Topic: Help: Transducer Placement on I/O Boat, Pics Provided

[ryanerb]

I have a Glastron SX175 boat which is a bit of a runabout open bow boat.  Not a bass boat.  It has a 3.0 Volvo 4 cylinder with a Volvo sx outdrive.

Do you think I could find a good spot for the SI transducer?  I want a SI unit so bad, the 898c.

Let me know what you think or if I need to provide any more pics.

[sonar2000]

You could mount your transducer on the opposite side of the skimmer ducer.
Remember that on the si it is a top to bottom sideways looking beam so you will want to tilt your motor out of the way when trolling or the Si will reflect off the motor lower unit. As well as bubbles can be a source of cavitation depending on speed and direction of prop.
If that is a lowrance transducwer then remembe that the hdsi HB in 2d will (or could)  interact witht he 200 freq of the skimmer. So both on at the same time is risky for interference on 2d..

Chuck

[Humminbird_Greg]

Hard to tell if mounting the Si transducer on the opposite side of the motor as Chuck suggested will be low enough to shoot its left Si sonar beam under the outdrive or not.  You could try testing this by using a temporary installation of the HDSi transducer.  I would use some marine grade very high bond (VHB) tape from 3M or another manufacturer for this and test only at idle speeds so that the transducer does not come off and get damaged.

If that location does not work I think that you will have to look at using two of the HDSi transom mount transducers and an AS-Si-LR-Y cable to connect them both to your 898 unit.

Another possibility would be to mount the HDSi transducer up underneath or just to the right side of the outdrive.  I do not know what sort of clearances you have so do not know if this is even an option.  I would be worried that this may cause problems with the water flow through the propeller though… I know there are some guys on here with I/O boats.  So post what your experiences have been.

[sonar2000]

Since most of the HDSI transducers do not work well at planeing speed you might consider a mount that lowers the transducer when you want to use SI or are not planeing.
I cant lay my hands on it at this moment but somewhere on the forum there are several installation pictures of guys doing just this.
They use an optional thru the hull for depth at speed..
Doing something like this will let you have a great si display and also protect your transducer..

Chuck

[ryanerb]

i can pull off that lowrance transducer, that is just what is there right now, we dont have to keep that on there, so dont worry about that.

i would almost just not get SI if i have to run 2 $250 dollar transducers, that just seems crazy.  I know it's not hummingbirds fault, but maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

Seems like there is some decent clearance and that the SI might work .

I guess unless you guys tell me there is no way it will happen unless I do 2 transducers, maybe I should give it a try?

I also probably wont be trying to use SI while on plane just because that will be pretty fast moving.  I would probably just use it at basic idle which is around 3mph for my boat and maybe slightly more (3-6mph).

[sonar2000]

I would leave the skimmer on the boat and add the HB on the other side with the cautions I mentioned before.
That way you can run the lowrance at speed for depth and not have to buy another transducer...
Chuck

[asm]

 ryanerb,

Look like you are trying to solve a similar problem as I'm dealing with right now.    Were you ever able to found a solution? 

Here is my thread... 

http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=4748.0

By the way, I'm located in Central California.  Not too far away from San Jose.   

[Speedtroller]

I would mount the hdsi transducer down buy your plug up against the bottom of the motor mount . So don't have any interference. It will be high enough to not het hit by any debris in the water. And leave the Lowrance for running on plane. I did this on my boat. Because I busted a few mounts and a transducer by hitting things in the water. You can't run both at the same time. They do cause interference with each other. So it can be a pain turning your units on and off or turning off the sonar on one unit. But it's better than having to replace mounts or breaking a transducer.