210 FSH "Perfect" transducer setup - What is it?

[JASmith]

I agree with all that. I plan to trim off the front part. I was starting to mark the areas and shape I am going to remove with the green tape. It’s not in the right spot at the time of the pictures though. I was a bit at the mercy of my help with how the base bracket turned out. They got creative when I wasn’t around and they formed it. Haha. It’s 1/2” lower than my measurement should have been also.

I can shim the back down in 1/16 increments with washers too so that part will be easy to adjust

 

[JASmith]

Slightly modified this morning. 1/8 rear shimming and raked front of bracket. I’m still concerned about the height and vibration, but this is about the best I think I can do with V1 of the bracket.

It does probably look lower than it is. the bottom of the transducer is only about 1/8 lower than the bottom of the keel though. I would have liked it to be a bit closer to the keel for trailer clearance though. Side view should be good though I think... Hopefully tonight, but probably tomorrow I'll be able to test it out.

 

[HangOutdoors]

5 degree max angle and you should be good. Looks good. I would be worried about the strength, you want that plate to shear off or bend if you hit something. Other than that creative mount.

 

[JASmith]

Yeah, it should bend if it hits something solid enough to do damage, it's fairly springy... unless it is dead straight on, then the transducer is going to probably take the brunt of the damage, but that's probably to be expected.

I can flex it side to side by hand easily, but it returns to it's purpose bent position as well. That is why I'm theorizing I'll get some vibration in the bracket, but maybe it'll behave differently in water.

 

[TeenGee]

Yeah, it should bend if it hits something solid enough to do damage, it's fairly springy... unless it is dead straight on, then the transducer is going to probably take the brunt of the damage, but that's probably to be expected.

I can flex it side to side by hand easily, but it returns to it's purpose bent position as well. That is why I'm theorizing I'll get some vibration in the bracket, but maybe it'll behave differently in water.

I'm looking at the Garmin GT56UHD but I don't want to dump $$$$ on a pair of thru hull transducers.
I like how your mount gets the transducer below the keel.
How do you like your installation?
Have you gone to the "C" shape or changed it otherwise?
How is the clarity at speed?
Does in neutral, the jet wash diminish the clarity?
Did you consider making your bracket attach to the fasteners on the port and starboard ride plates (passing below the keel) and mounting the transducer on the centerline, inline and aft of the keel?

 

[HawaiiBreeze]

For me the perfect set up is the one where you get a 100% working unit at all speeds with no holes in the boat. I'm a single motor so my ride plate was the perfect choice and up the deck gravity drain went the wire back to the head unit. I go really shallow here and aside from the sand we have reefs and the ride plate was the perfect spot to keep it from snagging-bumping against anything. 4 years on and no worries. Gotta think outta that box sometimes.

 

[JASmith]

I'm looking at the Garmin GT56UHD but I don't want to dump $$$$ on a pair of thru hull transducers.
I like how your mount gets the transducer below the keel.
How do you like your installation?
Have you gone to the "C" shape or changed it otherwise?
How is the clarity at speed?
Does in neutral, the jet wash diminish the clarity?
Did you consider making your bracket attach to the fasteners on the port and starboard ride plates (passing below the keel) and mounting the transducer on the centerline, inline and aft go the keel?

I do like how it mounts, clarity under 20mph is great, it washes out the bottom at higher speeds but always reads depth just fine which is really all i'm looking for at those speeds. It's probably vibration in the mount is my assumption, but under normal trolling speeds its crystal clear. Weeds never get stuck on it, so that is nice. The edge must cut well enough to get rid of them automatically, so I do like that. Reverse does break up clarity a little bit but neutral is fine, but it's a jet boat so I'm not sure there is a placement in the rear that would prevent that.

I think the mounting placement is perfect. Mounting it with a full square tube would take that vibration out and make it about as perfect as can be. I'll probably get another piece bent to form the full square and mate them together this year some time, or maybe redo the entire thing with a solid single piece.

I didn't think about connecting the two ride plates with a long bracket and center mounting the ducer butI think you might get just as much vibration that way and might affect handling more. I think that would end up bringing the transducer forward a bit and I'd be concerned with trailering clearance.

I did consider trying to modify the keel to integrate it, but this would have been some crazy fiberglass work and it probably would have been worth just going dual in hulls at that point.

For me the perfect set up is the one where you get a 100% working unit at all speeds with no holes in the boat. I'm a single motor so my ride plate was the perfect choice and up the deck gravity drain went the wire back to the head unit. I go really shallow here and aside from the sand we have reefs and the ride plate was the perfect spot to keep it from snagging-bumping against anything. 4 years on and no worries. Gotta think outta that box sometimes.

View attachment 176168

Nice! Do you have side scan on that one? If it wasn't for side scan this would be a joke and we could mount it right to the ride plate and call it a day. The only hole I had to drill in the boat was for the ducer cable, I had the same goal!

 

[TeenGee]

Goldberg's the name. Rube Goldberg.
I have found THE PERFECT transducer location for a 210FSH.
Just look at this picture.

No holes in the hull.
Center mounted below the keel.
The wire runs up into the clean-out hatch.

Actually it was a test to see the difference in signal attenuation between in the bilge v. in the water. I put the transducer in the bilge. I added enough water to cover it to provide coupling to and through the hull. The Bilge Mount photo shows the result.
I then mounted the transducer on the keel. The Keel Mount shows the result.
Both photos were from the same area in the river. My conclusion is that the hull provides unacceptable signal attenuation and the transducer needs to be mounted externally.
The Final photo shows the mount I made. It is a parallelogram to get the transducer as close to the center line of the boat. I made it out of 1/8" thick x 2" wide aluminum. The mount is bolted using 10-32 screws into holes I tapped in the ride plate.
I have not tried it at speed. I will post a screen shot from the speed trail.

