Mounted my Ray Marine Dragonfly with Ram Mounts Today

[Bruce]

The mount that came with the Dragonfly depth finder / chart plotter was too large to fit anywhere on the SX230 dash so I decided to use Ram Mount equipment to make my own. I used B sized (1" ball) mounts with one flex adhesive base, one aluminum ball mount and one double socket arm. The cost from Amazon was $35. If the adhesive ball does not hold well I will replace it with a screw mounted version.

This is the final product.

'

And the full dash area.



This is the ram ball mounted to the dash, I had to use a right angle drill to drill the holes then a socket set with a screw driver bit to install the screws.



This is the adhesive flexible ball mount on the back of the Dragonfly. I removed the letters Raym from the unit for better adhesion.



And this is a side view of the unit mounted.




So far it seems to be a sturdy mount. I hope to find some big waves to test it out soon.

 

[cane.mba]

I mounted my depth finder in the same location. Drilling the dash cover was very unnerving, but I absolutely love the location, out of the way of the dash but still easily viewable and within easy reach.

I was able to loosen the dash cover and run the cables between without drilling another hole.

 

[Bruce]

I mounted my depth finder in the same location. Drilling the dash cover was very unnerving, but I absolutely love the location, out of the way of the dash but still easily viewable and within easy reach.

I was able to loosen the dash cover and run the cables between without drilling another hole.

Good idea. I was thinking about notching the area where the gauge cluster meets the dash to allow for the wires to come out there.

If I remove the Dragonfly at some point I will leave the ram ball attached to the dash. It would be a great mount for anything. I may add one to the other side for a go pro.

 

[steined]

How did you mount the transducer? I have one in my office waiting to be installed.

 

[Bruce]

How did you mount the transducer? I have one in my office waiting to be installed.

I have not yet. Will post pics when I do.

The basic plan is to attach a string to the depth gauge transducer cable and pull it back through the boat. Then use the string to pull the new transducer cable to the dash. I will use the same hole through the hull for the transducer cable and recaulk it after pulling the cable. I hope to use the same screw holes for mounting the transducer. If not I will fill the old holes with 3M 5200 then drill new ones. Whatever holes I use I will fill them with life caulk before installing the screws.

 

[cane.mba]

Here's how I did my install. This was copied from some other site.... The pics were no longer posted, and they are over a year old so I'll have to figure out which computer they are on and repost them here. I kept my existing transducer as a backup, so I ran new cables for the fish finder.


Ok the transducer cable is now ran from the console to outside the hull. Excuse the dirty boat pics, I detailed everything except under the swim deck (ran out of gas in the pressure washer) Wow, the pictures make it look much worse than it really is, I'm going to detail the area and replace these pictures for posterity!

I had a 1" diamond tipped hole saw used for drilling aquariums, and I used that to drill through the hull. I checked to make sure there wasn't any plywood backing at that point before I drilled and the saw cut through like butter (the diamond tipped saw won't cut through wood). Which actually is kind of scary when I stop to think about it, I would say it only took 10-15 seconds to have the hole in the hull. I drilled opposite of the scupper drain with plans of mounting the transducer to the right of the drain plug. Because I used the diamond hole saw, I didn't have a drill bit in the center so I have a nice round plug. I used my Dremel to make a cable sized notch in the plug and I plan on using 5200 to glue/seal the plug back in place.

At this point I still need to mount the transducer, seal the hole, configure the power, and bolt on the mount. My next question is, how did you guys power up your units? Did you run power cable all the way to the batteries? Did you tie into power at the dash? I'm leaning more to the idea of running the cable to the house battery, that seems more straight forward than powering off the dash and I am not electrically inclined. I saw that someone here installed a fuse box, and while that is an awesome idea, I'm not even going to attempt it! (I know my limits, and with ADHD, I'm not sure I have the attention span to do it correctly and safely)

Lessons learned so far, loosening one of the two bolts (shown in the first picture on page 1) allowed me to raise the dash cover enough to slide the cable through without adding an extra hole! Score huge Thank you's for RumDiet and davel501! Very clean, and very easy!

The next lesson learned was that even though I could barely fit a finger through the cable chase from the console through to the gas tank area, you can force the transducer through here. I think I was lucky because I had the fiberglass rod handy, a rope tied to the transducer may have put too much stress on the cable. I would wrap the transducer in saran wrap, then tape it to the pull rod, and then lube it up to it would slide through this space easily.

I was able to find an existing hole from the gas tank compartment to the engine compartment, and another from the engine compartment to the clean out area. So no additional holes had to be drilled.

Another lesson learned is remove the cover to the clean out compartment, that made this all so much easier. Seeing into the area around the plugs helped me understand where to drill my hole through the hull. Here I assumed that since the scupper drain was high and on the left of the center transom (?) (where the drain plug is located) I thought it would be safe to drill on the opposite side and at the same height. I think saving the plug and securing it back in place will make for a very water tight solution. I'll update this later after I've had the boat in the water a while.

 

[0627Devildog]

Is there anyway to tap into the depth gauge transducer without having to mount another?

 

[steined]

Is there anyway to tap into the depth gauge transducer without having to mount another?

Not for this particular unit. It uses a "Chirp" broadband transducer. I think it is possible to shoot "through the hull" with some units, and even to get a transducer to fit the existing transducer hole, but again, not for the Dragonfly.

