Topic: XSO 9-20-T

[jclark]

I have a 997 and have the puck thru hull installed for high speed 2D sonar readings but no help. Have read about this XSO 9-20-T stick on. Thought I would give it a try.  Can any one give me some input about it's useage before I make a purchase. My only complaint about the Humminbird is no 2D over 9 mph.

[Humminbird_Greg]

jclark,
What sort of boat do you have and is it fiberglass or aluminum?

Was that a true Thru-Hull transducer (mounts through a hole drilled through the hull) or is it an inside-the-hull transducer (mounted inside of the hull with epoxy)?

[jclark]

sorry it was an in hull puck, on a fiberglass boat. i sanded the in side down to remove any bubbles and epoxyed it down, and got the same problem as if it was the transom mounted transducer (lose bottem at 9 mph).

[Humminbird_Greg]

jclark,
Did you test the mounting location prior to epoxying the transducer in place?  If not than you may not have selected a good installation location.  If it worked fine while testing but not after the epoxy cured, than there may have been problems with air bubbles in the epoxy.  You should be able to compare the 2D sonar readings from the inside-the-hull transducer to those of the HDSi transducer that came with your 997 and they should be very similar.  If they are not than this also points to a problem with the epoxy.

[jclark]

i did. i built a cylinder, put the puck in it, after i filled it with water. i then put a heavy weight on it so it would not move. after 9 mph lost 2D sonar. epoxied it in thinking the epoxy would give it a more solid medium for the signal to go through. still no luck. this was after sanding and cleaning the inside bottom back of my hull to have a bubble free medium.

[Colt45]

Some boats do not have solid fiberglass in the bottom.  Some have a double bottom with foam sandwich.  If you can't shoot thru the hull using the water test the epoxy will not help.  I had a '92 Stratus and never did get the sounder to shoot through the hull.

I now have an Action Craft and just installed a true 2D thru hull to complement the SI unit.  Had to drill a 2" hole in the bottom!  But it reads at 50 kts.

Tight Lines.

[jclark]

my hull is solid fiberglass.

[Wayne P.]

What brand and type of boat do you have?
Exactly at what location did you install the puck?
What type of epoxy did you use?
Post a picture of that location.

[Humminbird_Greg]

jclark,
Good idea to use a water filled cylinder for testing; but Colt45 is right: “If you can't shoot thru the hull using the water test the epoxy will not help”.  The purpose of testing it with water is to find our whether it will work at all and what location will it will work the best.  Fiberglass hulls may be overly thick (we do not recommend more than 1 inch thickness), have air bubbles trapped in the layers of glass, be a sandwiched type hull as Colt45 stated, or even have stringers of wood or other materials imbedded in them to help strengthen the hull.  There is no guarantee that just because you have a fiberglass hulled boat that you will be able to get a sonar transducer to read the bottom at XX MPH.  Try testing your boat’s hull again but in multiple locations.  If you can; drift in some deep water and signal strength level of the bottom return as you or someone else moves the transducer around.  This works best when you have a few inches of water inside the hull (may have to temporarily disable the bilge pumps for this) and you set the sensitivity to a level that will show these changes (or use the Wide setting for the RTS Window).  Ideally you can get a reading closely matching the signal strength levels seen with the transducer outside the boat hull.