Anyone use the Swingy Thingy?

I got the Etrac and can already tell that it is a beast for me to swing all day. I am not a small guy and I am not afraid of physical activity. But through years of being a working man and playing hard my shoulder has developed arthritis. After some hunts I would gladly give the price of the swingy thingy to stop the pain. I want to give this detector a fair go and was wondering if the swingy thingy actually works.

The Swingy Thingy does work. It's a bit "cumbersome" at first; you will have to spend some time tweaking it to get it set the way that works for you; it takes some getting used to and is just a bit restrictive, in terms of swinging your coil back and forth -- because the idea of it is that it's a bungee cord putting "upward" pressure on your detector (thus taking the weight off of it). BUT -- because it's attached to a bungy, as you get to the far reaches of your sweeps, that same "upward pressure" is trying to restrict how "wide" you are sweeping...

Having said all that, it DOES work. You do get used to it. The key, for me, was to stick with it until I got used to it, AND -- to keep the "D" ring up as close to my "swinging hand" shoulder/armpit as I could. While not perfect, they DO help make the detector feel much lighter -- and as such it relieves much of the "strain" caused by these machines...

Steve

Steve has it nailed right. Also in my experience there is a bit of torque that makes the coil tilt upwards. So you have to exert a little opposite torque of your own via the detectors hand grip to keep the coil even. However, if you have a machine whose weight is just too detrimental, the Swingy is a excellent solution. I used electrical tape to bind the excess strapping after I fitted it to my self. Took about 1 hour to get it perfectly tweaked to my frame size and detector. After it is all set up, takes all of 30 seconds to put on in the field. I run the bungee underneath my control head vs the Swingy pics that show the bungee completely off of the detector.

Terra -- you nailed it, also! The coil does indeed want to tilt "upward," so you do need some "downward" pressure on the detector to keep the coil level -- and YES I run the bungee underneath the control head!

Steve

Goodmore, I like this one for the etrac since its shaft length is fully adjustable for length. You detector can be quickly unhooked to dig in a snap using a small snap like what's on a small dog leash. Not to expensive either about $25.00 and it;s not bulky either. LEJERMON Harness Model B - Minelab
Do a search and you can see a good pic and who sells them. It sure makes the etrac feel lighter especially after a couple or more hours. Cheers

PS I have the swingy thingy and feel it's too bulky and is overkill for etrac unless maybe you run a 12x15 or bigger sef coil on it. I use the above Lejermon harness with the etrac with stock procoil/10x12 sef/15 wot/sunray x-5 coil and it does very well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2012 12:48AM by tnsharpshooter.

I even used my swingy thing on yard tools until I gave up yard work as a bad habit!

Suncoast Wally