steveg Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Hi all! I know this has been discussed before, and I think I recall someone noting that the X-Terra rod outside diameter is a tiny bit smaller than the Equinox. But what I'm wondering is if one of the X-Terra lower rods can be "rigged" to work with the Equinox. If it is JUST the OD of the rod that is too small, perhaps a wrap of tape or something may take care of that, as long as the spring clip is compatible, and as long as the lower rod piece, where the coil ears attach, would be a similar "width" so as to fit properly between the coil ears. It doesn't have to be "perfect;" my thought is that with the 6" coils becoming available fairly soon, but NOT the rods, perhaps an X-Terra rod could limp me through, for awhile, with some minor modifications? Has anyone tried one? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Goldman Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Are you trying to avoid the time it takes having to repeatedly remount coils on the same rod while saving some $ using what you have on hand? I have seen the Equinox get assembled in less than 2 minutes from scratch, including attachment of the coil, so not having a standby lower rod already fitted with a coil seems like a minor inconvenience/time sink vs. trying to hack something on a detector rod and stem system that has seen some weakness in the cam lock design. That being said, frequent removal and reinstallation of coils on rods can introduce some stresses on the coil ears. I think compatible lower rods can be obtained at a reasonable cost, hopefully. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveg Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 Chase -- it's not so much about saving $, it's more that the Equinox rods are not available, and likely won't be for some time. I always like to have all my spare coils mounted on their own rods -- just something I've always done with Minelab machines, and it does make the swap-outs a little easier. In fact, I build my own CTX lower rods -- nice carbon-fiber rods that I even sell -- and so I figured I would see if there wasn't a way for me to acquire an extra rod for my soon-to-be-arriving 6" coil, and do some "tweaking" if necessary. Was just wondering if the X-Terra rod is "close" in terms of how it is designed. Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Goldman Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 That is what I have done too (have the accessory coils mounted to lower shafts for all my detectors). I understand, I was just saying that I would be leery about trying less than perfect fit rod with the Equinox assembly due to the fit up issues being reported with the cam locks. I mean folks are resorting to sticking felt pads in the assemblies to make them work and that just seems like not a good long-term solution, so in the absence of rods, I would just change out the coils themselves. There may be other better fits than the X-terra's. I know First Texas lower rods work on my GPX, for example. I will look into this further with my dealer who also happens to be affiliated with one of the ML repair centers and report back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan(NM) Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 22 hours ago, steveg said: Hi all! I know this has been discussed before, and I think I recall someone noting that the X-Terra rod outside diameter is a tiny bit smaller than the Equinox. But what I'm wondering is if one of the X-Terra lower rods can be "rigged" to work with the Equinox. If it is JUST the OD of the rod that is too small, perhaps a wrap of tape or something may take care of that, as long as the spring clip is compatible, and as long as the lower rod piece, where the coil ears attach, would be a similar "width" so as to fit properly between the coil ears. It doesn't have to be "perfect;" my thought is that with the 6" coils becoming available fairly soon, but NOT the rods, perhaps an X-Terra rod could limp me through, for awhile, with some minor modifications? Has anyone tried one? Steve One guy used a rod from the Excal, some addition information says this set up isn't the best. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveg Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 6 hours ago, Chase Goldman said: That is what I have done too (have the accessory coils mounted to lower shafts for all my detectors). I understand, I was just saying that I would be leery about trying less than perfect fit rod with the Equinox assembly due to the fit up issues being reported with the cam locks. I mean folks are resorting to sticking felt pads in the assemblies to make them work and that just seems like not a good long-term solution, so in the absence of rods, I would just change out the coils themselves. There may be other better fits than the X-terra's. I know First Texas lower rods work on my GPX, for example. I will look into this further with my dealer who also happens to be affiliated with one of the ML repair centers and report back. Thanks, Chase. Please let me know what you find out. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveg Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 2 hours ago, Dan(NM) said: https://www.findmall.com/read.php?107,2442644,2443088#msg-2443088 The Excalibur lower rod is supposed to work according to this post. Dan, Thanks! Checking out the link now... Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Goldman Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 I checked with Keith at Ft. Bedford and he is not aware of any "official" compatible lower rods available for purchase, so we are likely on our own when the new coils come out. I am going to check the Excal compatibility and also look at the Plugger and Anderson offerings to see if any compatible lower rods can be obtained from them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 Prior thread with pics And more info 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveg Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 THANK YOU, Steve. I appreciate you digging up that info -- and it helps alot. I am going to go ahead and try an X-Terra lower rod, and see what happens. I'll report back. Chase -- thanks for checking with Keith. Good info. I also have it on good authority that Excal rods will NOT work -- the spring clip is apparently oriented 90 degrees "out-of-phase" with the Equinox middle rod's rod holes, and is too wide (from an O.D. perspective) as well. (Thanks, Des at MLO and scubadetector at Finds). Steve 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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