 

[Bruce]

I had a 1" diamond tipped hole saw used for drilling aquariums, and I used that to drill through the hull. I checked to make sure there wasn't any plywood backing at that point before I drilled and the saw cut through like butter (the diamond tipped saw won't cut through wood). Which actually is kind of scary when I stop to think about it, I would say it only took 10-15 seconds to have the hole in the hull. I drilled opposite of the scupper drain with plans of mounting the transducer to the right of the drain plug. Because I used the diamond hole saw, I didn't have a drill bit in the center so I have a nice round plug. I used my Dremel to make a cable sized notch in the plug and I plan on using 5200 to glue/seal the plug back in place.

Mike, I do not understand why you drilled through the hull. Did your boat not have a hole for the factory transducer cable? The factory transducer cable hole on my SX230 is above the waterline coming out of the bottom of the swim deck.

And to be clear for readers with older boats, Mike's scupper is above the waterline. On older boats the scupper is just above the drain plug.

 

[steined]

Mike, I do not understand why you drilled through the hull. Did your boat not have a hole for the factory transducer cable? The factory transducer cable hole on my SX230 is above the waterline coming out of the bottom of the swim deck.

And to be clear for readers with older boats, Mike's scupper is above the waterline. On older boats the scupper is just above the drain plug.

I might be missing it, but I don't see any external transducer on the 24ft boats. There is a "through hull" transducer that is a round plug that comes from the factory on the bottom of the hull. There is nothing hanging off the back of the boat, no pitot tube, nothing that I can see other than a drain under the transom. I'm curious as to where to drill this hole for the transducer as well. Hopefully a picture will show where @cane.mba put it.

 

[Bruce]

@steined, these pictures show the factory location for the transducer cable coming out through the hull and the transducer location for my SX230.





This is the factory cap that covers the 5/8" hole for the transducer cable.




I needed to enlarge the hole to 3/4 and plan to use one of these to fill it

 

[steined]

@steined, these pictures show the factory location for the transducer cable coming out through the hull and the transducer location for my SX230.



I needed to enlarge the hole to 3/4 and plan to use one of these to fill it

What exactly is that? It looks interesting! Any links or product names? Thanks!

 

[Bruce]

What exactly is that? It looks interesting! Any links or product names? Thanks!

It is a SeaChoice thru hull cable fitting.

This is the best deal I could find on it White Water Tight Thru Hull Wire and Cable Fitting for Boats

 

[jetboater4life]

When I replaced my 2010 212x's transducer with a lowrance elite 5 dsi transducer, I used the same hole which @Bruce has pictured above. However mine did not come with a special plug like that. After needing to drill the hole about a 1/4 bigger I simply filled it full of life caulk after I had the new transducer wire in place. Had I known about that kind of plug I probably would have used it.

I'll add that the lifecaulk took a really long time to dry.

 

[0627Devildog]

For clarity's sake the newer 24's have a through hull transducer (so no cable coming in through the transom). The owners kit even came with a "plug" in the event that the through hull transducer needs servicing. They pop the transducer, use the plug to fill the hole, and you can use the boat while waiting for a replacement.

 

[cane.mba]

Mike, I do not understand why you drilled through the hull. Did your boat not have a hole for the factory transducer cable? The factory transducer cable hole on my SX230 is above the waterline coming out of the bottom of the swim deck.

And to be clear for readers with older boats, Mike's scupper is above the waterline. On older boats the scupper is just above the drain plug.

The 242 has the transducer mounted on the bottom of the hull. The Lowrance unit I picked has Down Scan Imaging, and the transducer needs to be mounted externally for the best image clarity. The reason I chose this unit was for the imaging, and didn't want to decrease the image quality at all.

 

[cane.mba]

I might be missing it, but I don't see any external transducer on the 24ft boats. There is a "through hull" transducer that is a round plug that comes from the factory on the bottom of the hull. There is nothing hanging off the back of the boat, no pitot tube, nothing that I can see other than a drain under the transom. I'm curious as to where to drill this hole for the transducer as well. Hopefully a picture will show where @cane.mba put it.

Sorry I was able to find pictures cached via google, but the originals are gone so the quality of these are lacking. However, I mounted the transducer to the right of the drain plug, about 2" or so above the bottom of the hull so the transducer sits just below the hull. The goal was to get it low enough so it sat in the water instead of turbulence beside the drain plug.

I drilled the hull and ran the transducer cable above and left of the starboard jet. This way the largest hole was as close as I could get to being at or above the water line, and then I used cable stays attached with double sided tape to secure the transducer cable.

In the picture below you can see the hole above and left of the jet nozzle.

The picture of the "bolts" is from inside the helm and show the two bolts that hold the dash cover on. I loosened these enough to run the transducer cable through without having to drill a large hole through the dash or helm.

 

[jetboater4life]

X2 on your transducer location. I also have the Lowrance DSI. I put my transducer in the exact same spot and it reads 100% of the time at any speed and in any direction. I've read that when people have mounted it in other locations the turbulence takes away some of the functionality. Unfortunately the bottom of my lake is very boring so I haven't seen anything cool like you posted in the picture above. On second thought, I do remember finding a small row boat on the bottom but that's about it.

 

[cane.mba]

I needed to enlarge the hole to 3/4 and plan to use one of these to fill it

@Bruce After this season is over I may have to remove the 5200 I used to plug the hole in the hull and replace it with something like this. It's not really noticeable, but this plug would give me a much cleaner install. I wish I had known about these last year.

 

[Bruce]

@Bruce After this season is over I may have to remove the 5200 I used to plug the hole in the hull and replace it with something like this. It's not really noticeable, but this plug would give me a much cleaner install. I wish I had known about these last year.

5200 is difficult to remove and I have only found those plugs in 3/4" versions. I will report on how well they work. Mine are supposed to arrive Friday.