Advice please - Excal. II and waist /chest harness for bad back

[Terra1959]

Gday

I was hoping for some advice from the wealth of experience in this forum please....

I have a fairly bad back injury and torn tendons in my swinging shoulder (old age is a curse), I am a thin framed guy but otherwise fit.
I am new to water detecting....I have no problems with my Xterra but use a Doc's swingy thingy harness for my Etrac if detecting more than one hour or so.
My friend has an Excal. 2 with a straight shaft and it feels fairly heavy to me to be swinging waist deep under the water.
I get my new Excal.II in a few days and was thinking about buying a harness (possibly from Plugger on Ebay) to reduce the swing weight.

Which harness system - a waist or chest harness would be better / more comfortable for someone with back problems ?
thank you and happy swinging

T59

 

[biglry]

I LOVE my Plugger chest mounting set up, sure takes a load off the swing arm.

 

[dfxone]

I agree with Biglry, I have a Sovereign GT that is chest mounted with a Binocular Harness. and it sure helps my worn out spine, of course at 84 most every thing else is worn out too. I say go for the chest harness that plugger has, you will be glad that you did. GH, Don

 

[kered]

There are two ways to make the Excalibur feel lighter that both work. I have both the plugger straight 2 piece shaft and chest harness.
1. a straight shaft
2. a waist/chest/hipmount
if you hunted mostly the sand i would of recomended the straight shaft, all this really does is balance the detector so it feels lighter and so creates less fatigue
being that you hunt the water i feel the harness would be best as you can use the S shaft that comes with the detector as stock, without the electronics becomes much lighter but slightly coil heavy which i feel is better and what you need for waist deep in the water.
I must point out that the harness although easy to get off(it has quick release) its not as quick as just dropping the detector if you get into dificulties, take this into mind while hunting in the water and take no risks. Having said that i got mine for the water as i use the straight shaft mostly for the wet sand. I also got a stainless steel D ring with the harness to clip my scoop line too and drag it rather than carry it for even less weight(you can order one with the harness as an extra) i use it on my belt too when using the straight shaft.

 

[synthnut]

I haven't finished building my harness for my Excal yet, but I saw a video of some water hunters and they had a setup similar to Pluggers , but instead of mounting it with the chest mount in the front ( DUH , CHEST MOUNT ) they had it mounted in the back ......Of course you can't get to your controls , but if you're in the water , you are basically hunting a " set it , and forget it " type of hunting anyway .....Then too , if you run into problems you can shed the machine pretty quickly , like taking off a coat or something similar ....... Think about it , if you had to carry something heavy , could you carry more weight in front of you , or on your back ? ...... This also leaves room to do what you have to do when digging your target also with no detector in your way ...... Women who are pregnant , and fat guys like me , always feel back pain ....Why , because the extra weight in front is throwing our backs out ...... Just a thought .....Jim

 

[Terra1959]

Thanks people ...it sounds like a chest mount wins more votes over the waist mount

T59

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

youll love the chest assy that plugger has along with the 2 or 3 piece shaft assy too...its just way to comfortable to hunt with..
hope all goes well keep us updated here
hh
john