Here are the net results on my weight reduction to my 800:
went from 3.0 labs with stock coil.
changed to Coiltek 10 x 5 coil and replaced shafts with Steve's detector rods and total lost was 6.4 oz or a 13% lost if I calculated everything correctly.
Feels a little bit lighter, not a whole lot, but feels more comfortable. Maybe the lost weight reduced the nose heaviness of the stock 800.
Felix, you
did reduce the nose heaviness, as a good bit of the weight (well over half) was SPECIFICALLY removed from the "coil end" of the shaft. When removing weight from the "coil end" (OR when adding weight at the "butt end" as "counterweight"), it's not so much the "absolute" weight reduction (or increase) that matters, but instead the
improvement in BALANCE. Everyone focuses on ABSOLUTE weight, but "balance" is actually the more important factor! Let me see if I can "prove it" to you. I'll give you two examples, below -- one dealing with absolute weight, and one dealing with balance.
First, let's deal with "absolute" weight. Take a gallon of milk, for example. When full, it weighs about 8 pounds. Pretty much everyone can carry this gallon of milk, with no problem, right? OK -- now...pour yourself a nice glass of milk from that full gallon, say a normal, 12 oz. glass. You have just reduced the weight of that gallon of milk by 10%. Lift the jug, now. Do you feel the 10% reduction? Probably not really that much, right? It still feels "about as heavy as a gallon of milk." This is essentially what you did with your Equinox, IN TERMS OF "ABSOLUTE" WEIGHT. You reduced the "absolute weight" by just over 10%.
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY you did something else, too, when you reduced the weight.
SINCE most of the weight reduction was from the
COIL END of the shaft, i.e. the "heavy end,"
you improved the BALANCE. And you often DO NOT notice improved balance all that much "immediately." You notice improved balance OVER TIME, DURING YOUR HUNT. Reason being, what an imbalanced, nose-heavy machine requires, is CONSTANT exertion of force by your wrist (which translates to your forearm, elbow, and even shoulder), to keep the coil
constantly floating above the ground. This is not an "absolute weight" argument; what is happening, is the small muscles of your wrist/hand are forced to exert a constant, "backwards-directed" force on the handle of the machine, a sort of "torque," to "lift" the coil. Now, it's not hard to lift the coil by applying this "torquing force" by your wrist,
for a few minutes. What is HARD, is to keep the coil CONTINUOUSLY lifted,
for several hours! THIS is why you don't notice it so much "immediately." In other words, you can't simply grab your machine, and
instantly be able to fully appreciate the improved balance; however you WILL appreciate it after two hours of detecting!
Let me now talk a bit more about balance, and I think this analogy will show why balance is so important. Say we are on a construction site, and there's an 8-foot-long 2x4 piece of lumber laying there, and I ask you to go pick it up and carry it over to me. That board weighs about 8 pounds -- about the same as that gallon of milk from our other example. As we noted above, most people can lift a gallon of milk with no problem, right? Same with the 2x4,
BUT -- there's a caveat. Being a long object, that 8 pounds is distributed differently with the 2x4, than it is with the gallon of milk. The physics concepts of leverage enter into play, given the shape of the board (long and thin). BALANCE MATTERS, in other words, with the 2x4. So, given this, when you go to get that 2x4 for me, HOW will you pick it up and carry it? Instinctively, you'll bend down and grab the board
NEAR THE CENTER.
You intuitively know NOT to grab it near one end, and try to carry it. WHY, though, do you know this?
Because, you KNOW, intuitively, that BALANCE MATTERS. ALOT. And as a result, you will intuitively reach down, and grab that board near the middle (i.e. where it is BALANCED). But, what happens next? Well, you almost certainly will have "missed" the middle by a small amount, and the result is that one end of the board will begin to "fall" toward the ground; it's not QUITE balanced! And so you will (again -- intuitively) make an adjustment, by sliding your hand slightly, TOWARD the end of the board that is tilting toward the ground. And then, once you find the "middle," (i.e. you find "balance"), you will then, at that point,
easily carry that board over to me (in a balanced, parallel-to-the-ground position) --
WITH NO TROUBLE. Easy peezy!
BUT -- what if I stopped you, and told you that you were REQUIRED to carry the board over to me
by grabbing it 2 feet from one end,
NOT right at the middle. NOW how hard would it be to carry that 2x4 to me? Most likely, you'd give up trying to carry it, as it's too hard to carry that way, and you'd simply "drag" it over to me.
So, my question is: WHY was it EASY for you to carry the board to me, when it was BALANCED, but HARD -- nearly IMPOSSIBLE -- to carry it to me when it was IMBALANCED? Same board, same weight, WHY the difference?
When you answer that question, you will have your answer as to why a "balanced" machine is easier to swing, than a nose-heavy one, AND why I say repeatedly that "balance" is more important than "absolute weight."
Along these lines, let me know if you'd like to counterweight your machine, LOL!
Steve
. Heading to the mountains of NC Thursday for a week, hope to get some permissions while there. Thx to Steve?s Detector Rods for the very well engineered parts(Buy American).
