Where is the best spot to mount the Lowrance transducer inside the hull . Not sure about the effect the water ballast chamber will have .
Transducer Mounting
- Thread starter nashlah
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If you mount the transducer over the water ballast, I believe you will have problems. When they are mounted as a through hull, the idea is to pick a place where there are no air bubbles in the glass, and then when you mix the epoxy to glue it down, no air bubbles in the epoxy.Where is the best spot to mount the Lowrance transducer inside the hull . Not sure about the effect the water ballast chamber will have .
The water ballast tank will not only have air bubbles, but it will have to shoot through 2 separate layers of glass.
I have mine in my laz, behind the ballast tank, but I have an S.
Jim
Thanks Jim
Looking at the M drawings on their website ,I was thinking about placing it next to the ballast tank at the port stern hatch where the hull appears to contact the water .
Ian
I'm guessing the M does not have a Laz. I mounted my Lowrance transducer on the keel line in the Laz. I works great there. I sure would not mount it on top of the ballast tank. I'm pretty sure you would have problems with that.
That is where ours is now and probably where it will stay. When we got the boat the ...
...depth finder on the boat had....
...... its transducer mounted just ahead of the ballast tank in the bow. The depth finder was hard to read from the tiller as it was on the port side of the cockpit up by the cabin.
I also believe you don't want the transducer on the ballast tank for the reasons stated. The problem up in the bow is that the sides of the boat slope so sharply there that the transducer is shooting at an angle and showing depths greater than what they are. You usually can set the off-set for this, but you still aren't shooting where you are going.
That depth finder is still in place and works most of the time. We added a second one last fall. A Cuda 350....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-navigation/Cuda 350.html
...that also has GPS and can send the GPS coordinates to another device and we use that function as we have a VHF that has DSC and the GPS sends our current location to it at all times. If we had an emergancy the DSC would send out a repeating distress call along with our present location and we could concentrate on the problem.
I considered locating the transducer for it aft of the ballast tank, but then you loose the temperature feature, so just decided to try it on the transom....
....and so far we like it there. It is a little further from the prop than the instructions call for but occasionally it will loose the bottom for a minute and I think that is because of air stirred up by the prop. At some point I might move it over by the ladder.
I don't think there is much difference than up by the bow in most instances, especially in Florida where the depths usually change so slowly. I doubt most people watch the dept continuously. We don't even with it right next to ....
...the person on the tiller. Above it was slid forward away from Ruth on the lifeline to where I had been sitting prior to taking the picture. If I'm not watching it we slide it back next to her. We love it mounted on the lifeline. If we are getting in shallower water we start looking at it more often, but don't feel having it 20 feet further back is that big a deal.
If we are anchoring and are trying to get into as shallow water as we can we are on the outboard and moving forward very slowly as we approach land. Ruth calls the depths out to me and I'll decide when to lower the anchor. Works for us.
Besides having the temp with it on the transom it is also easier to clean or replace if needed. The negative is that if you are in water with growth, you will have to clean it. Inside it stays clean.
Our original one seems to work fine and whoever installed it used the wax that you use to set a toilet in place and did not use epoxy. I'd try that approach first myself,
Sum
Our Endeavour 37
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
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I have an inexpensive fishfinder and the transducer is about where Sum's is. It's been there for almost five years and I haven't had any trouble.
My transducer is mounted on the transom, too close to the port rudder. It works great as long as the port rudder is pulled up about 10 deg. but other than that it's a real pain to keep the depth readings below 3.4 feet. When you get yours mounted and is working properly, I'll be real intrested in moving mine...
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