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GPX 6000 Rod Twisting - Owners Weigh In


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10 hours ago, araratgold said:

As an aside, I see more and more people complaining about the PITA coil twisting problem on the 6K, with some even resorting to sourcing carbon shafts and building their own lower stems, complete with locking pins ! Very poor for a detector costing 8K !

Rick

I have no problem with coil twisting and I am using the 17” now.  I think people who are having a problem are not tightening down hard enough. The shafts are carbon fiber you’re not going to break them tighten the clamp as tight as it can possibly get.  If you’re just weakly tightening it down then you are going to have some twist. Quite honestly if you wanted to drill a hole and put a pin in yourself it would not be a big deal but I think it defeats the purpose when you want to tighten up the cord by giving it a twist before engaging the locks. So far I’m satisfied with it.  Keep this in mind to if you think you can actually tighten it to the point where you’re going to break it it’s under warranty for three years! But if you drill the hole it’s probably not under warranty anymore.

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I moved freaks post here from another thread to start this line of discussion with a thread of its own.

The rod can twist. I’ve experienced myself, and no amount of tightening will stop it if you put enough leverage on the locks. I don’t think you can break the rod per se from twisting the mechanism too hard, but obviously you could strip the nut off the threads. Still, I’ve given it as much twist as it seemed it could take, and have still managed to twist the rod.

It takes pressure of some sort on the outer edge of the coil to twist the rod, and a larger coil provides more leverage between edge and rod. But I have had it happen with the 11” coil also when I get aggressive. When it happens, I’ve taken maybe one second with my foot to straighten it, and moved on. Some people will not experience it at all, others who are more aggressive with their coils probably will. I tend to let my coils ride on the ground with the rod fully extended, and bump into things a lot. This happens most often when I poke the coil aggressively into and between sagebrush.

In my opinion, it at worst is a minor annoyance, not something a non-owner needs to elevate into months worth of posts. But I would love for other owners of the detector to weigh in with their view on the subject, yay or nay, to get a better fix on what actual owners think of the situation. I’m sure Minelab is interested also, so look at this as an owner feedback thread on the subject.

I’ve considered drilling in a button lock, but it’s never annoyed me enough yet to go to the effort. I’ve been meaning to disassemble a twist lock, to see if roughening the surface or otherwise modifying the surface might help, but again, has never quite risen to that level of bother.

I’ve considered whether Minelab might have gone with a square tube and lever system, and that might have been preferable for many. But I’ve also found for side hilling I like running the coil twisted out of true at times, and a square tube would prevent that. The simple solution of course would have been to include button locks.

The entire rod assembly is easily removed from the 6000, and this would seem to make an aftermarket rod an easy option. However, the sliding armrest mechanism slides along a grip that is pressed (glued?) onto the upper shaft, making this a more difficult option than it might appear at first glance.

Really going afield with possibilities, I wonder if tacky products, like this Golf Tac Grip Enhancer or Firm Grip might help. It seems part of the issue is the rod surface being so smooth with nothing to grab hold of.

Separate thread on EMI issues here.

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  • The title was changed to GPX 6000 Rod Twisting - Owners Weigh In

I’ve run into this since I am probably a little rough with pushing the coil into bushes and scraping the ground. On really steep hillsides I will actually twist the coil on purpose to get a more comfortable swing off to one side of my body.

I mostly have been detecting wooded hillsides for pocket gold so it probably won’t be an issue in the desert or flatlands.

It’s a minor annoyance along with the little rubber headphone cover popping off and the EMI sensitivity. Especially considering how easy the GPX makes it to find gold compared to other machines I’ve used.

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I've had the rod twist but like Steve mentioned... it was when I was a little aggressive with the coil.  The minor issue is nothing compared to how pissed I get when I can't get the machine to settle down (emi) and just enjoy my hunt.  Wed. I got so mad I left the 6 on the bank and grabbed the Monster to finish out the rest of the day.  Thinking about selling it.

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1 hour ago, oneguy said:

I've had the rod twist but like Steve mentioned... it was when I was a little aggressive with the coil.  The minor issue is nothing compared to how pissed I get when I can't get the machine to settle down (emi) and just enjoy my hunt.  Wed. I got so mad I left the 6 on the bank and grabbed the Monster to finish out the rest of the day.  Thinking about selling it.

I wonder if there is more going on there than EMI, as it is genuinely a non-issue for me most of the time. Have you tried another coil? I don’t mean the 14” for EMI canceling, but maybe the 17” or another 11”. If you know somebody who will let you try their 11” give it a go, in case there is a coil issue.

I have my doubts it is EMI at all, as even in remotest Alaska the machine will act up, requiring one, and in rare cases, a couple hits of the cancel button to settle down. If it’s EMI then in those cases it would have to be picking up aurora borealis or something natural, because no way it’s man made EMI. Maybe something in Geo-Sense going astray? Don’t know, may be subject for another thread, as I want this one to stay focused on the rod issue.

New EMI thread here

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Tis a small problem the rod twisting, I think the simple solution is drill holes and insert the spring loaded holders as per JPs thoughts at length used, but it is not a big enough an issue for me as yet.

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For me it's a very minor annoyance barely worth worrying about with the 11" mono at least. I find I like the handle/user interface screen cocked slightly in towards me too so button lock locators would really be a custom set up to suit me.

Last couple of times out I took a little extra time at set up to concentrate on tightening the shaft locks up as tight as I felt possible without damaging them & that's worked well for me.

I have purchased some nylon shaft button locks but haven't found a need to install them. In saying that I haven't had the 14"DD or 17" mono on all day yet so that may change. Was thinking of buying a whole new shaft assembly to modify so I keep the stock shaft original (as per individual custom mod above) but ATM can't really justify the cost vs this very minor issue.

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MY OCD has a harder time with the out-of-true issue than the actual problem. One method I’ve used is attach the GPZ Guide arm to the mid shaft at the lowest end which seems to totally stop the mid shaft from twisting, the amount of twisting I get on the lower shaft is now minimal and easily corrected by fixing the coil with the foot and performing a light twist back to centre.

As Steve has said the amount of annoyance hasn’t been enough of an incentive for me to actually bother to do something about it.

Another suggestion is to not take the shaft all the way out to the red line, leave at least the width of the lock knuckle forward of the red line to give a good grip without it actually trying to grip on the red line (red line section has been machined smooth to get the paint to adhere) and prevent too much leverage on the end of the shaft, secondly I recommend users pull the shafts apart periodically and using a damp microfibre cloth to clean inside the locking mechanism and the shafts themselves. Do not use any chemicals, just plain water is sufficient. 

JP

 

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Mine twists a little with the 11” coil if I don’t tighten it enough, if I really crank on it it stays pretty well unless like others have mentioned I’m aggressively shoving it into bushes and then the more noticeable effect is a little false signal when the branches catch on the cable. The 14” coil is about the same, the 17” coil is the biggest offender and then I’m not really sure that it bothers me again as other 6000 users have mentioned the coil twisting a little actually comes in handy shifting the swing angle to suit my wrist on uneven terrain and when I want to align the shaft with the coil just turning my wrist a little with the coil on the ground does the trick. It’s not like the 17” coil flops around it stays pretty well aligned most of the time. The ergonomics actually add to the light feel unlike the 2300 that felt like a brick. 
 

If I have any concern it will be how the locking mechanism reacts over time? If it continues to function as it is now then I don’t think there is really a problem, however if time and repeated use result in the shaft connection becoming looser over then it probably is an issue to improve.

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