Lightweight, inexpensive kit.

I was showing a friend of mine the Sunpak 4000's that i have.
These are pretty heavy and bulky monolights. Add that to the Chinese softboxes that take forever to setup and its really a PITA kit to setup.

i'd like a setup that is more portable and easier to setup.

My friend uses a Nikon d40, I have a N80 and F100 (among others).

I was thinking a set of Vivitar 285's on brackets with reflective umbrellas would do the trick.

Does anyone uses these for studio lighting?
How are the cheap radio or ir sync's?

Check out the following websites for what you are looking to do with the speedlights. A lot of people are doing it nowadays with radio triggers, umbrellas and multiple speedlights.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/ The main one most people go to for information.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist Related to the blog above

You can get away with a lot considering the power some of these flashguns are able to put out there. Strobist is a great resource for all things small with big light.

That being said, I'm still not parting with my Profotos and generator...I would rather have too much power than not enough.

Having three 285's to clamp, diffuse, trigger/test, and finally meter might be more portable, but not be any easier to set up or fiddle with. You'll probably spend more time checking and replacing batteries. And you don't have modelling lamps to help you see what you're going to get, so I don't like the sound of it at all. I agree with you on umbrellas over softboxes for easy setup, but my gut says one monolight (with modelling lamp) and one reflector. But keep in mind I'm speaking from the school of really lazy.

David, you made a good point on the modelling lamps. My friend could get along without them, but not me.

Either way, I would still want wireless activation.

Thanks for the strobist links. I will check them out!.