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Wore Out GPZ Skidplate - Anyone Tried The Razorback?


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Thanks Rob, good to know. I hope business is great but do smell the roses when you can! Say hi to Dawn and Dennis for me.

Welcome to the forum Keith! To be honest you got the benefit of a good Google response. Interesting to see an east coast dealer stocking GPZ accessories. Are they seeing any use outside the prospecting world? Seems like the extreme sensitivity to tiny ferrous stuff would be an issue, but that is all high tones. Dig low tones only might work in certain relic hunting situations but unfortunately that trick would be no good nugget hunting.

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Steve, I use two part Epoxy all the time and for the longest time mix it on a six

inch square of cardboard, I just cut off a 2x3 inch piece of cardboard to use as

a mixer, spatula..

The whole point is to this, I would take that disk (coil cover) clean it good, 409,

or Denatured Alcohol, put a couple of two inch circles two part epoxy on the

disk, mix and spread. These two bottles will last forever.

 

Epoxy  this stuff is the best, about 20 minute. 15 bucks
 

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Steve-

Thank you for the welcome! I'll be sure to stop by from time to time... :)

We do keep some of the GPZ accessories on hand, as there are a few of these machines on the east coast.... Plus with the website a customer can pop up from anywhere at any time. :)

It's tough to use the GPZ in the Civil War camps... But it can be done. Without iron reject all those tiny surface nails not heard when using the GPX can overwhelm a user swinging the GPZ. But if you can get in the areas where the targets have been thinned out, with a bit of paitence some deeper relics can be found.... Such as the confederate camps where guys typically dig just about every signal. At the DIV last spring I did find quite a few relics with it, but most of those low tones which are bullets. When you do go over a bullet with the GPZ, there is no doubting it. The prized buttons come in nice and loud as a high tone when you get over one.... But as you noted so does the shallow small iron. At the end of the week I was starting to figure out the tones, but it's tough to discern which signals are worth digging and which ones to pass.

At this time, for the vast majority of relic hunters will not have the paitence to use a GPZ, and opt to keep swinging a GPX for best results. But there are a few who will adopt it. I know of one fellow (a non-dealer) taking a new one to the fall DIV.... And I'll be curiously watching his results. Long term I don't see a large group of relic hunters adopting this machine, but there will be a select few that figure out how to harness it to work for them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I have been getting in the hours and have wore out my GPZ 7000 scuff cover / coil cover / skidplate.

 

New genuine Minelab covers are like everything else GPZ rare as hen's teeth. Part number 3011-0286 and very few places on the internet can be found that advertise having them in stock. $62 retail, and Ft. Bedford claims to have them in stock for $48 http://www.fortbedfordmetaldetectors.com/minelab-gpz7000-14x13-coil-cover

 

Miner John has an aftermarket coil at http://razorbackcoils.webs.com/apps/webstore/products/show/5908106 that Chris alerted us to back in May http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/930-gpz-7000-coil-cover-available/ for about the same price. It is twice as thick and has fewer slots that would let dirt get in between the coil and scuff cover. Has anyone tried these out and can report on them?

Steve and all,

 

Having worn out the stock GPZ 7000 skid-plate in relatively very short order (No, I am not a scuffer) and seeing how thin the coil itself is, I purchased the Miner John Designs GPZ coil cover out of necessity.

 

IMHO this Miner John 7000 cover is the best investment that can be made to protect this effective, but costly, detecting unit. This skid-plate is “Tank Tough” and swinging one of the heavier detectors on the market, the weigh is not an issue at all. It's heavy duty design does not affect sensitive or performance in any way with the finding of nuggets at depth to prove it.

 

As for the slots on the edge of the Super D, I really think that Minelab lay-out of the coil's edges was to ensure that they would be the only game in town. The Miner John Designs GPZ coil cover far exceeds the manufacture's best efforts, period. The Cover stays snug and does not allow dirt to get inside and some would want you to believe.

 

I pose a very important question to those that have a GPZ and use their 7000 a great deal:

 

Knowing how thin the stock cover is and how quickly they disintegrate, why would you keep beating your head against the wall by purchasing a “dollar store trash can lid” over and over again when you could have a heavy duty cover to protect a primary part of an expensive detecting device?

 

Nuggethunt

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OK, I had a spare Minelab skid plate and Miner John was kind enough to send me one of his. And just so people know the one Doc sells is made by Miner John - Doc just slaps his own sticker on them.

It is fairly simple. Almost all scuff covers are made of the same fairly stout plastic. For some reason on the SDC 2300 and GPZ 7000 Minelab has gone to a soft plastic (polypropylene?) which is about the same stuff as makes up an old style coffee can lid. It is flexible and soft and wears quickly.

The Miner John seems barely any thicker but it is the standard skid plate material we are all used to. Quite stout and will barely flex at all. There is extra material there however. The Minelab cover weighs 4.3 ounces while the Miner John cover weighs 7.4 ounces.

The Minelab brand cover must be aligned perfectly to get on but goes on easy enough. However, if you look at the picture below closely you can see stress marks at each notch where the plastic stretched and in a couple spots looked close to splitting just putting it on.

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The Miner John version went on easy enough until the last notch. I just pushed a bit harder and it popped on, no tools needed, but some may want to use a screwdriver or butter knife to ease that last notch over the edge of the coil.

The Miner John is about 1/4" to 3/8" higher that the Minelab version. No doubt a bit of the extra weight creeps in here. This is also good in that it protects the sides of the coil better, but bad in that it creates a channel around the edge to collect fine silt, which can then work down into the space between cover and coil. I doubt it will be much of an issue however and I honestly never had much problem in that regard with the Minelab cover either.

My personal take given that both these covers cost about the same in the United States is that the Miner John is the far better buy. It is bound to last much longer, easily twice as long or more I am guessing. The Minelab cover does weigh less and if you keep the coil suspended over the ground that might matter. But then you really do not need a heavy duty scuff cover anyway. Mine rides on the ground so the extra weight won't matter. For somebody really using the GPZ a lot it will add up in savings over time. We will see. I will use the Miner John and keep the Minelab cover for backup.

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I used the Miner John skid plate on my last trip. I did not notice any difference in sensitivity to small targets and yes it is nice and thick so I feel that it protects the coil better then the standard skid plate. When I took it off after the trip there was barely any dirt inside so I was happy with that. The stock skid plate accumulated lots of dirt and I used to take it off at the end of the day to clean it. As stated earlier my problem with the Miner John was that I could not get it on without heating the tabs with a heat gun and bending them out a little. I tried using a screw driver to pry out the tabs but I did not like the way it was putting pressure on my $10,000 metal detectors coil. The plastic on the ZED  coil is not much thicker the that on the standard skid plate. Maybe I got one that was extra tight fitting I don't know. Once you get the Miner John on its great. Maybe it will soften up with use and be easier to get on and off.

 

strick

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Steve; in your opinion would using silicon-stuff to seal the dust out of the Minerjohn coils be a reasonable option. I have always used sealant on my vlf coils and some of the Minelab pi coils....these new spider-web and notched coils are another world...to me.

 

I have a ways to go before I wear out my gpz cover but it will happen.

 

fred

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Thanks for the update Steve, The soft stock coil cover doesnt add any real strength, and if your a ground scrubber, at least for me,  the coil falses sometimes from the deflection caused by bumping and  scrubbing on rough terrain. Sounds like these are the ticket.

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