A Great Idea Maybe? Or Just A Real Dumb One? Way To Mount Your Control Box Water Hunting To Wade Deeper...

[Critterhunter]

I was thinking of a guy I saw a while back on the forums, who had an Ace 250 (great little performer for it's price), and he was water hunting by sticking his control box on the top of a straw hat sitting it down inside the "bowl" of the hat or something if I remember right.

Anyway, I was thinking about that idea for the Sovereign control box...Like maybe attaching a chin strap and side-of-head type of straps (like those stupid winter hats) to the Minelab hip/chest mount bag, so you could wear the control box on top of your head, get as deep as your shoulders, and not risk dunking the control box.

Then I thought, don't think I'd want to be the one walking around looking like a yokel with my control box strapped on top of a funny looking hat like that..But then, I was thinking...What about making up some kind of harness so that the Minelab hip/chest bag is strapped on top of your left shoulder, with the controls pointing forward so you could easily just reach up with your right hand and adjust something if you had to? That wouldn't look quite as dorkish I guess, and would allow you to wade as deep as say your upper chest area without risking a dunk. That would give me about another foot of extra depth I could wade.

Anybody think that's a dumb idea?

 

[deepdiger60]

Critter just chest mount the box, i happen to have a Harley Davidson shoulder strap it is padded it goes around my neck the waist strap come,s with the Sov GT hip mount bag both strap,s are adjustable , i measured the bottom of the bag is 4.5 feet up out of the water if there is waves i can make the box a little higher up plenty deep enough to hunt if the beach is to rough i just dont go in past my knees also as you can see all the knob,s and switches are easy to get at plus the bag top i close to keep and water out , i also have a 2 inch high sponge i cut to fit at the bottom of the box in the bag to grap and keep the water off the box i really don't think the chicks on the beach would think wearing my control box on my head was not cool !! they just want the bling Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

Yea, I already chest mount my GT using the Minelab bag when I'm water hunting. On land I can't stand it though and that's why I built a light weight land shaft so I can keep the box on the shaft without weight issues.

For the water, I put the Minelab bag strap around my neck and then put my left arm threw it. That raises the box a bit higher even and put's it right over my left upper chest area near my left arm and out of the way so I can look down easier to watch for water hazards and of course to watch the coil and such.

Works great, but if the water is mostly flat the deepest I dare go is just above my belly button. A few times when that deep I've caught myself bending over to use the scoop and almost dunked the box. Have to constantly remind myself to keep my back straight at all times and not bend to scoop. I put the GT in a ziplock bag first before the Minelab bag, and then poke a hole for the coil cable to go through, and then poke a hole for the headphone plug on top, and then tie those off with rubberbands. Once I have the controls set where I want them I ziplock the bag closed. With all that done I think I'd have to hold the box under water for a good while to risk even any water getting in. I mainly use the ziplock bag just in case a rouge wave comes out of nowhere. The box should survive that with no problem.

But if I mounted the box via some kind of straps for the Minelab bag on top of my left shoulder with the controls facing forward for easy access, I think I could safely go as deep as my upper chest area without risking the GT getting wet.

All this will be a mute point when I get the AT Pro as a backup. I'll still use the GT to wade as deep as I can because it's a deeper machine, but I'll have the AT Pro on the beach with me to grab and go that extra foot or two deeper when I've worked what I can with the GT.

 

[Critterhunter]

Hey Deep Digger, I don't mean to nit pick but I noticed in the first pic the cable isn't looped right before the coil connector connects to the box. That can lead to a short over time right behind the coil connector. Most common failure of the coil wire in fact for most people. In the pic you can see the velcro wide strip thing on the back of the bag. I run the coil cable about two loops through that thing, keeping the loops fairly loose so as not to put stress on any one point, then loosely it routes to and plugs into the control box.

That way as you sweep and move there is no one spot on the cable that is taking any major stress. Without the a loop or two right before plugging the connector in all the stress gets put on the cable right before the plug because obviously the plug can't flex with movement and so all the inertia/stress goes right to the wires in the cable right before the plug.

Just a tip. I'm sure you already do that and just threw it together real fast for the pics. Thanks again for posting them by the way. I posted them in the Sovereign accessories sticky and then linked to this thread so people could read more about what you do.

 

[elki1052]

Critter that was a good ovservation and you are right, those cables will stress to the pint of short and hard to fix so close to the coil.
NICE CATCH!!
this is wy I love this forum, you guys are always step ahead of us.
Good job!!

