped using mine, I found it too restricting.

Learning to pan while keeping it vertical was a pain and using one extended leg of my Miller Compass on CF Solo legs is just as good .. and more convenient.

Cheers.

I'm considering selling my two and buying a stedipod. I need to rethink monopods, I have two of the manfrotto ones and like you, they stick and squeak. I've already loosened the feet a bit to stop the squeak but I have on sticking a bit, so I'll need to work on it again.

I recently saw the steadipod in action and I was pretty impressed. It's just a lot more than the bogen monopods.

Ok, so here's my story. I have two of the Manfrotto 561BHDV-1 and I've tried to deal with this squeaking and still had an issue. So at my last wedding, I asked the cook for vegetable oil. And so far, that has done the trick.

Crazy.

WD40 does dry. Good for freeing things but once it's loose I would use 3 in 1 oil. Or better if you can loosen the balljoint and pack in some grease then tighten it all up again.

Try a Libec tripod. Their quality and service are great! I have a lot of their equipment some of which is 30 years old and I have never had a problem.