John Skinner wrote:
Outside softboxes mounted is going to be very precarious at best assistant notwithstanding. The type of connector Paul has gone with is not known for it's lock & load capabilities. So strong winds are going to be problematic right out of the box.
Believe it or not, I've had the 32x40 foldable softbox is probably 20-25mph gusts of wind on a B1600.  It held up fine and stayed on the head.  Had to crank the tightening knob so hard to keep it from spinning around that it gouged a nice scar in the mounting spigot on my lightstand which was weighted down w/ 30-40lbs of weight to keep it from tilting over.
So, the Balcar mount isn't as bad as you think :-)
BTW, for the historians, I was surprised Balcar went belly up a few months ago.  I really wanted one of their faceted 7" reflectors too :-(