NEL Tornado - XP Goldmaxx Power. Regtons.

[Bargeman]

A funny thing, I had some funds sitting in my PayPal account, not for anything in particular, just a little, built up from selling some old tat on a popular auction site a while back, so I got to thinking, which is something I don't do very often, what could I use it on. Well I looked around, and came up with the idea of getting a Nel Tornado and spare lower XP stem.
So I checked on here, but couldn't see a listing for an Nel coil for the GMP, So I ordered one indirectly from Regtons. This is the first time I have dealt with these guys, well wow! the coil was in my hands before the ink had dried on the computer screen. How do they process orders so fast, and more to the point, why can't other people do the same level of service? well done Regtons, you are a credit to the world of commerce.

So as soon as I get a chance to test this thing out, out in a field somewhere, which will probably be a week Sunday at the Normandy LGD dig, I shall write up a little review, possibly a little behind the times now, as most people have moved on from the GMP, and the Tornado coil has also been out a while as well. Someone out there may be interested? and while I was looking for info, it seemed non existent, for this detector/coil combo?

Lastly, if any of you have been down this route yourself, please post you findings and thoughts below.

Kevin.

[Bargeman]

The Tornado...

The first thing you notice on fitting the coil to the Deus stem, is that the coil bracket is set up for the new bolt system, having one hole bigger than the other, and also only needing one rubber washer, just like the XP coil. The next thing is the most obvious, the size differential, it is funny because it looks smaller in the box, than out of the box, but I don't think people realise how much bigger it really is over the 9" XP coil. In most video's on the net, they just show the coils side by side, this is misleading, as you will see from the attached photo of both my coils. 12"x13" does not seem that much bigger than 9"x9", 1-1/2" on either side, and 2" front and back, that's not much is it? Well let's have a look then.



As you can see, it is a huge amount of difference in coil size, really quite surprising.

[Ten pence!]

I'll be honest here and say I never found any improvement worth mentioning by changing the 9 in standard coil on the GMP, I purchased XP's 11 incher and found the (tested) differences negligible I also borrowed a couple of larger coils from other makers, without naming names these were both inferior to the XP coils, weight should also be taken into consideration as a nose heavy machine will lead to a sore arm far quicker that normal.