 

[Critterhunter]

He knows his stuff so I'm sure he was just throwing it in the bag real quick for the picture and normaly loops it around the velcro thing on the back there a few times. Just pointing it out for people who might not know to do that.

 

[Kbron2000]

I just use a bag from my drill tool,put a few holes for the water to go through and works perfect.That make me hunt the water all the way to my chin....
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eygsAQD7Uc[/video]

 

[Kbron2000]

I couldn't go deeper in this video because my cam was not water proof.....
I just bought a waterproof cam today so next Hunt I'll post a better video HH

 

[Critterhunter]

Great video there! And glad to hear you'll be making more as Youtube and this forum need more Sovereign GT videos to show people what this amazing machine can do.

You know, I haven't had my coffee yet so I'm not thinking as fast on my feet yet. I was watching your video of the GT floating and kept thinking to myself "where the heck is the headphone cable coming out of the box?!" Then I realized, you're using the built in speaker on the GT! Wow, never even considered that as a even cheaper way to waterproof without the hassle of routing a pair of headphones through the box. Great idea. Never seen a homemade job use that aproach and I think that is a fantastic idea you had there. Sometimes you overlook the most simply solution staring you right in the face. I often forget detectors have built in speakers.

But by the same token, even if somebody didn't want to spring for the extra waterproof port of the headphone cable, somebody could probably just drill a hole in the box and then seal the cable through it with a good heaping glob of Shoe Goo on both sides of the hole. The stuff is thick, dries clear, and works great for waterproofing stuff. It also stays flexibable so it won't crack over time with stress, and it's fairly easy to peal right off should you ever want to remove it. And we all know that rarely do guys put their head under water when water hunting, so not much need for waterproof headphones unless you are getting splashed in the head by waves all the time where you hunt.

I like your set up. Where did you get the box, what size is it, and how much did it cost? Same questions about the waterproof connector? That box looks the perfect size. Just high enough to clear the GT vertical, and with just enough room lengthwise so the coil cable isn't being bent harshly at the coil connector to put undue stress on it.

Again, really nice video, made some great finds, and really nice GT waterproofing job. Looks simple enough for most people to do I'd think. I'll probably go with the same box but I think I'll try the extension on the end of the shaft thing so it's not bumping around in the water with wave action on wavey days.

PS- Also nice that the box is clear so you can watch for any water getting in. I've heard of people putting little tiny battery operated moisture alarms at the bottom of the box so that it'll sound an alarm if the box is leaking before it has a chance to do some damage. They sell little devices like that in home improvement stores that are for people putting under sinks or by the water heater in case water starts leaking.

 

[Kbron2000]

Actually I was using my wireless headphones! In the beginning of the video you can see it Rapoo 3010 that you can get for $44 dollars and last you 5 hrs of full action and I just bought another pair so I can have 10hrs of action in the water. HH

 

[Kbron2000]

The box is made by Plano and the part# 1460-00 $24 at freebay then you need to buy a cable clam made by blue sea model#1002 0.83" $19. I choose to go wireless on my headphones and I love it, they are very light in weight.But you can run a cable through the cable clam for your headphones, but don't make the mistake of buying 2 cable clams because you still can run 2 cables into the same clam.But it's tricky because most people started drilling a hole in the center of the cable clam and then you wont have enough space for the second cable.Start from the edge to the center and you'll have enough space for 2 cables in the same clam.
It's worth it, there was a guy with an excal 1000 and he didn't think that I was going to go to hunt all the way to my chin , he felt threatened by my GT I saw it in his eyes lol..... HH
Plus is very simple to take it back to its original shaft from the box....

 

[Critterhunter]

Thanks for the info!

Yea, I found that out about the wireless headphones after looking down the list of your other videos on your youtube channel and seeing you start to go over the wireless headphones and waterproof box you just got and what you are going to do with them to waterproof your GT control box in the one video. Looks like just what I was looking for in my questions and I'm sure that others had too. So, I'll post it for you right now below.

I only watched a minute or two so I'm going to watch the rest in a bit here, but looks like you go over the box, connector, and wireless headphones for people. Should be of great help to people. I posted it in the Sovereign waterproofing thread in the modifications forum (which is linked to in the Sovereign accessories sticky) where a bunch of thread links are listed to various waterproof Sovereign threads. You're videos should be of great help for people considering ways to waterproof their Sovereign and also seeing how it works for you in the water. Thanks again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPm_xEIcNcM&feature=player_embedded

 

[Critterhunter]

Just watched that video and you did a great job showing installing the waterproof cable clam and such. And great job on the rings you found in your fist hunt! Nice video.