Sea Trooper/ Transducer position

[davy mcclelland]

Hi Guys...
Getting a lot of interference on screen when cruising... :yucky:
Skimmer Transducer mounted at stern. Tried a few diff positions, but still getting it from prop, or disturbed water flowing under hull. Any of you fellow Hog owners
found a suitable stern position to over come this???
Or have any of you guys positioned it in a thru hull location???
Thanks.....DAVE.

[glasgowdan]

Hi Davy,

We had an internal transducer with our trooper and found it ok - but when cruising you will always get a lot of interference. Fishfinders aren't designed to work well when moving, hence the need to keep stopping to check the ground. Saying that, pottering along at 3-4 knots should give a decent image when locating a reef etc.

I can't comment on the position of an external transducer im afraid.

D

[Manxman]

Davy on my seahog I have a Garmin FF. The transducer is fitted on the starboard side, 17 inches from the centre line on the transom. The face of the transducer is exactly 1 inch below the hull.

Dan is incorrect and talking nonsense when saying you will always get lots of interference when cruising.
I get a great display and no interference from zero right up to the maximun my boat will go which is 26 knots.
I have never had a problem on any of the other boats I've owned either.

Read the manufacturers advice on where to place the transducer and also look for the maximun speed your unit will work at, Garmins are supposed to work up to 70 miles an hour.

It could be you are getting electrical interference from some thing else on your boat, and I'm sure ChrisP will advise you on that.

[JeremyFisher]

Davy,

For the last two years I also had my transducer located in the same place as Manxman on my Hog. This was an oldish eagle plus unit which worked fine, even on the move. I have just upgraded to a Lowrance X100 and positioned the transducer in the same place. Have not got the boat back in the water yet, but am hoping and not expecting any problems with the new unit (fingers crossed).

Not that clued up on electrics, but it could be inteference from your charging circuit when up and running?............. ChrisP!

[ChrisP]

Don't like transome mount myself. If you go over a bit of wood or a raft of weed at speed it will be ripped off and getting a replacement hurts the wallet as well as being grief.

Mine are mounted internally and are fine up to 32Knots.

Here is how.

Glue it in place with epoxy or if you don't want to epoxy it in place you must fit it in a tube.
First find an area of the hull that is single skinned usually the sump where the bilge pump is fitted . To make sure it has no voids go out on the water and put a bucket of sea water in the sump, get a mate to hold the transducer in the sump under the water and have a look at your signal. Get the best spot at all speeds and mark the spot with a pencil. Back home and drain out and dry the area, roughen it up with 40 grit sandpaper and clean the area up with acetone. If you don't use the acetone the epoxy will not bond to the flow coat on the hull. Get two small zip lock bags full of bone dry sand. Mix up a full tube of hardner and epoxy (araldite) with a cutting motion to avoid getting bubbles in the mix. Roughen the face of the transducer with 40 grit and wipe over with acetone. Gloop on the araldite mix and put plenty on the deck. Twist the transducer into the epox to eliminate the air and put one of your sandbags on the downhill side. This stop the araldite flowing away. Prop the transducer as near to horizontal as you can and hold in place with the other bag.

Tube method
The hard way, get a peice of 4inch sewer pipe and bevel the end to fit the hull so the tube fits vertically. Then roughen up the end of the pipe and clean it up. Glass it in place, this should seal the pipe to the hull. When the glass has set fill the tube wth castor or vegeable oil and immerse the transducer in the oil. Drill a couple of holes in the side of the tube and fit the mounting bracket and tranny with a couple of SS bolts and silicon. Top off the tube with oil and get a stop end for the sewer pipe and cap it off.

[glasgowdan]

Dan is incorrect and talking nonsense.
how very polite of you!

[bigfish]

how very polite of you!

Go on Dan:boxing: sort him out:laugh:

[glasgowdan]

I must be used to older style fishfinders... the three boats I have owned have shown a lot of disturbance at speed, and a few club members boats that I have been on have been the same, but i stand corrected if they arent all like that!

[JeremyFisher]

Cheers ChrisP,

I like the idea of mounting it in the sump and your instructions are easy to follow. Definately going to have a rethink on this one as like you say, I'd hate to damage the transducer on my nice new shiny X100 :)

[ChrisP]

A new transom mount transducer is in the region of £60 plus postage, I learnt the hard way a few years ago when I lost one and ended up sourcing one from the States.

[davy mcclelland]

Thanks for all the replys lads...
I,m 99% certain it aint an electrical interference prob, as I run the unit off a seperate battery, & have associated wiring routed away from the engine cables.
The sump well seems to be the only place to mount the tranny inboard, without
a spot of work to mount it under the deck.
Thanks again....
DAVE.

[Salar]

It might be the age of the unit. I had a Humminbird which was great, but would lose signal at 10 knots. I moved the transducer, read the instrauctions, varied the angle, no success. I replaced it with a Eagle and it is fine, with the transducer in the same place. You do have to follow the mounting instructions exactly, and set the angle correctly, and not line the transducer up with a strake on the bottom.

[Norrie]

It might be the age of the unit. I had a Humminbird which was great, but would lose signal at 10 knots. I moved the transducer, read the instrauctions, varied the angle, no success. I replaced it with a Eagle and it is fine, with the transducer in the same place. You do have to follow the mounting instructions exactly, and set the angle correctly, and not line the transducer up with a strake on the bottom.


Hi Neville, Might be slightly off topic here, but, I think I know the one you are talking about mate, tried it on the Seahog, and wasnt too great to be honest, well not at 20 knots anyway,,....but have now fitted it to the small boat,that we use for fresh water .....in fact, the local club have just taken over a reservoir of nearly 40 acres, and I used it to map out the depths for them, did a great job. Well pleased....:)

Going back on topic now, I have an Eagle F/F and find it great at speed.....and its fitted with a transom mounted Transducer. Not my idea BTW, it came with one fitted there,so seemed the easiest option to leave it there. :)

[wavelength]

try it in the drainwell with some water in in the first instance to get an idea-not glued down just prop it up vertical with a sandbag or something-as long as there is water in there it should sound ok. Our old humminbirds were useless at any speed but we replaced them in all the ribs with eagle cuda 128-cheap as chips and for our purpose they are fine. Sound flat out for depth although they do eventually start to show loadsa interference between seabed and surface at high speed-but the actual depth reading is fine at over 30knots. We simply siliconed ours in place-against the manuf manual instructions but they work fine and if you need to remove them they can be peeled out. Most of the boats in our local boat angling clubs have the transducers simply siliconed in.

[Shropfisher]

It might be the age of the unit. I had a Humminbird which was great, but would lose signal at 10 knots. I moved the transducer, read the instrauctions, varied the angle, no success. I replaced it with a Eagle and it is fine, with the transducer in the same place. You do have to follow the mounting instructions exactly, and set the angle correctly, and not line the transducer up with a strake on the bottom.
I think Salar has hit on it, age of unit, I had a second hand unit on my Seahog, at at spead it showed masses of fish underneath, Fitted a new Garmin 250C to my Ocquateau, again transom mount, and perfect at any speed.

[Salar]

Hi Neville, Might be slightly off topic here, but, I think I know the one you are talking about mate, tried it on the Seahog, and wasnt too great to be honest, well not at 20 knots anyway,,....but have now fitted it to the small boat,that we use for fresh water .....in fact, the local club have just taken over a reservoir of nearly 40 acres, and I used it to map out the depths for them, did a great job.

Hi matey. I did warn you....glad it worked out though. The mobile kit makes it very useful, I still might regret selling it if I do more lough fishing!