How long does your skid plate last?

I usually run a NFA 17x11 mono and my first skid plate lasted about 2 months of everyday detecting. The second I wore out in Laverton inside three weeks and the current one has done a month and still looks pretty good.

I find that I wear out the leading edge (toe) and because I run the spoked version I can't turn the skid plate around and continue to use it. I have made it a rule to carry a spare with me all the time now.

Has anyone found that the Nugget Finder skid plates are a little thinner than other brands or perhaps just wear a bit quicker? Not that I would change to another brand as I find the NF's deadly sensitive.

G,day Neil, ive still got all my original skid plates from my n/f coils and ive only bought 1 new skid plate for the 11" comander Stu

Hi Neil

Mate i personally have a motto!
"If your goin thru skids like Epsom salts your rippin yourself off"
Why ?

Cause i like to run "RED HOT" and the difference i get in performance in " Coil scrubbin on above average settings; - Vs - no scrub; with very extreme settings" is amazing, as long as your open minded on how to tweak the Gpx's and what you wanna hear in the speaker.

My other ANALALITY Is "Coil Control"
Its just not good enough these days with the sensitivity of the 45k & 5k to even have your coil control even nearly as good as we used to swing the 3500 or the Extreme's, It needs to be more Exact to really get the best outta
the blue box's.. and i'm sure many would agree with this even you mate, especially if your on an old Push and sniffin out the
Flea's n Ticks.

As to coil sweep speed, this Agenda has become less of a topic over the last 6 years, and the reason is ?
Minelab Genius & Pure Balls'y Grunt
Anyways, we can now swing a 16" round coil and miss effen nuthin, and swing it as fast as we used to with the old VLF's when sniffen up a bit.
But the main thing now is, We get "1 Point 5 meters" depth with the same sensitivity and swing speed.

I'm in bloody Heaven

Gday Toady
See you've been snaffling a bit lately
Have a gink at this, it might help, works well for me.
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cheers
Brett

And another thing to think about is, is ya coil constantly scraping the ground. I know it's hard for some people and that's why they have invented gadgets to help with the weight.
Yeah sure, get ya coil on the ground but not that close that ya wearing out the plates. Just my opinion but a couple of centimetres off the surface does the job unless ya got coarse ground.

mulgadansa wrote:Gday Toady
See you've been snaffling a bit lately
Have a gink at this, it might help, works well for me.
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cheers
Brett

That's a good idea md. The thought had gone through my head to try this next time I replaced the skid plate and I will for sure now.

I do wear out skid plates but I also pick up a lot of small gold.

I'm the same as you Bignuggs. I like my 4500 up as high as I can bear and my coil as low as I can get it. My best to date was 5 bits for 0.7grams.

Thats good sniffin Toad

Yeh Toad, the 14x9 NFA is deadly on the small stuff. That's where I wear my skid plates out, not so much freeball detecting, just scrubbing the ground when I get a "maybe" signal off the tiny pieces and during recovery of little bits.
Normal detecting I don't scrub the ground but tend to bang a lot of rocks.
cheers
Brett

Yeah that's the one Mulgadansa. When I wore the one out so quick at Laverton it was working a patch that was heavily vegetated and I was constantly sliding it under the shrubs and bushes. The pieces were very small too and required you to have the coil as low as you could get it.

This is the sort of post I like, it puts ideas in ya head and we can exchange ideas and it has put an idea in my head. I'll try something and get back to ya's

People will
Probably laugh
But when I'm going low and slow
Honed in on an area givin me gold
I'll look like I'm vacuuming the ground sideways while walking forward
Trying to push my coil an inch bellow the soil
I get about 2 solid weeks out of a skid
Bit longer if I turn around after each outing
I can nearly get a month
Also depends
On the ground and how many rocks I'm heel toein
And what I'm sweeping out of my coil way with it

why dont u get some PVC pipe, slice it and heat it round and thus make up some leading edges out of it, this should take the abrasion and protect the skid plate and problem solvered--u shouldnt have to replace a skid plate again..

regards
oneday

I have seen that clear, quite thick, around half a inch diameter hose cut down the middle and stuck around the coil and skid plate, giving it great protection. I don't think you would ever wear out another skid plate and would give a bit more bounce off solid impacts while only holding your coil 2.5 mm or so off the turf.

Dunno about you blokes but when i get a new coil the first thing to come off is the skid plate , doesnt feel much , but after swinging 6-12 hours depending on the gold coming in ,each gramm of skid plate you dont swing the better & you dont get the build of iron in there either ...when the gold is coming who cares really , they are a disposable in the trade ,albo.

Good to see NF have now released HD skid plates. The original NF skid plates didn't seem as tough as some other brands.

Howdy toad , at the rate im tectin my plates will go another 4 years  
been beach fishin southside lately , weed allowing , found an ok spot between the reef , no snags , mullaway n tailor .

Never worn out a skid plate, as a matter of fact threw the dustbin lid cover away years ago coz it kept filling with mineralised dust. Now with the 4500 both the 20" NF & 11" Commander still have the original s/plates.
Hmmm! Maybe this is why the brag jar level doesn't seem to be rising?

Gday Peter
Those pesky little ones definitely help top the jar up and I've found close, concentrated work on the ground helps heaps with them. I've always worn out skid plates, right from the get go back in the 70's with the Garretts.
cheers
Brett