Decotruss 3 Point Truss Silver 2m

When I ordered the truss sections, I wanted something to support a fairly light moving head vertically. Thomann and Decotruss make it quite plain that this is not structural truss - it's primarily for things like exhibition booths, with perhaps a few lightweight lights hanging from it - looking good and modern, but being useful.

My requirement was for vertical loading on a single section, and I wasn't sure exactly how strong this design was - so I ordered it.

In terms of construction, the truss is made from 15mm aluminium, about 2mm wall thickness. The chord to chord bracing is 5mm solid section. The 2m length, supported at it's ends horizontally easily supported my 15 stone weight in the middle with no flexing or deformation. This proved my vertical loading was not going to be an issue.

The weak link in the design is that sections are joined together with 3 10mm nuts and bolts that secure the welded in end plates face to face. The end plates are welded to the chord tubes and the thickness is not thick enough to be rigid and not bend. If you joined two 2m lengths horizontally, the strength at the centre is just the three welds and the two plates. They WILL bend with anything other than a light top load. This backs up the warnings in the documentation.

I would happily use it to make up a lightweight and good looking projection screen surround, or hang some lightweight LED fixtures from it - but not a heavier fixture in any situation when two pieces have been joined horizontally.

In terms of construction, the welding is pretty good, but some of the cross bracing is cut a little short, or at the wrong angle, so the bracing doesn't actually touch the chord tube, and the weld has to fill the gap. The paint finish is good, but will chip if you catch the tube on a sharp edge. It does exactly what I wanted, so for my use, it's amazingly cheap and useful.

The silver finish is really grey by the way, not very silvery in the light.

I will certainly buy more of this - it's much more cost effective than structural trussing, and much cheaper - but just remember the warnings - it is NOT structural and joining pieces together robs much of the strength the tube itself has.