Installing a SI tranducer

[geo17]

i purchsed a 798si and i will be installing it tomorrow. on my boat now i have a tranducer already for the humminbird that i will use at high speeds with a ts2-w switch. i am worried about mounting the si trranducer in a spot that might be obstructed or hit by turbulence from the hull. i do not have a jackplate. any hints??

[katoguy]

Every boat is different. Your best bet is googling yahoo side imaging group. You have to sign up to see the pics. There are many installation pics for many different hull designs.

[Shack]

The ducer directions look complicated, but are pretty self explanatory. Just follow them, but take in to consideration of how the boat sits in the water off the trailer. If you level out the ducer the way the boat sits on the trailer, it might be way off when the boat is in the water. Not an exact science, but you want to consider this while installation . Maybe you have a water line mark from last year still on the side of the boat.

This is how I mounted mines and have not had any issues

[eyebjim]

Shack said it pretty well. I would add that you may have to try a few different positions to get it just right. Find a spot that the ducer will not be blocked out to the sides and then you may have to try a few different heights to get it below the disturbance from the hull. I had it so it looked just right and ran good in the water but the SI images and depth readings would drop out add speed. I ended up having to get it pretty low to get below the turbulence and now I get SI and depth at higher speeds. Of course the si is not detailed at speed but you still see structure. Now I have a rooster tail but it works great. I could probably mess with it to get rid of the rooster but it works great so I wont mess with it.

[Ed Carlson]

The Humm pro's and tech's I spoke with at the Humm training school pointed out a few installation tricks.

Since the side imaging is only designed to work at speeds under 5 mpr a deep transom mount is not needed. What they are doing is mounting it up higher in a center section of the transom free of peripheral obstructions that will stay in good contact with the water at speeds under 5 mpr, but at cruising speed is out of the water so no rooster tail is formed.

Also this allows the larger side imaging transducer to keep it's turbulence away from other transducers on the transom and more protected from damage from strikes on structure or damage to the transducer during trailering.

As was mentioned already every boat will sit in the water a bit differently and the individual configuration of trolling motors all will add concerns for side imaging so on some rigs finding the sweet spots may take some doing in order to get a clean read.

The use of a temporary suction cup mount can allow you to fine tune the best location. Once you establish it's best location epoxy a transducer mount board vertically in that location allowing for more wiggle room for any future adjustments if needed after the initial ridged mount to the plate.