Welcome to SaltyCajun.com!

jl8200 · #1 01-13-2015, 09:58 PM

This may seem like an odd question but has anyone put a fish finder in the front of their bay boat? I don't see a good way of doing it but am kicking around the idea because I want to be able to see my waypoints as I troll. I hate going back to the helm to look at the fish finder.

alphaman · #2 01-13-2015, 10:08 PM

Yep quite a few people on here have a unit on there bow. I will be placing a unit on my bow in the near future. Probably an hds5

keakar · #3 01-13-2015, 10:44 PM

don't they have trolling motor mounted ones so you can move the unit to front or back as desired?

Goooh · #4 01-14-2015, 12:28 AM

I have a 7 on the bow with a TM mounted transducer, the 7 is linked to my unit at the helm and synced so whatever is input on one shows on the other. I can troll from the bow and mark a waypoint there and it marks to the helm unit, and vice versa.

I though it was a bit excessive at first, but now if I don't bring the bow unit when I go out I spend the rest of the day wishing I brought it. I hate hollering at the person at the back to see the depth or how my trail is looking if I'm trying to loop back to an area where I got a hit or found structure. Even worse is running back and forth to look...

Sent

jlincecum · #5 01-14-2015, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goooh

I have a 7 on the bow with a TM mounted transducer, the 7 is linked to my unit at the helm and synced so whatever is input on one shows on the other. I can troll from the bow and mark a waypoint there and it marks to the helm unit, and vice versa.

I though it was a bit excessive at first, but now if I don't bring the bow unit when I go out I spend the rest of the day wishing I brought it. I hate hollering at the person at the back to see the depth or how my trail is looking if I'm trying to loop back to an area where I got a hit or found structure. Even worse is running back and forth to look...

Sent

^^^this, except my front transducer is in my hull. It probably is excessive for a bay boat but it makes life a lot easier once you have it

marty f · #6 01-14-2015, 08:38 AM

I have an older Garmin unit I mounted up front, no plotter but it does have my depth, water temp, voltage, time, everything but plotter. The main reason I put it on there was for depth. Same as Goooh I got tired at hollering at my son whos on the back, Im sure he was tired on answering!

Everything is mounted on the TM, transducer wiring and head unit, it all folds away with the TM. And for the record, I cut and spliced my transducer wires, all works good.

fishwater · #7 01-15-2015, 08:16 PM

Put it on a ram mount on the front of the deck off set to the side a little. If you don't want it in the boat that day you'll just have the ball there. This is how I install units on the bow of most boats seems to keep them out of your way and you can adjust them in many different positions Definatly get a unit that is compatible with your helm unit so you can hook them together using ethernet cable too link too he graphs. If you have Lowrance you can share way points and also use your structure scan transducer that is already installed.

jl8200 · #8 01-22-2015, 07:18 PM

Hey does anyone have any pictures of how they mounted it on the front and how they ran the wires. I would like to not have the wires showing too much if at all possible. I want it to look clean. At the same time I don't want to drill huge holes in the deck to run the wires through either.

alphaman · #9 01-22-2015, 07:25 PM

I read something somewhere that, when you mount you electronics you should not wire the unit to the TM hotwire. It should a seperate wire to the battery.

fishwater · #10 01-22-2015, 07:28 PM

If you don't drill hole you will see wires I will post some pictures tomorrow. If your trolling motor is more then 12 volt alpha it will burn the unit up.

alphaman · #11 01-22-2015, 08:20 PM

O ok.

jl8200 · #12 01-22-2015, 09:23 PM

Ok thanks Fishwater. Yes I have a 2000 Purebay with a 24V trolling motor, so that isn't an option for a power source for the fishfinder. Will have to run wires up to the front for power.

jl8200 · #13 01-22-2015, 09:26 PM

Oh and yes Alphaman you are correct about running separate wires on the trolling motor. No other electronic devices are supposed to be wired to the trolling motor batteries other than the trolling motor. All accessories are supposed to be wired to the start battery. Electrolysis will occur if you wire electronics to the TM circuit/battery which in turn causes corrosion of the electrical connections.