Lowrance X-85 issue

[#fishhunt#]

My locator stops reading the bottom when I hit 6 feet of water on my Crestliner Phantom. Once I get back out in deeper water it starts reading again. This happens whether or not I am using my troling motor, big motor or just drifting. It has never worked correctly. I have it on Auto options. It does not matter what type of bottom I am in. I have tried to adjust the sensitivity and such with no luck. No bottom alarms are set. I dont think the model is made anymore. I have it attached directly to the boat. Would I get interference from the bottom to the boat when they are that close? Should I pull the transducer off and attach one of those plates that you attach multiple transducers to? Any ideas besides going to a hummingbird or staying in water over 6 feet? I have had the same Hummingbird for 20 years and never had a problem. Very frustrating when I fish shallow water.

[brrrr]

I just put the identical locater in my 16 foot lund, got it used but in very good shape. I have the same problem, it will read fine in deep water but as soon as I get to about 5 feet, it loses bottom and flashes. It also loses bottom at about 20 mph, does a little better in deeper water.

my last finder read great in shallow but lost bottom at speeds over about 15, I moved the tranducer further from the motor to eliminate interference when I installed this unit. Also tried manual and auto settings, with no significant improvement.

[#fishhunt#]

I would think more people would have this problem and someone was able to figure it out. Not sure if I should spend the money and put a new transducer on it or not or just use that money to get a new one. Did it work to move the tranducer farther away from the motor? Mine is about 16 inches away. Would there be interference just from the motor even if the motor is not running? I guess I could pull the transducer off and hang it over th e side of the boat to see if it reads in shallow water. If it does I guessI will need to remount it.

[brrrr]

The reason I moved the transducer when I installed this unit is because the one originally mounted was about 12-16 inches from my main motor and real close to the trolling motor, I did pick up interference on my old unit (Eagle Magna II) when the motor was running and I would lose bottom at about 15 mph. I thought moving it may help the high speed performance and the interference problem. I guess I have not seen much interference showing up with the motor running now and the picture in deeper water looks good, shows structure and fish while at low speed. I have only had the boat in the water twice since I installed the x85. I had it in the St Louis river, and Lake Superior, also in another clear deep lake in the area. it was working good up to about 90 feet and graphed structure I could physically see quite well. For what its worth the old tranducer is identical, same model numbers and everything so I will try using the old one off the side of the boat and see what happens. Also my x85 hold bottom at a little higher speed than before but my boat only goes about 30 so I feel I should never lose the bottom while underway. I wont get the boat in the water for a few days so I will let you know when I can test a few things out. I was quite suprised that I am not the only person with this issue.

[#fishhunt#]

Well I just went through previous Lowrance threads and found out this is not unusual with Lowrance products. Not only does it happen to X85's but it sounds like they never fixed the problem with some of the newer models. Nice job.Sucks to spend 400.00 and get that kind of a product. Sounds like the less powerful models do better in shallower water. Time to move on to a different brand.

[brrrr]

I have been reading of numerous trouble across the Lowrance brand as well, but there have been multiple "stories" of trouble free units as well. I am leaning toward a failing transducer issue, I dont mind replaceing one to solve the issue however there are reports of units going through transducers regularily.

I am wondering if an aftermarket premium transducer would hold up longer. they seem to start at $100 or so, I have seen prices of 20 or less on some sites for used lowrance transducers.

fh- are you sure you got the correct transducer for your x-85, I am looking into the possibility that I didnt get the correct transducer, (maybe doesn't handle the power so well) and that is the problem.

[Rippin_eyes]

An x-85 is ultra old technology and had very few sonar issues with them. More than likely its the sonar processor acting up in it. A ducer probably won't cure your issue.

Now that being said the new units are mainly software driven and built to run on everything from small farm pond to the ocean so setting the units up to your particular fishing style is crucial. Once these units are set up and running correctly you are going to experience very few sonar problems.

The transducer in your 85 is very similar to the new ducers that came out last fall. The crystals from the past 4 years have gone away and we out in the state of MN with no issues on them.

[#fishhunt#]

I bought mine brand new and had the issues from the beginning(still have original transducer). So if it was the sonar processor acting up it then it never worked correctly from out of the box. When I originally called Lowrance customer service, while I was in my boat docked,in three feet of water, they told me to run the wires directly to the battery which I did. Nothing changed. We went through all of the settings and couldn't make it work correctly. Then they told me the issue was more than likely the lake I was fishing due to weeds and soft bottom (Pelican Lake near Ashby, MN). I figured I had to live with my purchase mistake. They never offered to have me send the unit in or send me a new transducer to see if that was the problem so it has kind of left a bad taste it my mouth. It is annoying when you jigging in 6 to 8 feet of water on a ledge and it starts flashing if you hit six feet Then you have to take your trolling motor back out to 9 to 10 feet to get it to start reading the bottom again.