Genz box/ Flasher Mod's

[drewbop]

Also, where are most people getting their ram mounts? By the Bay?

[TruthWalleyes]

On the marcum i would attach your H20 by removing one of the tighening knobs and replacing with a bolt, that bolt could hold your ram, or whatever bracket you use with your H20. Or, you could just attach something to the plastic marcum base. Either way you are going to have to go through the case to do it. I have a lure lightening\that screws into the tightening bolt, i would think it's strong enough to hold your gps too.

[castmaster]

Also, where are most people getting their ram mounts? By the Bay?

I found some good prices on ram mounts from a online store. Do a google search for GPS and then add another name for a town, that rhymes with witty.

They have a great selection, good prices and fast shipping. The one time I needed to use customer service they were great as well.

[TruthWalleyes]

Bolted a rod hoder to the frame

[razorsedge31]

i enjoy looking at all the mods on these forums. This last year I bought a Vex ultra pack and put one of my LMS 520 on it. Then I made a genzs box for the other one I had. My two boys both loved it so much that I was left with out electronics. So this year I bought a Lowrance Elite 5 and made a genz box for it. Took them all out last friday and was rewarded with over 40 fish day. I'm sure we would have missed alot of the fish we caught without ever knowing that they were coming right at our bait. You could see the fish on the screen just appear out of nowhere and hit our jigs. I'll never fish blind again!!! I get what your saying about looking down all of the time so the ram mounts might help. But I found our local King Soopers (Krogers) bakery has 3 gallon buckets for free. Se we just put them on the bucket and it raised it off the ground. Seemed to work fine. Here's my mods.

[bassfshin24]

Truth--Have you used your 898 for ice yet? I was thinking about doing the same thing with my 858 or 998. If you have used it do you like it. I would love to have the GPS option with mine.

[TruthWalleyes]

I haven't even started my auger yet.

I've used it on the ice in past years as a GPS only, and that is fantastic as it has all my waypoints, screenshots, and the best map chip around. Early ice i attached it to my otter sled via ram mount. Late ice it went on the truck dash.

I also vertical jig a fair amount during open water and am quite used to the watching my jig on the screen. It'll most likely be my primary flasher when finding fish, but i don't doubt i'll be using my marcum quite a bit either. It'll be nice to have 2 flashers for when i bring someone fishing that doesn't have one. Batteries don't last too long when your running a big screen. I'll have to have a few backup batteries along or just switch to the longer lasting marcum.

[EBass]

Nice Bronco's sticker addition.

[drewbop]

Truth-thanks for the pics, they really help! I will definitely be doing something similar as when I hole hope I'm always dragging a rod or two around. How do your rod holders hold the rods in? It looks like it has a slot down the middle, but still holds rods on the unit?

Thanks for the HSOforum tip-looks like I know what my wife can get me for XMas now-

Also, I bought an Elite 5 DSI for open water season. Has anyone adapted that to the ice yet?

[TruthWalleyes]

The pvc is fairly flexible when cut like that. The reels fit nice and snug and only pull out if you pull them out.

All of them rotate so when i walk away from a rod while hole hopping to attend a 2nd line (or get a beer) i can just stick it in the rod holder and angle it so the rod tip is over the hole.

[TrapMan13]

I understand why you guys will full size "boat style" gps units attach them to the back of your flasher cases. I mean, way more portable. But I have a handheld myself and I was just curious as to why other guys with handhelds are attaching them to there flashers? Is there something I am missing with "useability" aspects or something? I figured it would be easier just to toss mine in my pocket and take it out when i needed it? Just curious!

[drewbop]

For me the reason I want to mount my GPS on my flasher is for hole hopping. I typically will be carrying my flasher in one hand and then if I'm going to use a GPS that takes up the other. It would be convenient to have one hand for a flasher and the other to carry a pole or two.

The mobility factor, for me at least, is the reason for mounting it...

