Seems to me you need to readjust how you are tightened knobs and locks. I find little need to keep azimuth very tight at all. However, once I set my center column height, I do lock my center column knob. With the center column locked, it's nearly impossible to twist the center column.

I've been using this tripod for about 10 years and have never had a problem with the center column gears or teeth. I recommend this tripod for binoculars up to about 5-6 pounds.

In addition, I use this tripod to mount a UA parallelogram, although only with the legs in low height setting without using the bottom tube extended and only with the center column down. In that manner I put 25# on this tripod without problems.

I also use it with a Microstar and small scopes for low power (up to 100x) scope viewing. No problems there either.

My only complaint about this tripod is the leg locks in winter are to hard to loosen.

edz