1985 H34 Electronics Upgrade/Pedestal Mounting Options

[Mike Kegley]

Continuing on with my partial refit, I've purchased a B&G Vulcan 7 chartplotter and a Raymarine EV-100 Wheel-Pilot. My original thought on installation was that I would suck up the cost for the sake of time and simply buy a Navpod to keep the instruments at the helm. As I've started to plan my install and take a closer look, the pedestal guard on the H34 doesn't look like it's going to be compatible with a multi instrument Navpod. The guard isn't high enough and it doesn't have the secondary bend that would help with viewing angle. Short of using some sort of RAM mount, I think I'm going to have to build my own out of Starboard or something similar. I've searched around and found some pretty cool home made versions but most are mounted to the aforementioned higher guards with secondary bends. I'm curious if anyone has come up with any slick ways to mount instruments at the helm of an H34 with a vertically challenged pedestal guard? I also plan on removing the old datamarine instrument clusters as they no longer properly function. I took a quick picture before I left the boat last night to help me with visualizing a solution.

 

[jssailem]

Mike, MaineSail, a great contributor to this site, has developed a starboard instrument support for the pedestal.
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/plotter_mount_edson
This may interest you.

 

[Mike Kegley]

Thanks. Looks pretty functional and would definitely work for my Vulcan 7 but would still leave me with having to purchase a small Navpod to hold the P70 control head for the autopilot.

 

[jssailem]

I have seen the P70 installed on the cabin, by the companion way, facing the cockpit.

I am considering such an installation.

 

[Pizzazz]

My suggestion would be to lose the compass (and the datamarine housings) and just mount the Vulcan 7 with the bracket in place of the compass. If you are willing to trade down to a Vulcan 5 then the bracket could turn 360 degrees so that you can monitor it from the cockpit. I have a Garmin DV44 (vertical display) mounted in a similar way and I am really happy about it. You can then put a small compass elsewhere (it is really a backup, especially since you have the EV100 sensor which is a far better compass than any magnetic compass could be.

 

[geek_guy]

I had a guy fabricate an extension (with bend) to the guard. Then the standard pods worked fine. The cost was only $120.

 

[DSqr]

I had the P70 mounted on the side of the cockpit on my H33.5, near the helm and then the MFD on the pedestal. I was able to see the P70 from a lot of different spots, making it easy to check on my course, without being behind the wheel.

 

[splax]

I have a pod that came with some used equipment and it will not fit the pedestal. I have considered making an extension, mounting instruments on ears off the pedestal, or mounting to the cockpit sides. I have not yet decided on a course of action, and am interested in your conclusion.

 

[Mike Kegley]

I managed to get the top portion of the pedestal taken apart this weekend as well as removing the old datamarine instruments and pods. I'm opposed to cutting any additional holes in the cockpit to mount electronics and I would like everything within arms reach when I'm at the helm. Right now I'm considering two courses of action, the first is buying some 1" stainless tube segments, some straight and 45 couplers and modifying the existing guard to work with an out of the box Navpod. The other is building a custom mount of out starboard that attaches to the platform where there old datamarine gauges were mounted and creates a bridged platform over the compass where I can flush mount the instruments. Will let you know how it plays out.