[LunkerCity]

Just a word of warning guys. My brother had his hds7 mounted on his snowmobile and had the whole screen freeze solid on a bitterly cold day last year! If you are going to use your expensive sonar in the winter, make sure its not too cold for it, they are not designed to be used in arctic conditions.

[TrapMan13]

drewbop, do you not locate the "area" you plan to target with your gps then have at it with an auger and flasher? There is where my question lies, is there any other purpose it serves; other than easy storage?

and I agree with the statement above... I found my unit has the tendency to slow down after its been subjected to the cold for a long period of time. But I don't know if this actually hurts the unit? Condensation eventually maybe?

[castmaster]

+1 to what LunkerCity said.

There is a reason Marcum runs a screen heater on the lx 7's.

[fishwater]

I use the hds5 for gps all winter, going since it was first released. It's been cold more than twice and has never had any issues. I can't recall ever having it outside in sub 20's for too long, but I have had it mounted on the sled for lots of days up to -10 and it never had an issue.

Does it just work slow, or freeze up in a static view, or does something else happen? Maybe the cpu is just locking up from freezing moisture internally, not actually anything related to the screen being too cold?

Here's something you don't see everyday, a lx7 on a propack and a vex28 in a marcum case. Transvestite flashers. The lx7 slides into a 5 gallon bucket snugly, that was my goal of the switch. I'm actually pretty happy with the vex in the marcum pack, the transducer is stored in a much better configuration than the soft pack provided.

[TruthWalleyes]

Transvestite flashers...Awesome.

[drewbop]

drewbop, do you not locate the "area" you plan to target with your gps then have at it with an auger and flasher? There is where my question lies, is there any other purpose it serves; other than easy storage?

Yeah, you're correct about that. But sometimes I'll end up drilling holes randomly on a lake I haven't fished much before and will come across something of interest to mark that wasn't marked before. So I guess it really does come down to just having easy storage.

[Naturboy]

I love having the gps and depth screen together just to tell me how far the point goes or weed lines marked during the open water season Also the screen does slow down when its really cold but then I take into the portable for a while, its never totally froze up on me.

[LunkerCity]

Yeah his screen froze solid. All the crystals froze and the screen was done. He had to send it in and have them put a new screen on it... I bought a mark 4 to use on my sled so my summer electronics won't be beat on and frozen.

[solbes]

Here's what I setup last year for the ice. Took my HDS 7 from the boat on RAM mount. Cutout a piece of Trex facia board to size for the bottom. Mounted a 1.5" Ram ball to that. The Ram mount folds flat when I'm ready to pack up so the top can be zipped shut.

Added a 7 Ahr 12V battery, one new HDS power cord, and the standard ice fishing 'ducer PTI-WBL with a piece of pipe insulation to float it. Works pretty well. Good news is the rest of the soft tackle box holds all my other goodies so it's easy to pack along. A tad heavy, but it rides in the sled.

[PurpleFloyd]

Quote:

Also, I bought an Elite 5 DSI for open water season. Has anyone adapted that to the ice yet?

I bought an elite 5 ice machine to replace my trusty x67c and this thing is great. I love the graph mode and how you can dial it in coupled with the GPS capability. The ability to split the screen and have your maps and waypoints alongside the graph mode is going to be fun to play around with.

What is the best mapping to get? I had navionics on my iPhone but just traded that for an android phone this weekend and my guess is that I cannot transfer to the droid app so am I better off doing something with the elite 5?

[dairyman]

It really depends on which lakes you fish. Check out each of the chip mfg web site to see if they have the lakes you fish on them

[drewbop]

Trophy-what size PVC did you use for the rod holder? Do you just cut a slot down the middle so it essentially "pinches" the reel to hold it in place?

Thanks!

[bassinboy3]

I like the idea of having the 898 on the genz box I have been tossing around that idea for awhile now with my 998. I am trying to think of you I want to mount it on the pickup, drilling as few holes as possible.

Any ideas?