Lower rod for the Sovereign

[William1221]

I have a couple of coils for my Sovereign and would like to buy tubing to fit onto the upper half of my Sov. detector . I have a short lower piece that has the attachment for the coil. Has anyone made the a lower section rod.?

 

[kered]

i've not made a lower rod but i did have to replace the attatchment for the coil, i had short dive rod from the excalibur(sounds like what youve got)knocked the bit out with a dowel and reglued it into the normal shaft, ok so far

 

[Critterhunter]

Buy the Whites lower tall man carbon fiber rod. It's the same as the standard lower whites rod only longer. Cut it down in length to match a standard Sovereign rod and re-drill the two snap pin holes. The Sovereign coils have a wider coil mount so you will need 4 washers instead of two. Either buy four or the Whites rubber washers or go up to Home Depot in the faucet repair section and get a pack of rubber or silicon washers. You'll need to drill the center hole on the washers bigger for the bolt to fit through. The Whites tall man rod is only $10 from Whites, so it's cheaper than a fiberglass Minelab rod and MUCH lighter. On my custom light weight GT I made my own upper shaft out of a lighter aluminum than what it has stock, so instead of cutting down the Whites rod I cut down the length of my custom upper rod to save even more weight as carbon fiber is lighter than aluminum. It's held up fine swinging the 15x12 around and I'm talking bumping into trees and brush in the woods and even some water hunting thrown in. Now for my water rig (chest mounted GT) I put the stock upper/lower Minelab shaft back together because in the water it's stiffer and the weight doesn't matter then. On both land/water rigs I replaced the heavy/cheesy Minelab stock grip (which flakes off and holds moisture) with bike end bars and rubber bike grips. So much more comfortable too.

 

[dbsmokey]

Critterhunter,

Do you have some pics of your Sovereign you would email me or post?

 

[Critterhunter]

Search this forum for a thread I started called something like "Custom LIght Weight GT Pictures" or something. Just search for light weight GT and I'm sure you'll find that thread along with a few others from people. Also, in the mods forum there is more info in the GT Mods thread that I posted on it.

 

[dbsmokey]

Thanks!

 

[dbsmokey]

Where did you get your bike end bars Critterhunter? I got some from REI for a custom excal shaft. They work ok, but they are not straight like the ones you use.....

 

[Critterhunter]

I got mine at a bike shop or Dicks sporting goods, can't remember. They were only like $10 for the pair. They have a slight bend in them but that doesn't matter. Once mounted and my rubber grip installed I then left just enough length above my hand in the overhanging bend of the grip to mount a remote pinpoint switch inside the hollow aluminum bike end bar. I cut off the excess length of the end bar which was probably 2 to 3" of unneeded length. To install your rubber grip on the end bar you can either grease it up with water and dish washing soap, or lube it with hair spray and quickly install it before the hair spray dries. I just used dish soap for mine and water. Once it dries a day or so the grip will get tight, where as it's instant with the hair spray. Both these end bars have a slight bend in opposite directions. One bends left and the other right. Regardless, they both work fine on my land and water rigs. You just have to position the end bar slightly off center to where the main area where your hand is is pretty much centered to look straight ahead. I've got the wiring for my remote PP running through the shaft up directly up inside the hand grip to the PP switch so it's cleanly hidden. It plugs into a sterea jack I installed on the back of the GT. That way I can unplug it when I throw the box on my water rig and there's no need for a remote PP switch. If I feel like using PP it's easy enough to flip the stock switch on the GT with it chest mounted. Nice thing about my PP mod is I can set the All Metal switch to any position on the GT including All metal track, fixed, or PP. I'm planning to do some reverse discrimination hunts by using All Metal on the beach and can then just throw my remote PP to switch between that and discriminate.

 

[Critterhunter]

Here's the link to that build thread. Also, further details are in the Mods forum. Every Sovereign should come this light, with a remote PP, and with the meter mounted on top of the grip. It really makes it as much a pleasure to hunt with as any other machine on the market. I think my final weight with 15x12 coil minus coil cover was about 4 pounds 10 ounces or so. Roughly over a pound to a pound and a half or so less weight than the stock GT with 10" coil. I don't see how people can hunt with the stock heavy GT all day long unless they hip or chest mount it. I'm in good shape but even for me after 4 or 5 hours the GT would start to weigh on me before I built this light weight unit. Do you realize how many more Sovereigns Minelab would sell if they made them lighter with just a few simple hardware changes like I did, and the meter on top of the grip and remote PP would also greatly enhance sales without even needing to re-design the control box or electronics. A stereo jack for the remote PP would add about 5 cents to production costs I bet.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1164138,page=1

 

[dbsmokey]

Wow, That is impressive Critterhunter. I might try to copy this. I haven't yet received my Sovereign, so I will see what I think about weight-wise. I have been using my excal on land, so the sovereign might be a relief. Who does the pinpoint mod switch?

