Modified my Explorer XS ( Lighter)!!!!!

[Keith Southern]

I picked up an extremely nice Low hour Explorer XS for Cheap and while I always liked the Explorer's in away ( They are fun to use) they were way to heavy for my type of all day relic hunting expeditions and nor very ergonomic...Well I picked up a few parts in the last week like a old Bounty Hunter and some Whites parts and a 5-pin Mic Jack from a c.b radio... and a project box from radio shack along with 2- 4AA battery packs...

Now I don't recommend tearing your explorer apart unless you have done a few mods things can get tricky ( I wouldn't want to start out modding a Explorer first)

But here's how I did mine If anyone wants to experiment...And maybe add to it.?? .Also it weighs in at 3 pounds on the nose!!

S-Shaft off a Bounty hunter tracker..( I used the Pole, Handgrip,and Stand) I used a cam lock off a Minelab X-terra..1/4 headphone jack out of tracker.5-pin mic jack.

Whites lower Pole with one extra washer.Project box from Radio shack( I wanted to use a fisher 1266 but this will suffice till I find one) and 2 - 4 AA battery packs.(Like the ones the Tejon uses) Also used a piece of Fisher lower rod from the late 90's the one's that were flat on one side...

Heat shrink tubing,Pop Rivets,various screw's and nuts dremel tool, and a must have a Micrometer caliper and a Mult- meter, drill, Soldering gun...Etc...


I have seen some people do this mod using a Nylon Bushing and it might work fine but my problem is the inside of the housing is tapered and it's a square type shape instead of round so you will get some play???Maybe I Might be wrong or risk cracking the housing when you tighten it down on the pole??

I opted to take the upper Explorer square rod and cut a piece off about 2.5 inches and slide it up on the S-rod to a point I wanted it..Now it's pretty tight going on i had to grease it to get it on but it will go...The cut the top of your handle off .. the piece that you see going through the housing cam lock area...Then slide it over the square tube thats already on the s-rod then slide the housing back on the rod and lock it down then drill all the way through all the pieces and secure with screw and nut..( it wont go no where) ..

Drill holes in back off housing for head phone and Jack for coil connector...( actually theres already places inside the housing designed for this on one side theres even holders to hold the headphone jack while tightening it down from the outside and the other side has a 5/8 th's spot to drill out for the connector) wire it all up...Warning you have to have a headphone jack with the contacts inside to make the external speaker work when you unplug the headphones,,, Luckily the bounty hunter tracker had such a headphone jack that I used.... If you use the standard type headphone jack R/L and ground lug like the ones at radio shack you will loose you internal speaker so get the right one.. That was sort of tricky to get it right but I did!!

Also make sure to mark your wires going to the coil connector .. they both are white with shield so if you cut them loose with out noting pin arrangement you will have problems..

Hook up a battery box jusrt whatever you can find that you like.. I used a project boxand mounted it using a piece of fisher lower rod that was flat on one side.. they made them in the late 90's for a while...Slide it into the pole at the rear then let enough stick out to go inside the project box.. find the center of the project box and drw the shape of the rod on it just below the top( Thickness of the Box) dremel it out and then slide it in a pop rivet it on..use the srews that hold the armrest on to hold the other end inside the pole...

Theres alot more to it but if you know how to mod this will get you started....Remember heat shrink all connections!!


Thinking about putting some studs in the screw holes on the box then using some wing nuts for field swapping batteries without having to use a screw driver...Man I need to get the 1266 battery box!


well here it is thanks for looking and it works perfect...


Keith Southern

 

[dirt doctor]

Man , imagine how much even lighter it would feel with a Sunray X-8 coil on it .

H H ,
George

 

[Steve(MS)]

Keith, I wish you hadnt done this, you got my
thinking about doing my own mod.
But I will need to anyway cause I'm getting too
old to swing it for long.
How much trouble is it to take apart the control
housing? I think I did that one time and it looked
like a lot of electronics packed in.

 

[Keith Southern]

Not too hard Steve to get the housing off.. just take the 4 screws out of the back of the housing then pull the face plate toward you and there's enough slack in the wires going through the handle.. unplug speaker from board ...speaker stays mounted in housing then slide the housing off the pole by going forward... then remove the screws in the handle .. there's 5 I think and the handle separates and you can then pull apart and get the wires out going to the battery and headphone jack..All the electronics stay in he faceplate theres 3 stacked boards mounted to the face plate and all wires come into the boards..

One neat thing I noticed is all wires even the battery wires are ran through RF chokes..before leaving the housing...


Hope this helps..

Keith

 

[Keith Southern]

n/t

 

[Steve(MS)]

Thanks Keith, I will tackle this project when it gets too hot
for me to detect this summer.

 

[utahshovelhead]

Supper mod!
I need to find a way to use my extra lower rods (round) from my Whites XLT with an 14 in accelerator coil and get the Whites (round)rod to work with my Etrac (square) upper rod. Any suggestions as I don't want to order another item on the long wait list.

Thanks for any suggestion,
utahshovelhead

 

[sovereign-fan]

Not too hard Steve to get the housing off..

from what i have heard some housings have bean super guled in to place.

 

[Neil]

question: wouldnt the tesoro tejon/cortes/deleon battery pack setup with armcuff work for this?

 

[Frank in NH]

n/t

 

[Elusion]

Great job! I'd absolutely love to do this to my explorer II but I'm not sure what I'd do with my X1 probe... and as much as I hate the weight I can't live without it. The X1 looks like a b$#!@ to take off the shaft assembly.

 

[Johnny]

This is what it need to be.

 

[nge]

I have seen some people lighten up their XS's by simply attaching half a red brick under the rear part of (under the arm cup) of their machine. It is not so much as the weight of the machine as it is the "balance" of it. Just look at the Etrac. They have made the battery pack area longer and that makes battery pack sit further back therefore giving better balance to the machine. I measured off of my EX II and the Etrac compartment is definitely longer.......NGE