Mounting Sonar transducer with twin Hondas

S

Salmon Fisher

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Aug 7, 2009
Messages
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C Dory Year
2004
C Dory Model
25 Cruiser
Hull Identification Number
CD025035K304
Vessel Name
Kim Christine
Now that we are the proud, new owners of a 2000 22 Cruiser, formerly Maria Consuelo, I going to add trim tabs, probably Bennett, I am relocating the sonar transducer.

Where should I locate it? Would like to put in a place where there is minimal turbulent interference both at cruising and trolling speeds.

I would appreciate pics, too.

BTW, went on first cruise out of Everett last night and my wife loved it!
I will post a little tale from first cruise with pics soon, too.
 
Salmon Fisher,
I mounted mine between the engines, 4 inches right of centerline. This seems to be about right to avoid turbulence from the keel. I get fairly good reading on plane and excellent readings at trolling speeds. I have a Lowrance "skimmer" type transducer.

P1040436.jpg
 
Hi there, one option. I don't like dangly bits outside the boats I own and the worries of smacking it on something, so I just glue the skimmer type transducers inside.
I run a Humminbird 160 and glued the transducer in just ahead of the porta potty bulkhead. I get depth to it's maximum range, the temp part reads the temp of the hull immersed so should be close to water temp and no chance of hitting it on something. I like it for the additional 2 seconds of warning of shallows. Being on transoms mean you've already passed into the shallow stuff when your alarm goes off.
I used fast cure epoxy by GOOP and located a spot 2 inches starboard of center 2 inches ahead of the bulkhead. You can hold the transducer level till the epoxy kicks and have an easy run of wire up to the dash. Nice clear picture. Have fun George :lol:
 
I should say that I do lose a bit of readings if I'm wide open as the hull is out of the water at that time right where the tranducer is, but I see bottom up to about 4100 rpm. Depends on what you need, I want help in the slow speed poking around shallows. George :smiled
 
Interesting that the in hull set up works, because there is usually a problem with teh signal getting through cored boats. Did you remove the coring in that area?
 
Hi the hull is single skin on the 19 there as it appears the coring is from the bulkhead aft from what I could find. The hull is starting it's deadrise some but the transducer is pretty level and I get good readings. I did the water in a baggie trick first while driving at various speeds to see if I got good readings prior to glueing in. :smile .
 
You cannot shoot a transducer thru a cored hull, unless you remove the core. If you did that, you would have to glass in a second skin, and cover the edges of the balsa. Some boats have a "Sump" where there is no core. In the Tom Cat it is in the STB hull all of the way aft. Some 22's have it where the bilge pump is (not sure about new ones). The 25 had one area just aft of the fuel tank--where there is a bilge pump (probably not enough room for the transducer and bilge pump. I have even put a transducer on the side of a weighted in a deep bilge sump and just let the water be a conductive media in the boat.

I doubt that the reaction time at any speed will be enough to prevent grounding with the transducer 12 feet further foreward. Plus most Depth sounders begin to not read accurately less than a foot of water.

The center should work fine for a "skimmer" transducer--just be sure that there is nothing to creat turbulance ahead of the transom in that area.
 
Having just poked around pretty good trying to solve some problems near the porta-potty I can say that it appears that on my '06 22 Cruiser there is no core forward of about 4 inches of the birth side of the bulk head. I questioned the new owners of C-Dory about this and they scratched there heads and said,"Huh?". I can see light through the bottom of the boat...and it's dark blue paint. So on my boat if a transducer was mounted inside the porta-potty enclosure it would be looking through nothing but glass, resin and paint. Considering I've now have a water tight inspection hatch forward of the porta-potty I like ghone's idea...no holes to drill.
 
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