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Can I do it myself? (Boat electronics.)
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Question
Dances with Walleye
Okay... So I picked up my boat from the dealership on Friday, (I had them winterize it for me.)
Over the winter I'm planning on buying a good GPS depth finder Combo with Lake Master chip etc...
The boat came with a chimpy POS lowrance X-25.
What I want to do is take the X-25, and move it up front, so that whoever is running the trolling motor has a Depth gauge, so I don't have to call out depth from the cockpit all the time.
Then install the GPS/Finder on a Ram arm on my console.
****
So I asked the guy at the dealership what that would cost me in Labor time... He said I'd have to drop my boat off with him in February in order to have it back by mid April and it's going to cost me $300+ in labor.
These numbers seem unacceptable to me...
So I've been looking into doing it myself.
I found an Eagle Unit that will be in my post-christmas price range.
There's two varriations, one with Internal Antenna for the GPS, one for external antenna. I've been told by two different sources that one is bad and the other is good... And then vice versa... Anyone here have a third oppinion?
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I talked with a guy at a Sportsman's Warehouse, who told me I could do it myself, and kind of walked me through it.
He told me that I would simply have to take apart the back deck, front deck and Starboard gunnel. (No Problem, that's just backing out screws in the right order...
Then I note how the power and Transducer line from the X-25 old unit runs...
Take the X-25's guts out...
Mount the X-25 to the front deck... Run the transducer line down the shaft of the Trolling motor with Zip Ties, and secure this metal bracket thing to the butt of my trolling motor... Which the X-25 Transducer then attaches to.
Then finally just run the power line back and connect it into the fuse box under the console.
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Then I take the Eagle GPS, and run all of it's wire's exactly in the same path that I noted from when I took the X-25 out, and simply put the new transducer in the old transducer's bracket off the back, using the same gasget.
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Now all this sounds feasible and within the confines of me and my buddies skill level.
But this is all just "On Paper."
I'm wondering if anyone can shed some "Real Life Experience" on the issue.
I'm about to get engaged and the next year of my life I have to plan my finances very carefully, so I'm trying to come up with a Master plan way in advance.
Thanks Bros!
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