Recently sold our Indie-Dolly kit, and left some tips for our buyer. Others thinking of buying an Indie-Dolly, or current owners, might find this info useful. Should be relevant to the new and old systems...
Indie Dolly is pretty easy to use- Connect track with plastic pieces, use velcro strips to bridge track pieces tightly. You DO NOT need to untighten the straight track screws to unfold the track. There is a secret trick to it- check out video link below.
Best to have the track set up, and then kind of position the unit to the track, and then tighten down your final set screw.
Also, it helps to have some weight on the dolly to smooth out your tracking shots- I usually placed a couple of sandbags on the center of the dolly under the middle of the tripod.
For super smooth glide, I've read that some people use vegetable oil, wd-40 etc on tracks/wheels for smooth operation- I never did this, and feel it would really just ultimately make a big mess. But you might need to clean the dolly wheels and lubricate the bearings (wd-40?) from time to time. I never had to though, and it always worked great. Just make sure you have a nice tight connection with all track or you'll get bumpy shots and tear up your wheels.
The rubber stoppers are to protect the track ends. I'd go a step further and place sandbags at ends of track when using, to keep dolly from coming off track and causing a bad shot or a camera disaster.
Also, we used traffic cones to keep people from tripping over dolly track on set. Also, when not using the dolly for a little while between shots, and ESPECIALLY with no tripod attached, I'd highly recommend picking the dolly unit up and setting it vertically against a table or ladder or something- it is a real tripping hazard, and some newbie or PA or someone will ultimately try and back up without looking and slip on it. They can really get hurt on it if this happens.
Supposedly, the dolly is ridable by a light cam op- but only if feet are placed over tracks. Personally, I don't know if I'd recommend this (although the newer varieties support it).
If outdoors on uneven ground, I'd shim the tracks. And if ground is REALLY uneven, you can use two by fours, apple boxes, etc.
There is a link below to an excellent setup video by indie-dolly for their newer system, the dolly setup principles and tips for opening and shutting straight track are the same (without having to take track apart):
http://www.indiedolly.com/htmlfolder/IndieDollyFrameset.html
Click on "DEMO VIDEO" on list of links at upper left of page.
It doesn't take much straight track to do the job in most cases. You can also practice walking shots with subjects, and as long as they stay in line with focal plane of camera, you won't have to pull focus. You can also do perpendicular shots, or diagonal shots, where you either pull focus, or intentionally start out of or in focus, and hit various focus marks for effect.
The real trick with this dolly for getting a cinematic look is SLOW, SLOW, SLOW tracking.
Hope you all get many great tracking shots with your track and dolly setups!