Cleaning the Excals connecting rods or not

[landman]

Love the Excalibur. I've hunted in fresh water with my "tricked" Excal 2 for about one season. I examined this morning the place where the two rods connect and it won't budge. I've owned them in the past and I've had the same thing happen. Now for me to disconnect the two rods each time I hunt to clean the sand would not be prudent because I have the coil cable wound and electrically taped at two junctures. I do have the silicon spray but was saving it if I ever hunt regularly at a salt water environment. (I read that some spray the whole unit before the hunt.) What do you Excal owners do about this "sticky" situation?

 

[GaBeachsweeper]

n/t

 

[Gulf Hunter]

I simply take the high pressure nozzle at the house and stick it on jet and hit it a few times down the end of the straight shaft pipe. I do it EVERY time I go out. YES, the shafts are still sticky, when I DO take the unit apart, but they DO come apart. I just sold my original Excal 1000(Jan. '06) and it had been apart a couple of times over that time. Upon dissassembly it was kinda sticky, but it broke loose. I am using Lightning Rods, but it should work the same, for what you have there landman. I use no silicone inside of the pipe though, could attract more sand to keep things more sticky?

 

[tvr]

I don't have a Excal but all my detectors have their rods get sticky; even the the ones that are only used over land. Water detectors get rinsed well after each outing and all of the detector rods get pulled apart once a year, sometimes twice, to get cleaned up and dried before reassembly. I don't spray them either since that attracts more dirt.

 

[landman]

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that the silicon is for making the rods slip. My understanding is that you coat the machine for the salt protection.

 

[Gulf Hunter]

I was using silicone spray on some of the metallic parts of the unit, but when it was hanging upside (coil up) down to dry, after washing, the silicone spray went into the ikelite connectors and swelled my rubber gaskets and warped and swelled the end cap on the control housing, so NO MORE silicone for me. Fresh water wash and hang to dry, nothing else for this pirate!

 

[DukeOBass]

I take it apart at the end of each season and clean / lubricate it up so when the warm weather hits, it's all ready to go.

 

[PaPa-Joe-Fla.]

n/t

 

[landman]

I think I got the idea originally from you last year and ran out and bought 2 cans of silicon spray. I'm now in the position to sell both of these exquisite cans of chemical lubricants.

 

[Gulf Hunter]

Hey, look on the bright side, you get to benefit from my bad road, savvy? Fact is, I got about 3 cans of it out there, still spray my ring holder (not stainless) and my scoops mesh with it. There is always a use for silicone spray somewhere!