Manticore Pod / Handgrip Position

[Tony]

Is the position of the Manticore pod/hand-grip (not arm cuff) fixed or can it be moved along the upper shaft.

Although the balance is very good.....I'd like to move the pod (and then the armcuff) back a few inches. This will stop the unit from being ever so slightly nose heavy.

I couldn't find anything in the manual about this.

Thanks for any info.

Tony

[Tony]

I see the Equinox has the one shaft hole mount to lock the pod in position.

I'm guessing the Manticore is the same......no drilling an extra hole for me though.

[phrunt]

There is no obvious way of moving the pod, only the arm cuff. 

[Tony]

Thanks Simon,

It's only a very minor issue regarding the balance but I guess every bit helps during an 8 hour hunt 😐

[Tony]

Wow....the X-Terra Pro has an adjustable hand grip but the Manticore misses out on this feature 👎

[phrunt]

The Vanquish has a shaft that doesn't twist, the GPX 6000 twists like a ballet dancer, go figure 🙂

[Chase Goldman]

6 hours ago, Tony said:

Wow....the X-Terra Pro has an adjustable hand grip but the Manticore misses out on this feature 👎

Note, however, that the X-Terra Pro has a fixed armcuff, the Manticore and Equinox 700/900 have adjustable armcuffs, which sort of accomplishes the same thing except, that the balance point is affected more by the adjustable handgrip on the X-terra pro.  Note, however, that you can also adjust overall balance incrementally by adjusting the shaft extension on all the above detectors.

[steveg]

Tony,

Just FYI (though it's a moot point with the Manticore as the handle location is fixed/non-adjustable) -- moving the handle BACK (i.e. toward the rear of the shaft) would actually worsen the balance of unit. 

If you think of the see-saw/teeter-totter analogy (which is roughly applicable, since the physics of the situation revolves around concepts of levers/fulcrums), then the handle is your "fulcrum."  On one end of the machine, you have a (relatively) heavy coil, and on the other end (the butt end) you have very little weight at all -- only the arm cuff, and the adjustment rail for the cuff.  THIS is why the EQX/MC and many other machines are nose-heavy -- there is much more weight (coil) at one end of the "teeter-totter," and almost none at the other end.

Along these lines, if you were to slide the handle (the fulcrum) back toward the butt end of the shaft, you would be INCREASING the amount of leverage that the coil is using against you -- because you would be lengthening that "lever."  If you want better balance (without applying any counterweight), you would want to SHORTEN that "lever" that exists between the handle and the coil.  In other words, you need to SHORTEN the shaft length as measured from handle to coil.  The two ways to do that would be first, as Chase noted, adjusting your shaft extension, i.e. SHORTENING your lower rod extension.  That makes the shaft (lever) shorter, and thus reduces the nose-heaviness.  The other way (if it were an option) would be to move the handle FORWARD -- i.e. TOWARD the coil.  That (moving the "fulcrum" closer to the coil end) ALSO shortens the "lever," and thus reduces the leverage advantage that the coil has...i.e. reduces the nose-heaviness.  

Hope this helps some; reducing nose-heaviness (i.e. improving balance) requires thinking in physics terms -- of fulcrums, and levers, and such...

Steve

[Tony]

Thanks Steve for this good advice......Physics never was my strong point. I have watched a video somewhere on this....might have been yours ?

The analogy is carrying a long length of timber which is easy when it's gripped in the middle but progressively harder as you move away from the centreline / fulcrum.

So essentially, a small counterweight on the butt end of the shaft is the way to go.

Thanks again,

Tony

[Tony]

I probably should have known about the balance issues. I ghettoed this setup to perfectly balance my long beach hunts running a GP3500 and not so light 14" DD coil. The control box is inside a weatherproof backpack. Anyhow, that dive weight is over 2 pounds and when extended as shown in the picture, I can swing this setup for 8 hours effortlessly. I'm guessing a lighter counter weight would need to be extended out further and a heavier weight would need the exact opposite.

I can adjust the weight position in and out depending on what coil is mounted.

Steve's cam-locks are awesome.....at both ends of the detector !