my boat has a zercom flasher in-dash with a thru hull puck, trying to decide where I should mount the transducer for my lowrance. It came with the standard skimmer, which the book states will work thru-hull or can be mounted on the transom. I am not sure where in/on the boat to put it, the stern has a "step" from the pad up (where the drain plugs and livewell strainer are) should I mount it on this "step" or above it ?
Probably on the step, but it is hard to tell without looking at the hull. Try to locate an area just to the side of the pad that will still be in the water at high speeds and mount the transducer so that no more than the bottom portion of the trandsducer is below the hull. Don't mount it in an area that is stepped up from the pad as there will be too much air to get readings while on plane.
Personally, I would mount it thru-hull though. Spring time shallow fishing can be tough on exterior mounted transducers. But if you rarely fish shallow or around wood, stumps etc, you should be fine mounting it off the back.
I live on Sanford lake, so maybe I should go thru-hull. I wasn't real excited about drilling holes in my boat anyway.
Fowl,
What kind of boat are you working with?
On my Javelin I have a Zercom flasher that is glued to the bottom of the boat and shoots through the hull. When I added my Lowrance I purchased a puck style transducer from Cabela's and glued it next to the Zercom. I then sold the skimmer on Ebay and recovered my costs. Both units work fine but they don't work at the same time. The sonar signals over lap under the boat and it messes up the display on both units. The only disadvantage is the loss of temp on the transducer, but if you shop around you can find a trans with the separate temp sensor.
Keep in mind the epoxy used to attach the Lowrance trans to the hull is a special epoxy. I think you can find more info at Lowrance's website.
Lastly, I keep good sonar information up to about 50mph with the trans located inside the hull. I didn't want to drill holes in my boat either.
Cy
My transducer is in a bps / usps box that arrived while I was fishing a tourney over the weekend.
I got the puck(shoot thru hull) which came with epoxy. I'm going to mount it right beside the old hummingbird external transducer that the previous owner mounted inside the boat.
I would not use the transducer that came with the Lowrance if it is one of the egg shaped trolling motor type transducers for shoot thru hull. The signal doesnt seem to be very reliable. I tried to put the one that came with my Lowrance in place of the hummingbird one because it was very nicely mounted and easy to replace but it turns out that the signal/reception sucks.
Maybe I'm different or not doing something right, but my advice would be to order the "puck" transducer and mount that.
B
My fishing buddy didn't show this morning so instead I glued that skimmer inside the boat this morning. I epoxied it next to the bilge pump on the pad, a little off center. I'm surprised to here Cfruel had trouble with the Zercom/Lowrance running at the same time, I had heard that was the big advantage of the Zercom because they used a very different frequency than the others. I don't have problems with my bow mount and the Zercom running at the same time, I'll have to see what it does with my console mount.
FYI: If you call Lowrance, they will send you a transducer exchange for one type to another. You have to pay for the one they send you, but they will reimburse you when they receive your original back (of course it has to be new and unused to exchange them). You have to pay shipping and handling both ways.
My LMS-480M came with the skimmer transducer with temp built in. I exchanged it for the puck with a remote temp sensor so I can epoxy the transducer in the hull and mount the surface them on the outside of the pad (to my backup speed/temp for my X-85.
Call LEI Extras to do the swap: 800-324-0045.
I don't have problems with the bow and stern units running at the same time. It is just the 2 unit at the stern that don't do well running at the same time.
Cy
Hey Cy I finally got my boat out yesterday and I did'nt have any problems with the stern units interfering with each other. I put my transducer thru-hull on the port side about 2 ft away from the zercom puck. I wonder if yours are too close to each other, my boat is a Javelin Venom 17.
Yeah, I'm sure your right. The transducers are only a couple of inches apart on my boat. I don't ever use the 2 unit at the same time anyway. I rarely use the flasher other then for quick temp checks.
Cy