Becoming A Stow-away

[Golden_Republic]

So I just ordered a Minelab X-Terra Pro and am waiting for it to come in. One thing that bothers me about my current MD (Quest X10 Pro) is the fact that even collapsed it is still long and the handgrip (as I see many a MD have) is stationary and protrudes out from the shaft quite a bit.

I know the cheaper MD's like the Minelab Go-Find series and some of the other Chinese brands from Amazon have fully collapsible designs, which includes the handgrip. I am wondering if there is a way to modify the handgrip on the X-Terra Pro (or any other MD) so it folds against the shaft for even more compactness, then locks in place when deployed? 

I want to take my MD with me when we go hiking or prospecting, but I want the MD to fit into a standard size hiking pack, so collapsed down the X-Terra Pro is about 24-25", which is perfect, but that handgrip will cause storage issues. Same with the Quest MD, although that is a bit longer when the shaft is closed.

Anyone have ideas? Any DIY fabrication I could look into trying?

[bigtim1973]

XP has the best units for being portable with the smallest footprint

 

On your xterra pro.....it isnt going to be very handy breaking it down but there is a thing you could buy that does allow you to have a folding handle. But you could just take the coil and lower stem off and just put them side by side and it will slip down into a backpack.

[relicmeister]

9 hours ago, bigtim1973 said:

XP has the best units for being portable with the smallest footprint

 

On your xterra pro.....it isnt going to be very handy breaking it down but there is a thing you could buy that does allow you to have a folding handle. But you could just take the coil and lower stem off and just put them side by side and it will slip down into a backpack.

I modified an f75 and an Equinox with the folding mechanism you are referring to- they do work very well and make detectors small enough to fit in a backpack easily without removing anything, and they fold and unfold very easily. I tried the Xterra pro but wasn’t thrilled partly because its too big collapsed for a backpack, and I didn’t consider it worthwhile to modify. Can’t beat the XP for weight and max portability - it’s all I use now. Hardly a need for any other.