I covered this in the mods forum and here but I don't blame you for missing it since it was probably lost in my endless ramble on the SEF. I used two Whites rubber washers and then two "rubber" washers from Home Depot in the faucet fix'in section. They had two sizes that were very close in diameter so I bought both since I didn't have the Whites with me to compare to. One turned out to be a near perfect match. Anyway, so two Whites washers and two of these faucet washers made up for the slightly less wide Whites lower rod coil mount. Stick the Whites into the Whites shaft and then the other two between those and the coil. I didn't drill out the coil to take the larger Whites bolt/washer, but you'll have to drill out the faucet washers center holes to accept the Minelab bolt (it's a pain to drill...try heating up a piece of medal instead on your stove or in a blow torch and metling....might be easier). Anyway, it works find but I find if I bump my 15x12 against a rock or branch it will wobble on the shaft for a split second. It's not the Whites shaft (I'm using the tall man lower carbon shaft for $10) but rather the rubber flexing. Now you have a choice. Perhaps drilling the coil to hold the bigger Whites bolt would eliminate this? Or, you can replace two of the washers (don't know which would be better...whites or faucet?) with two plastic washers to eliminate the rubber "flex". I'm still debating that "problem", but it's not really a problem The rod/coil is stiff unless you bump something. In a way it's an advantage in that it acts like a shock aborsber to keep impact vibration from traveling up the shaft to your hand or the control box/meter. It's in no way a problem, but still in the woods I get a little sick of the "Bong" effect when I just bumper a stick or stump. I may leave it as is but probably will opt for some stiffer washer setup. What I've noticed is that on most machines the rubber only protrudes out just a hair from it's mounting hole on the shaft. It only is out just enough to grab and rub against the coil mounts to keep it from moving. Consider options accordingly.
So far despite my concerns the Tall Man lower carbon "Fiber" rod is very stiff and just as strong as the Minelab lower rod, yet much lighter. Remember, I'm using the LOWER (coil) tall man Whites fiber rod (not the stock rod), which allowed me to cut my custom/lighter aluminum upper shaft even shorter than the stock GT upper rod length. So far no issues, and I've been banging this thing around in the woods with the 15x12 so far on about 6 or 7 wood hunts where it's taking some abuse. Since it's only $10 like the stock Whites lower fiber rod I'd encourage everybody to buy it. It's the same exact rod only longer so if you don't want to mod your upper rod just cut the thing down to whatever "stock" length you desire. As an added bonus you'll have a carbon fiber tube laying around in your garage to use on another project.
I don't see any issues so far, but I plan to use the stock upper/lower GT shaft for any water hunting to avoid any undue stress being put on my lighter upper/lower rod setup just to be safe. Besides, I won't need my remote pinpoint setup mounted inside my custom shaft since water hunting the box will be on my hip or chest and so the PP switch is right at easy access.
