Alright, I’ve used the extender for a good test run and I want to say a few words about it.
Design
As an old school extender user I found they were pretty fragile. They didn’t want to be dropped and if you took it off in bed and rolled over you probably broke a piston arm. Which I did on Christmas day in 2010. Broke the arm of my X4 Gold Edition and had to wait for them to send a new pair at $25 shipping.
The LG Extender arms are 6mm steel threaded arms. They can be bent with moderate force but it would have to be intentional or you leave it on the floor and step down on it hard. I would say the design is robust.
Usage
Tensioning, while there is no real scale for measuring it, is easily applied with a few turns of your bottom spring keeper. Compress springs upwards, you get more upward force. Simple enough. The springs he provides will create 10lb of tension per 1 inch of compression. You can measure tension that way if you’re sharp and it’ll be reasonably accurate.
My thing here is you can generate tension on one of these devices 10x easier than the method of trying to do so on a Size Genetics/X4 Labs or other copy type of rod extender. I have a thread on how that is done and people still struggle with it as the system is not intuitive or easy to use. This tension setup is “twist both sides for more tension” and that is that.
If you haven’t mastered putting on your LG Vacuum Chamber you’ll have some trouble. Like most vac extenders, it is a special pain in the ass to put on. That’s just a design feature that is largely unavoidable when using a sealing sleeve system. I can’t knock the LG for it because I’ve used two other similar designs that have the same drawbacks. It isn’t hard to master. It’s just what it is for the attachment type of the chamber.
Customer Service
Marlon at LG Hangar LLC will take care of you. My extender is a custom XXL design that needed spacers to get the gap right for the custom chamber I use to fit. He worked on the design roughly a week then invoiced me. At this point in my PE career there isn’t another extender on Earth that fits and I am thankful for him doing my design custom.
Additionally, after working with him on the design he sent longer rods as at times I do get very good stretch in the extender and need room to play around to expand further especially if getting a ligament release surgery is in my future. If you need something special, for a special purpose or size, he’s a machinist with his own shop. He can make it happen. That is his motto. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Rod Swap Instructions
1. Lay out your extender like shown in figure 1.
2. Start with a 10mm wrench to loose the nut at the base of your extender arms to start the threaded rod arms out of the base. Then, either with your bare hand or with a towel, sheet or blanket grasp the threaded rod and turn counterclockwise to remove the old rod from the base arm assembly.
3. Thread the nut you took off of your old arm onto your new one with enough space to screw your longer threaded rod in to the full extent of the arm. Then tighten it back down with just a touch of snug. No need for even a 1/4 turn. Just a tiny bit of snugness for both the threaded rod and the nut.
4. Now, take all of the parts off of your old rod. I found you can rapidly unscrew or screw your threaded spring cups on and off by rubbing them on a surface like a mattress and it is more efficient than turning them by hand. Make sure to put all of your pieces in the right order facing the right way so that your extender functions as designed. Look at one rod then swap all the parts off, then do the other rod if you have issues with part order.
5. Optional step is to take a little bit of teflon tape and wrap a bit around the top of your threaded rods. This will let you keep your little rubber caps and move them to your new rods. This isn’t needed but can keep your extender from poking your soft bits with metal.
Pictures
1. Extender shown with new rods and 10mm wrench
2. Rod removed from old extender, showing arm nut loosened for that step.
3. Nut arm replaced on longer arm and secured.
4. Speed rolling spring keeper on and off threaded rod
5. Applying plumbers teflon tape to keep rubber nubs.
