Transducer - Mount Location?

[OnTheWater]

Evening All,

My GPS/fishfinder (Lowrance Elite 5 - HDI) is going in tomorrow and I am looking at mounting the transducer in the same location that @Kevin M did in the picture below. A few questions for you...

1. Does this seem like the best location for a '13 242? Anyone with first hand experience - good or bad?
2. Is there anything that needs to be done with the factory thru hull transducer? Will it cause interference? If so, what is the best solution?

Thanks!

1. 

 

[Trm1765]

How about inside the boat? I never have to worry about knocking it off this way. It is set in epoxy to the inside of the hull and works great.

 

[OnTheWater]

@Trm1765 - so, you're doing a shoot thru, not a thru hull, right? Doesn't that require a different transducer? Do you lose some functionality?

 

[rkluck]

Mounting on the inside is interesting. I also thought going through the hull would keep the unit from working well. If this works good I would mount it this way for sure.

 

[sysinu]

With how our hull is made, mounting a transducer in the hull doesn't create any issue if you mount it in the bilge. The only thing you don't get is water temp. I actually think mounting transducers outside of the boat is just asking for water distortion to cause issues. Not sure how much this applies to our boats, but every time I've had the worst luck with externally mounted transducers... they get impacted by prop wash, water flow (air bubbles), etc that cause your fish finder / chart plotter to lose track of the bottom.

 

[OnTheWater]

@sysinu Can you mount the supplied transducer in the bilge or do you need a specific one?

 

[sysinu]

For the Lowrance Elite 5 - HDI, all of its sonar modes are supported when mounted to the hull (inside the boat). You just won't get water temp readings.

See page 13 of http://s3.amazonaws.com/szmanuals/97b625482632fc4b566127f94ce2f7d1

You just have to make sure that you are glueing it to the hull and not to a false bottom hull (like the engine compartment). If you're mounting in the bilge, right there at the back as is illustrated in @Trm1765 picture, then you're in very good shape. Just make sure you don't trap any air under the transducer when you glue it down. You can avoid trapping air under the transducer by putting the epoxy down (use play dough or something to keep the epoxy in one place) and then put one end of the transducer into the epoxy and then slowly submerge the rest of the transducer into the epoxy (as opposed to just putting the transducer flat into the epoxy all at once).

 

[OnTheWater]

@sysinu - thanks, I'll take a look at that and may do it. BTW - my over the tower cover is scheduled to be finished Thursday or Friday. Thanks for sharing the details.

 

[Trm1765]

@Trm1765 - so, you're doing a shoot thru, not a thru hull, right? Doesn't that require a different transducer? Do you lose some functionality?

For the Lowrance Elite 5 - HDI, all of its sonar modes are supported when mounted to the hull (inside the boat). You just won't get water temp readings.

Th stock Humminbird is also a through hull transducer, it will work in the water or through the hull. As sysinu stated, no air bubbles is the key. It will not shoot through air. And to clarify, it is mounted on the inside of the boat, no holes drilled, it is not mounted "through" the hull, it just shoots the signal through the hull, and as sysinu also stated, it has to be on the bottom, not on a false bottom because again, it will not shoot through air. It works no different that if it is mounted outside the boat and in the water, as long as there are no air bubbles. I do get water temp also, it it seems very accurate. I think the hull assumes the water temp after being in the water a bit, and it reads just fine. My boat is wet slipped so the hull is always the same as the water.

 

[billyb]

Mounted to the hull will not work for the new down scan imaging.

 

[OnTheWater]

Thanks @billyb - It looks like it does work for the DSI, though there is a risk of decreased performance. This is from transducer installation manual:
NOTE: Downscan imaging performance may be degraded if HDI transducers are installed using the shoot-thru hull method.

 

[kthrash]

thats where I put mine..

 

[sysinu]

shoot thru hull works just fine for down and (I'm pretty sure) side imaging as well. The frequency of the transducer is completely supported, but you run the risk of installing it wrong. That said, you also run the risk of installing it wrong outside the boat hull as well (in a place where there will be cavitation or water disruption around the transducer).

 

[billyb]

Interesting, thanks for posting part of the manual...maybe I will do that with mine.

I will be interested in learning your results.

 

[billyb]

Any update on you mounting position? Really curious how the dsi looks mounted in hull.

 

[subysti]

I've been trying to figure out where to mount my humminbird sidescan on my AR240 where it won't be blocked by the keel. I was told by humminbird that I would have to use 2 transducers, one for the left and one for the right.

 

[kthrash]

Where i mounted mine at speed it works 50% of the time, for what its worth the factory one never works at speed... At idle up to 15mph, it works great. There is just not enough flat surface on the back of the boat to get a clean water signal. Through hull is best if you can get it.

I may buy a thru hull transducer and cut a hole in the boat (nothing new) if it pisses me off enough.

 

[OnTheWater]

I ended up mounting mine by the drain plug, similar to the first pic in this thread. No issues with it - it's worked up to 40 mph so far.

 

[Rich]

Looking to mount my transducer for lowrance elite 4 "through hull". Any specific epoxy needed or would the Loctite 120 min marine epoxy work. Thanks in advanc

 

[biffdotorg]

Here is a tip for anyone thinking of shooting through hull, you can fully test this in advance.

Put a ziplock bag of water in the low spot inside the hull. Put your transducer on the bag and weigh it down at the angle that you would epoxy. You will see all of the functionality you could expect once epoxied.

There is a major difference in the features of a standard sonar, to a DSI, or side scanning sonar. Downward scanning or DSI is not a standard sonar, and even though that manual said you can do it, I would love to see someone test that. I actually held off buying due to that reason and the fact the Lowrance DSI do not recommend it. Side scanning is a whole different story, as the transducer can have no air gaps between it, the epoxy/hull/water. So any side sonar would be difficult to do through hull unless the epoxy went up the sides. That would be a tough one to test, and the bag test may work.

Once you test and find if your transducer will shoot through hull, any $7 tube of marine epoxy will work fine. Once mixed a small puddle of epoxy is placed on the hull and the transduce pressed into it working the bubbles out. Ours works up to about 45mph without issue.

Good luck