Topic: 598 HELP!!!!

[proguidepgh]

First of all, I like this site a lot, and hope that some of you guys may be able to help me.  I just installed the 598 on my proguide 16.  I love the unit so far. After reading, and youtubing for endless hours, I installed it myself, in pretty much the factory holes from my old lowrance.  After getting it on the ohio river today, I noticed severl things, some of which may seem contradictory.  The unit seems to get nice side imaging views of the bottom of the river, bridge pilings, trees, and other drbris etc.  Although in the water column, I noticed a lot of "clutter" coming down on the starboard side of the the screen.  I made several sensitivity adjustments, and it seemed to lessen, but not totally.  The best way I know how to put it, is it looks like Im looking at a mile long school of baitfish down the right of the screen when in SI mode.  (I do have a speedo mounted close which doesnt even work)  I do get top speed rating, and depth, while at top speed too.  Another thing I noticed is a MONSTER rooster tail. Is the surface "clutter" maybe the turbulence from the river today (was kind of rough) or is it something that I did wrong?   

[Yrral3215]

If you've only got clutter on one side of the screen then you likely have something partially blocking the signal on that side.

If you post some screen shots you will likely get more/better responses. Yoy might also want to post some shots of the install location and the back of the boat.

[PaulB]

I've always had something in the water column on the right hand side, I just took it as being to do with marine growth either on the transducer or causing some sort of disturbance off the hull.  The left side which fires across the outboard has always been perfect strangely enough As far as the giant rooster tail goes did you install the rubber blocking piece?  It fits between the mounting hardware and the transducer and stops water flying up the gap causing the rooster tail.   

[ITGEEK]

As long as there is not anything physically blocking
your transducer on both left and right sides, and
the transducer is more or less level when the
boat is in the water, then you installed it correctly.

I would guess that the clutter could be from water turbulence.
If you have an aluminum boat, the rivets can cause turbulence.
Under the sonar menu, you can adjust the surface clutter
setting.

You may have to tweek your transducer a little.
Lowering it a little may help.
Most people don't get it perfect the first time.
You could install a transducer mounting plate in
the two holes you are now using.
Then you can move the transducer around without
drilling new holes in your transom.

Also, if you are not running the newest sofware update, that might
help.  But, I'd research the update for a few months to make sure
people are not having any problems with it before installing it.

[proguidepgh]

Ok.  Thanks guys, so far.  I checked the levelness again, and its spot on.  The rubber block for the rooster tailing is also in place correctly.  I did find the surface clutter adjustment on the menu screen and took it to 1 I beleive.  The river was extremely rough yesterday, with twenty-plus mph winds.  I checked the plastic  speedo blade, and it doesnt seem to be low enough to cut into the transducer beam, but im no expert.  I plan to post a few pics of the install in a while when I get home.  Unfortunately I have yet to store any screen pics while Im on the water. Those will be coming shortly as well.

[chugbug]

I'm just getting use to mine (I just installed a 598 on the console and a 597 at the bow), so I'm not sure I can offer much advise, but on thing you may want to consider if all else hasn't resolved the issue...   but depending on where you mounted the transducer, you may be getting some turbulance on that one side from your outboard prop.  I think I recall reading in the manual that if you had the transducer too close to the outboard, you could get the turbulance showing on the screen as noise.  They even suggested the mounting location (left or right of the motor) depending on the rotation of the prop.

Hope this helps... Chugbug