Raymarine Axiom and Transducer Placement

[Thompsbren]

I haven't seen anyone else go with an Axiom so I thought I'd share my experience. I went with a 9" Axiom flush-mounted in the console, an Icom M506 AIS in the lower storage compartment, and initially a Raymarine CPT-110 thru hull transducer. The installer I went with was worried about getting clean water with a transom mount as well as having a cable routed below the water line. The only place to fit it was one strake out from the factory paddle wheel, which meant my bunks had to be moved out on the trailer. The install was super clean but I lost depth when on plane, likely due to the livewell intake.


Worse yet, the widened bunks made loading difficult. I bought some new bunk brackets to raise the bunks with no luck due to strake placement.

Back to the drawing board and went with what Will Owen suggested. We transom-moutned a realvision 3D RV-100, put a thru hull in the old tranducer hole for a washdown, and I moved the bunks back to the original position.



This setup works great with depth up to 38mph. The sonar doesn't appear to be washed out at trolling speeds by the jet either.

It has been an expensive experiment but if anyone in Ontario wants to benefit from my mistakes, Bridge Yachts in Port Dover is great to deal with and now knows this boat well.

 

[Rich NW Jboater]

Is the transducer centered on the boarding ladder?

 

[Thompsbren]

Yes. One thing to be aware of is that the transom is not square. With such a long transducer it does throw some spray because the transducer doesn't run straight through the water if you mount directly to the transom. The swim platform keeps the spray out of the boat though.

 

[Rich NW Jboater]

Thank you, would it be possible to send a side view picture so I can see how far it hangs down below the transom

 

[Thompsbren]

.

 

[Rich NW Jboater]

Appreciate it, plan on doing mine this week

 

[Rich NW Jboater]

have you had any issues with your Axiom software performance. I was researching before i bought mine and there is a lot of negative traffic on blogs about the software not being mature. I really want to go with this unti because it's the only system with a single transducer that does 3D in this price range. How is the 3D performance on your unit?

 

[Thompsbren]

I haven't had any software issues and am running the most recent version. The lighthouse operating system is very intuitive and almost as easy to use as a Garmin. The processors on these Axioms are much quicker than anything else I've used. As far as 3D performance, I can't give a great review becuase of the shallow water I run in on Lake Erie (<20 feet with no structure). I haven't been out to deeper areas with it yet to really see. I can tell you it originally was picking up surface disturbance from the jet but seems to have processed it out when trolling.

I had previous generation Raymarine products and have used Lowrance and Garmin as well. The new Axioms are as good or better than anything out there for the price in my opinion.

 

[Rich NW Jboater]

I tend to over research things and have been looking for a system for a couple of months. I started with this unit and let the blogs talk me out of it but now am back to it and will buy this weekend. I don't see anything that can compete with it for the money, the closest thing to it is at least $1000 more. Thanks for all of the help and feedback