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Cheap Cable Crossover

I bought a cheap 2nd hand hi/lo row, the plates are concrete in a plastic container. They aren't very heavy but I havent busted them yet & I load the thing up with extra plates and its fine.
 
I have a cheapy from fitness and strength that cost $525, concrete in vinyl weights, but it's holding up and i'd say it's 80% as good as the the 2k functional trainers for most purposes.

Looks the same as the one you linked to but grey and I tried it out in person before buying (there are a few variations on the cheapy crossover).

If I was made of money id have a better unit but for the money im happy with it

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I'm in the process of building my own pulldown off a beam on the pergola using a wire rope with eyes bolted on and a pulley/sheave from an industrial rigging mob, it's cheap. My only question is stability, if it is good, I'm going to work a cross over into it.
 
starbright said:
I'm in the process of building my own pulldown off a beam on the pergola using a wire rope with eyes bolted on and a pulley/sheave from an industrial rigging mob, it's cheap. My only question is stability, if it is good, I'm going to work a cross over into it.
Click to expand...

I've picked up a double pulley from a gym equipment warehouse and going to weld a bracket to it instead now, even cheaper.
 
I would avoid the Fitness and Strength ebay ad. I got a multi-gym off of them, but the pulleys were so weak they needed replacement within 2 months. Their equipment is very affordable, and service is great, but I was really disappointed with the reliability. I would've claimed through warranty, but didn't want to do that every two months.

Of course, by the looks of it there's only 10 pulleys to replace. I went through a store called Crazy Cheap Fitness and bought 4inch pulleys (larger than the 100mm ones they provide) for around $20 each. While you're at it, you may as well by some thicker cable. They do this for $30 per cable (length is not considered).
 
My fitness and strength unit is going well enough, but i'm also working on the premise I could easily replace the pulleys. I'll probably buy a commercial level model in the distant future, but cable crossovers are in general a very useful but expensive home gym item

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NightFallTech said:
My fitness and strength unit is going well enough, but i'm also working on the premise I could easily replace the pulleys. I'll probably buy a commercial level model in the distant future, but cable crossovers are in general a very useful but expensive home gym item

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Click to expand...

Ever since upgrading the pulleys and cables on the multi gym I bought off them, the weights have been moving MUCH smoother. I was able to pull more weight as there was less friction/force against the pulleys (e.g. they would actually roll as they're meant to). The one problem I continued to have was that pulling the selected weights to high would result in the guide rod coming out and resting on top of the weight stack for the movement back down, meaning I'd have to nudge the rod back in the hole mid-rep.

I ended up just buying a new rack with high/low pulleys which does the job much better. I'd recommend doing the same rather than spending $300 on pulleys/cable. You get what you pay for, really. I was extremely happy with what I got for the price I payed, but spending that little bit extra was the best investment I'd ever made.
 
You won't find a cheaper cable crossover than this one.
What's more it's fully adjustable height-wise!
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starbright said:
I'd rather use that than a weight stack cable crossover machine.
Click to expand...
That's cool, it's actually mine!
I may have been mocking it, but it serves me well. I never really used the cable crossover in my commercial gym days, except for triceps work, and the occasional finishing set at the end of a chest workout. I've can do triceps push-down inside - my rack has a high and low pulley. While it looks ghetto this works quite well. With three bands you can vary your resistance with 7 different combinations. And I like that the force curve is progressive. The height adjustment is actually a good feature. A selectorised set with adjustable height pulleys would of course be better, but I prefer this to a fixed high/low pulley cable crossover.
 
Yeah I think the price of pulldowns and cross overs are ridiculous. On two fronts, one, bang for your buck with the exercises you get out of it, and two, that it's a very over priced piece of equipment which is essentially a simple system of wire rope and pulleys etc.
 
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