Fish finder question

bdavis

New member
I just bought a new fish finder for my boat. I had a fish finder on my last boat but it was already installed when I bought the boat. This one didn't have one when I bought it. How are fish finder transducers normally fastened/attached to the hull? I'm guessing I have to drill a couple holes to mount it to. I just don't want to go drilling holes into my new boat without asking others how they've done it.
 

rlk

New member
I just bought a new fish finder for my boat. I had a fish finder on my last boat but it was already installed when I bought the boat. This one didn't have one when I bought it. How are fish finder transducers normally fastened/attached to the hull? I'm guessing I have to drill a couple holes to mount it to. I just don't want to go drilling holes into my new boat without asking others how they've done it.

bdavis, I'm like you, I hate to drill a hole in the transom. I'm always concerned about water seeping in around the screws and rotting the transom.

Several people I know have glued them to the inside hull. This saves having to drill holes, but you loose a little sensitivity, or introduce more "noise" that the transducer picks up. You also have to be careful to make sure there are no air bubbles or gaps in the epoxy. Otherwise, the transducer gets more "noise".

Others have placed the transducer in the rear, close to where the drain is for the boat. Sometimes there is an indentation in this area that is roughly 6" square. As long as this indentation has water in it, this works fairly well, but here again, you loose some sensitivity. Also, you have to remember to keep this area filled with water.

I believe most professionals have them mounted to the transom. They can be hard to adjust, depending on how smooth the bottom of your boat is. Hopefully you received some instructions with your new fish finder that explained a lot of this.

Bob
 

Bt Doctur

Super Moderator
Staff member
IF you must use the transom, locate the mounting bracket, drill 1/4 inch pilot holes at the screw locations,get a fiberglass repair kit, using the resin and hardener coat the inside of the pilot hole (toothpick,stirrer,straw,etc),let cure, (seals the transom bare wood), redrill to 1/4 inch and with resin coat a 1/4 wood dowel and insert,let cure,drill pilot holes for screw size, again fill hole with resin,(seals the dowel),re-drill pilot holes for screw size, install screws with 5200 or equiv.
 

rlk

New member
Bt Doctor, I like your way of mounting to the transom. Wonder if there are any dealers who would expend that much effort to "do it right"?

Bob
 

bdavis

New member
Got it mounted! Marked and drilled 2 holes the right diameter for the mounting screws. Then applied a marine silicone to each screw before fastening the transducer to the hull. Got the cables and such routed neatly and the graph mounted to the steering console. Everything seems to work. Found a positive and negative terminal pre-wired in the console so I used that for my power source.

Finally got around to getting my registration numbers for my boat. The dealer where I bought it from sent out the info for them 3 times and I never received anything. So last week, I did it myself. Took all of 5 minutes. So I decided that since I plan on keeping this boat for a long time, a buddy of mine does vinyl lettering and graphics so I brought the boat to him toinght and he's going to make up some nice decals for the numbers.(rather than just buying those plain peel and stick numbers at the store) Hey, gotta make it look good!
 
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