 

[bigtim1973]

Hey Critterhunter.I like that custom upper shaft you have on your sovereign......May I ask what you made it out of and what diameter it was? Tim

 

[Critterhunter]

Don't know the diameter but it's the same size as the stock Minelab upper shaft in terms of diameter....Just that mine is a lighter weight gauge of aluminum so it's much lighter. There's no call for Minelab using such thick aluminum for that upper shaft, let alone the heavy lower fiberglass rod. I got the aluminum from the inner pole on a window cleaning pole that extends (made by Unger...Most home improvement stores should have this professional window cleaning pole by them....it's got a green hand/cam lock on it). The stock Minelab lower rod will slide into it but I wanted max weight savings, so I got the Whites tall man carbon fiber rod and then since that's longer I cut the length of my custom upper shaft down to save even more weight.

The Excal is MUCH heavier than a GT, but if your used to Whites the GT isn't exactly fun either for the amount of hours I hunt in a day. That's why I built a custom rig to max out weight savings, lighter (end bar) hand grip, lipo, and all. Not sure if there is anybody doing PP mods for the Sovereign these days. It's rather simple to do with some basic soldering skills. Hardest part for me was figuring out the seemingly simple (NOT!) schematic to make sure the stock switches would still work with and without the remote PP switch plugged in. I'm in the electronics field (HVAC Tech) but a simple little switch like that gets complicated when you have to return function to the stock ones when it's unplugged. Certain contacts in a stereo jack connect and disconnect based on headphone use. That's how your speakers work when not using head phones. Must have been a brain freeze for me because I had to draw that thing up about ten times before I figured out what was needed to get it all to play nice together. Hardest part was to not alter the function of the stock switches, yet be able to over ride them in certain respects when the PP switch is plugged in.

The schematic I threw together is in the mods forum but I've been planning on making even more simple instructions for people who don't know electronics at all. Really the one I put up should be simple enough in instructions for most people so long as they can do some basic soldering. Mainly I need to post what the wire colors are in the stereo plug cable I listed from Radio Shack so people without a multimeter can wire it up without having to figure out which pin on the stereo plug goes to which wire. Once I post those colors and a few more finer/clearer instructions that should help those still in need. I also got about a 8 page file of instructions on building the custom light weight shaft along with finer details like mounting the remote PP switch. Been meaning to finish that up and post it and will sooner or later in the mods forum. Saving that project for a rainy or soon to be snowy day. If anybody needs a specific question asked in there attempts on doing the remote PP feel free to PM me. There are no dumb questions, just dumb answers from people like me.

 

[kered]

Title it "Addon pinpoint for dummies" so i know what to look for, its my next planned mod, my soldering is like my welding, things stick but aint very pretty

 

[Critterhunter]

That's too funny. Most important thing about soldering is one word- FLUX. Use that stuff to clean your wires and what you are soldering the wires to. I don't usually pre-tin my wires with solder, rather I just put the wire where I want it and then apply the tip of the iron that has a decent blob of solder melted on it. So long as you've applied flux to the contact areas so things stick easy, as well as used a hot enough iron with a decent blob of solder hanging from it's tip, thing usually go easy and quick. If you find flux isn't making it easy then the contact point should be sanded with fine sand paper a little, then re-fluxed. Also, the tip of the iron needs to be clean. I usually do my soldering in my garage so a quick scrub of the soldering tip on the cement floor will clean it up nicely to apply solder to. Even people with no soldering skills can do this mod cheaply by heading up to Radio Shack for a cheap soldering iron and some solder for probably a total of $10 or $15. Make sure you get some flux while your at it. Might as well pick up the remote PP switch, jack, and stereo cable I posted Radio Shack part numbers for while your at it. All told you'll probably have about $30 into your remote PP even including the soldering iron and solder. Can't beat that. Now I just need to start re-writing the mod and schematic to make it easier for everybody to understand. My problem is I tend to over complicate things in my attempt to make stuff more clear.

Remember, if you don't know how to solder then practice on some junk wires or something else you don't mind messing up, like a Garrett metal detector.

 

[William1221]

the out side diameterof the lower rod has to be smaller than the inside diameter of the upper rod to work so 3/4 inch is too large for the the lower rod of the sovereign am I correct ?

 

[Crispy Critter]

the out side diameterof the lower rod has to be smaller than the inside diameter of the upper rod to work so 3/4 inch is too large for the the lower rod of the sovereign am I correct ?

3/4" should be a good fit. The upper rod has an OD of 7/8". If the pipe wall is under 1/16" thick and I think it is, the ID should be slightly larger than 3/4". If it wasn't such a pain to wrap and secure the coil wire, I'd measure the OD of my lower rod to be sure.