Getting an Excal II....accessories?!?

[itsaawgood]

I finally saved up alittle $$ as well sold 2 machines so I can now order my very first Excal II 1000. Living in Michigan its all freshwater hunting for me...so the hunting is harder...no tides, not as many depositors. I have done alright with my AT Pro...finding 3 gold rings and a sterling ring in alittle over a month. But I have decided that with the hours that I put in and watching nearly every other water hunter I run into running an Excal...well...its time to give one a try.

I am going to be ordering it either later today or first thing Tuesday morning...and am also ordering the 2 piece Plugger shaft. I have been watching tons of YouTube videos of people running Excals and it seems that there is quite a bit of switching knobs going on....so I'm wondering how easy it is to get to the knobs when the control box is over my elbow on the upper part of the Plugger shaft. Just wondering if chest or hip mounting might be alittle easier for a beginner on this machine?!?

What are your thoughts....is the Plugger shaft gonna be sufficient...or should I also order a chest or hip mount? Oh I am also ordering a knob guard and gonna be replacing the factory knobs right away.

Any other advice you can give me on this new machine before dunking it....or something I should do on a regular basis...like I have seen people talking about silicon spray to keep the rubber parts from drying out and cracking?!?

 

[hershey1]

Silicone grease for your battery connection. Not too much. Get it at Home Depot or Lowe's in the plumbing department. Good luck. HH

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

I prefer dielectric grease. ( for the Battery ) It's made for electronics. It what car and motorcycle manufacturers use in all of their electrical conectors. It's sold at auto parts stores. Sometimes called "tune -up grease". And yes , get some silicone spray. I found that most cans cost around eight bucks. But Walmart has a can called "RV silicone spray" , that cost under three bucks, and it works great !


Silicone grease for your battery connection. Not too much. Get it at Home Depot or Lowe's in the plumbing department. Good luck. HH [/quote]

 

[OldBeechnut]

You may want to get use to the original knobs before you install the new larger ones......I've got a few excals with 3 different sizes and it seems the smaller the knobs the more senstive I'm to the adjusting. I guess you would say less torque..just started this year using the McNett Aquaseal Silicon Spray....good after you wash off the salt n sand

Good Luck once you have that new machiine, I would reccommend CJC's books on the excalibur...

couple youtube video's on the excaliburs

http://www.youtube.com/user/oldbeechnut

 

[Terra1959]

Gday from downunder,

I have a great scoop ...heavy duty for wet or dry http://ozscoop.com.au/

My Pluggers chest mount takes all the weight off and it sits balanced on your chest
Pluggers 2 piece shaft is the latest

Now all I need is some half warm weather so I can get back into the water

T59

ps. an "Arafat" type hat is a sensible sun protection idea as are foot protection ...I use wetsuit booties

 

[MHirschmann]

Yes, definitely a good scoop if you don' already have one. I use the Sunspot Stealth (the larger one) and it is awesome. I also dielectric grease my connectors and think this is the best product for this application. I would also agree to hold off on the knobs. Try them out and if you lose one, or don't like them, then get into switching them. I have tried a few and have changed mine back to factory ones. One piece of advice, however, I have owned 3 Excal II's and all three came with "loose" nuts on top of the knobs. I took both of my new Excals right out of the box and tightened them down and haven't ever had any problems with loose knobs since.

To do this, just use a thin knife and pop the yellow caps off the tops of the knobs. Then gently tighten the nut on the knob. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN AND CRACK THE BLUE PLASTIC BIT!!!!!! I have had this happen twice and its not cool. After you have tightened up the nut, place a touch of loctite on top of the nut. After this, I always replace my yellow caps with 2 beads of superglue. You will be able to remove them in the future and they will not fall off in the water on you.

Sorry for the lengthy post, these are just the things I wish I would have known/done when I got my first Excal. HH -Marc

 

[Neil]

Ok so you guys are using silicone spray or dialectric grease on the plug that goes into the battery. how often are you doing this, every time you charge it up?

Also where are you getting your water gloves and wetsuits from?

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

The dielectric grease and silicone spray are two different things used for different purposes. The grease is for the battery connections , to prevent corrosion on the contacts. The silicone spray is used after you have washed all the salt and sand from the detector. Dry the detector , then lightly spray the entire unit with the silicone. this will prevent the rubber and plastic pieces from dryrot , which is caused from exposure to the saltwater and the sun. Good Luck !

 

[jyt2017]

I don't reset my nobs constantly. I might make some adjustments for the lake I am in...but once its set I just go. Some use whats called reverse discrimination. They hunt in all metal mode and turn on discriminate mode upon finding a target to ID. You get greater depth in all metal mode. But where I hunt its to trashy to do that...and I don't wanna break my nobs. HH GL W Excall...well worth it. -Joe