Follow-up to my post above. The rod I saw someone cut elsewhere must have been off a prototype because mine is much different. On the longest rod (24" lower-rod), I can trim only 3/4 of an inch. I could go a bit more, perhaps 1 inch, but it looks like I would be risking stability of the pole. So I am leaving it alone. Not worth trimming 3/4". I'm hoping that Minelab will offer shorter lower and middle rods, because I am 5'10" and I have the lower rod 4 clicks (almost halfway) up the middle pole. There could be some room to make this thing slightly more collapsible if you are not a giant. I really want to squeeze this thing into a backpack! Or, at the very least, be able to fit the lower/middle rod, with coil attached and wound, into a backpack.
Edit: I just realized the flaw in my thinking. The lower rod probably cannot be shortened because it would place the spring loaded tab too close to the coil, which could interfere with the coil. Soooooo, looking at the control box section, there is approximately 4" that could be trimmed off the back if you are my size/forearm size and were to slide the control box up an inch.......