Anderson Shaft for the Equinox

I finally broke down and decided to pick up a third party shaft for the Equinox. I decided to go with Anderson. After receiving the shaft in the mail yesterday I thought I would offer my opinion pre hunt. Going to the beach with it for the weekend.

Anderson includes the bottom shaft as well......Nice idea, but I was unimpressed

1. They use their own rubber washers...Round....not the teardrop design. Guess they want to be the only providers for them. Nice sales idea, but being a salt water hunter I would love to have a spare set now in case of floppy coil syndrome.
2. The coil bolt provided is ineffective. You can not twist the the plastic wing nut because it hits the rib of the coil. ......Replaced with old bolt from Minelab.
3. They have a two sided double button Spring but only one set of holes on the upper shaft. For 149.00 I expected something better.
4. They included what looks like Plastic washers or shims with the coil bolt. No picture or diagram on what they are for or How to use them.
There is also only a single bolt holding the cuff on the upper shaft. It is held on the shaft with a a bolt that has a hex key head. Does Anderson expect me to carry a hex key with me if I should need it? Oh they did provide one.

Minelab had two bolts holding the Sovereign cuff on the shaft and it provided much more stability.

Over all impression?.......Can you say Plugger?


Oh it looks beautiful!

I use the plugger carbon shaft. Love it. It's a 1 piece down to the lower rod.

I use the Anderson and have had zero problems with it …..looks cool too!

Thank you for the review!! Looks like Plugger for me then.

I have a Plugger two piece shaft on my eq800 and is as solid as a rock. I also try to keep a couple to sell also.

RiverTeamSixDetectors Wrote:
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> I have a Plugger two piece shaft on my eq800 and i
> s as solid as a rock. I also try to keep a couple
> to sell also.

Hey what's your price on the 2 piece travel shafts??

Those plastic washers are shims which i used between the rubber and ears to cut down on wear. Ive had zero problems with mine that i tested for Pete. I had to drill another hole for the cuff....... that one bolt was in the back last hole so i did my thing and added two nylon bolts. BUT..... unlike the MLs it dont move and wont break like mine did. I also removed the weight.... which i assume was intended as a counter weight and to keep sand off the bolts. I removed mine so i could add a home made extended counter weight on. Lower shaft was 28'...... whats MLs 24? So a tall guy dont have to go buy a tall boy shaft from whites. The one i tested has holes on both sides for the double spring clip. I mentioned that the double holes should have remained to stop any coil movement......which my ML one did because of that single clip. I also liked the coil head better than MLs. Good CF thou. For my hunting i changed out the arm band as well i prefer the velcro type since i take my arm in and out a lot. Ive got nearly 750 hours now in the water.... most of it with this shaft no problems and the coil is still tight. Those round washers..... i approved of.... because you can find them at a local hard ware store...... unlike the ML ones which are to soft and when tightened squash and start wearing right away. Even on the Xcal and other machines .... i made my own round ones with a little harder rubber.

Me and SteveG talked about shafts when he was doing the lower ones that he now sells. Like i told him the shaft can be an individual thing to get comfortable.

Hey all,

Dew sort of alluded to it, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm in the final design/engineering stages of a one-piece (middle and upper combined) carbon-fiber shaft. This shaft will utilize either the lower rod I already produce, OR your Minelab lower rod, whichever you prefer, with the attachment between the upper and lower rods being a custom, designed-from-the-ground-up clamping cam lock. I have a 3-D printed prototype of this clamping cam lock headed my way, for final "proof of concept" testing/analysis. Once that design gets the "thumbs up," the cam lock -- and thus the entire shaft system -- will be ready to enter production stage. I intend this to be a high-quality, lightweight, affordable product, and I'm hoping for this shaft system to be considered "another option" by those looking for a complete carbon-fiber shaft system for their Equinox. There will be some individual customization possible as well -- lengths, etc., which I can tailor to the individual customer. Finally, there are also some optional accessories that I intend to have available for this shaft, including a unique counter-weighting system that I'm designing, and possibly an optional, lightweight aluminum aftermarket arm cuff, from "a name you'd recognize" (still working on that detail). If you have any questions, or want more information/details, you can contact me here, or at steve@stevesdetectorrods.com.

Thanks!

Steve



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2018 07:51PM by steveg.

Well after the first day in the splash zone I will say the Anderson rod held up very well. I was impressed with the sturdy feel in the fast water and the coil never flopped around. In fact the Equinox 600 itself performed great. Yeah I like this detector in the wet. Best find today.....one nickel. It was deep. Inaccurate ID.....an 8. But a nice tone and I was really impressed with the depth.

Steveg, you should put your schpeel on a separate topic,..... of course with the bosses permission.

I wish you all the best in your endeavor and hope you sell a ton for years to come, good luck.

For what it's worth...… I have one of Steve's lower carbon 'extended length' rods on an EQX...… and have been water hunting with it..... with the rod at full/maximum/extended length (6" longer than factory)….. and...…... zero issues encountered. I'm stunned at its longitudinal strength..... especially for its lightweight/thin diameter. Any type of water hunting imposes severe side-loading resistance on any lower shaft.
Stick with Steve's equipment.....because: he's got-your-back.

ozzie Wrote:
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> Steveg, you should put your schpeel on a separate
> topic,..... of course with the bosses permission.
>
> I wish you all the best in your endeavor and hope
> you sell a ton for years to come, good luck.

ozzie --

You are correct. My knee-jerk to goodmore discussing a few things he didn't like, prompted me to think tossing some info out there on something I have "in the works" made sense, in that context. It probably should go in a different thread, so "sorry for the thread-jack."

I will make a post about the shaft, in a separate thread, once I'm just a bit closer to production stage. Meanwhile, any comments/suggestions on this endeavor would be welcomed, especially at this stage of the game.

Steve

NASA-Tom Wrote:
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> For what it's worth...… I have one of Steve's lowe
> r carbon 'extended length' rods on an EQX...… and
> have been water hunting with it..... with the rod
> at full/maximum/extended length (6" longer than fa
> ctory)….. and...…... zero issues encountered. I'm
> stunned at its longitudinal strength..... especial
> ly for its lightweight/thin diameter. Any type of
> water hunting imposes severe side-loading resistan
> ce on any lower shaft.
> Stick with Steve's equipment.....because: he's got
> -your-back.

NASA-Tom --

THANK you, for the kind words/endorsement on the lower rods! I'm glad you are pleased; that's the goal, and will be the goal with the "complete shaft system," as well.

Thank you!

Steve