fish finder units with big transducers placement on boats?

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Setting up my new boat. About to take the plunge and get some units. The unit I'm looking is a Hook2 9 triple shot. After reading all the info and looking at rigging along with past units like that I find that most the large transducers are mounted on the back of the boat high out of the water running due to spray and they just don't do good. What I find is they run a splitter to use a bullet transducer or shoot through bottom on a glass boat. For the aluminum boats they say use a bullet or use a second small unit to get depth running. Most every brand say the only thing that works above 5 to 6 mph is 2d basic units or that part of a upper end with second transducer.

Want your thoughts on what to do. I have another small unit hook 4 that worked good. Was thinking about mounting the Hook 2 9 center on the console and mounting the hook4 on the right side for use at speed and mount the big side and down scan higher out if the water above the bottom of the boat. The GPS on the large unit used at speed.
That is what Lowrance and I see several other units recommend being done.
It is not as big a deal if say it was on a bigger glass boat. I guess a lot has to do with the boat, shape and design of the boat.

But all the units that I have looked at state the side and down do not work or are not designed to work at speed, just GPS and 2d.

Thoughts? Would like to see how some of you mounted the transducers on a aluminum boat.
This is a seaark 2072 15 deg V. It also has factory-installed flotation pods and transducer plates on each side.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Cant on Aluminum.
I did that on glass boats in the past and worked great glassed in.

I guess you could drill the 1.5" hole in the bottom but it sticks down and chance or leak and problems go up.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
Not a shoot thru ( you can look at an alumaducer for that) one that you cut a hole in the bottom of the boat. I suppose you could also mount it inside one of your pods to reduce the effects if it does leak. There is a way to have a shoot thru transducer in an oil bath that will work on aluminum.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Dont know enough about it.
When I talked to lowrance they were telling me the added costs for the split and for the extra transducer were more than the costs for a mid level unit.
The tranducer was 250 ish and split about 50 pending the unit and pins.
I could use my small unit for free or get a 4 to 5" unit for the costs to make the one unit work.

So that had me thinking it would be easy to use the old unit it is on a ram mount and easy to mount. Or step down to the split shot and give up the side image. That transducer is 50% the size of the triple shot. It also works better at speed.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
BTW the pods are 1" or so up so it would need to be in the boat.
I used a bullet on the old boat and it worked, is why I thought about going that way.

If it was the old flat transducer.... They can be mounted on the bottom of steps, pods, and other areas.
That one I could screw to the bottom of the pod and use 5200. The pod has a drain plug so easy to check time to time.
 
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Bailey Boat

Twelve Pointer
Doesn't really matter, at speed the transducer is telling the head unit what is about 20 to 25 feet behind anyway.... If you're looking for obstacle avoidance this ain't the way..... Check out "forward scaning sonar".. get ready to swallow your tongue...
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Doesn't really matter, at speed the transducer is telling the head unit what is about 20 to 25 feet behind anyway.... If you're looking for obstacle avoidance this ain't the way..... Check out "forward scaning sonar".. get ready to swallow your tongue...

Very true. Thanks I will look into it but I have a feel it is way more than I want for fishing cats on the lakes.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Yep they offered to help and or do it.
They said just pick the units I want but also said it is a challenge to work on a boat like that.
said more than likely as I found a second unit or extra transducer will be needed.

Just looking all the info I can before I make a jump.
Also hear that the motor down will screw up the side scan. Most bass boats and others have a step out in the transom or jack plateand the bass boats mount them on the CL of the boat and on the step out of the water running.
 
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