 

[JASmith]

Nice, that looks a lot like the one I ended up doing. it's been working great!

 

[HangOutdoors]

Goldberg's the name. Rube Goldberg.
I have found THE PERFECT transducer location for a 210FSH.
Just look at this picture.
View attachment 181129
No holes in the hull.
Center mounted below the keel.
The wire runs up into the clean-out hatch.

Actually it was a test to see the difference in signal attenuation between in the bilge v. in the water. I put the transducer in the bilge. I added enough water to cover it to provide coupling to and through the hull. The Bilge Mount photo shows the result.
I then mounted the transducer on the keel. The Keel Mount shows the result.
Both photos were from the same area in the river. My conclusion is that the hull provides unacceptable signal attenuation and the transducer needs to be mounted externally.
The Final photo shows the mount I made. It is a parallelogram to get the transducer as close to the center line of the boat. I made it out of 1/8" thick x 2" wide aluminum. The mount is bolted using 10-32 screws into holes I tapped in the ride plate.
I have not tried it at speed. I will post a screen shot from the speed trail.

Would recommend taking the spray shield off the transducer mount.

 

[TeenGee]

I modeled it after your installation. I used thicker materials and closer to the keel.

 

[JASmith]

I modeled it after your installation. I used thicker materials and closer to the keel.

It looks great! I like to see it evolving!

 

[TeenGee]

I was going to run at speed before I remove it.

 

[GregGreg]

I was going to run at speed before I remove it.

Have you ran at speed yet? Interested in the results

 

[TeenGee]

I did and it worked really well. Except I was not happy with the lack of rigidity in the mount. Reverse thrust was enough to cause the transducer to rotate down.
So I went with a third iteration. I mounted it to the bottom of the articulating keel with some aluminum angles. I am really happy with this installation. The imaging is very clear. I am not too concerned about hitting anything it only hangs about an inch below the solid keel.
Some time in the future, I will probably switch over to stainless steel angles and trim the bottom of the froward part of the articulating keel to give some room for the wire and get the top of the transducer against the bottom of the articulating keel.

 

[JASmith]

I did and it worked really well. Except I was not happy with the lack of rigidity in the mount. Reverse thrust was enough to cause the transducer to rotate down.
So I went with a third iteration. I mounted it to the bottom of the articulating keel with some aluminum angles. I am really happy with this installation. The imaging is very clear. I am not too concerned about hitting anything it only hangs about an inch below the solid keel.
Some time in the future, I will probably switch over to stainless steel angles and trim the bottom of the froward part of the articulating keel to give some room for the wire and get the top of the transducer against the bottom of the articulating keel.

I still like that idea in theory, the way you did it seems to be even lower profile than my method so it's unlikely to snag other things you wouldn't already snag, very nice!

My one-piece version was running @ almost 35mph the other day and reading bottom loud and clear. some occasional marks also, so in some conditions it works way better than I even hoped.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I did and it worked really well. Except I was not happy with the lack of rigidity in the mount. Reverse thrust was enough to cause the transducer to rotate down.
So I went with a third iteration. I mounted it to the bottom of the articulating keel with some aluminum angles. I am really happy with this installation. The imaging is very clear. I am not too concerned about hitting anything it only hangs about an inch below the solid keel.
Some time in the future, I will probably switch over to stainless steel angles and trim the bottom of the froward part of the articulating keel to give some room for the wire and get the top of the transducer against the bottom of the articulating keel.

To play devil's advocate here, I would think that while you are running at speed it will pull your boat down a bit in back as well as put more stress on your steering your AK and those joints in a different direction. That horizontal surface is going to have some down pressure I would think, maybe some vertical pressure as well depending on the angle of the boat at the AK. Especially at WOT. Time will tell how the added stress either will or will not affect the steering components and AK. On a hard turn at speed it looks like it will create more resistance on the AK, like a glove. Hopefully nothing will come of it.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Just as a fyi…perhaps I missed it mentioned here.

Humminbird makes a set up where you can mount two transducers on the stern, one port and one starboard. Humminbird makes a splitter cable so that one transducer is the main one, 2D sonar, Down imaging, the splitter cable allows the port transducer to be the port side side imaging and the starboard side transducer to be the starboard side side imaging.

This allows clear unobstructed SI on each side of the boat. I know @Can0n11 has installed this set up but I have not heard how well this set up works. This set up is on my list of things to add…the SI is arguably the most powerful fish finding tool as it can look out 400’ on each side of the boat.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Just as a fyi…perhaps I missed it mentioned here.

Humminbird makes a set up where you can mount two transducers on the stern, one port and one starboard. Humminbird makes a splitter cable so that one transducer is the main one, 2D sonar, Down imaging, the splitter cable allows the port transducer to be the port side side imaging and the starboard side transducer to be the starboard side side imaging.

This allows clear unobstructed SI on each side of the boat. I know @Can0n11 has installed this set up but I have not heard how well this set up works. This set up is on my list of things to add…the SI is arguably the most powerful fish finding tool as it can look out 400’ on each side of the boat.

Garmin has the same I am pretty sure

 

[JASmith]

Garmin has the same I am pretty sure

Yeah they do, but only thru-bill last I checked. Could probably be made to work with the ride plates though I bet.