Depth/Fish Finder Mounting

[Angela]

I just bought a 12' alumacraft boat and was hoping to use my existing fishfinder from my 16' Stratos. Switching the unit from boat to boat. I'll get around using a troll motor in the coves, but I need a fishfinder.
The model I have is an older one -Eagle Magna III. I am guessing I would need the transducer /cables only. And how would I mount this to an aluminum boat that would be taken out of the water and loaded in the back of a truck each time. Any suggestions? Thanks to all.

[papasage]

you might consider gluing with epoxy to the floor . it will git broken off in the back of a truck .

[Don G]

I just bought a 12' alumacraft boat and was hoping to use my existing fishfinder from my 16' Stratos. Switching the unit from boat to boat. I'll get around using a troll motor in the coves, but I need a fishfinder.
The model I have is an older one -Eagle Magna III. I am guessing I would need the transducer /cables only. And how would I mount this to an aluminum boat that would be taken out of the water and loaded in the back of a truck each time. Any suggestions? Thanks to all.

Where is Breaux Bridge? I was in the Navy with a Gerald Breaux form LA and I think he was from Breaux Bridge....Thanks

[Shellback]

I'm not sure if epoxy works with aluminum hulls, I know it does with fiberglass. Cabelas and Bass Pro sell a transducer bracket that clamps to the transom on small boats. Does your sonar unit use the black power and transducer cords that just push into the back of the unit? I know my brother had an older Lowrance unit that quit on him. I'll ask him if he saved the old power cord and transducer.

[Ranger375]

You might check on E-bay there are frequently transducers for sale or can pick up a complete unit fairly inexpensively.

[CrappiePappy]

I wouldn't mount the transducer to the boat at all !! I'd mount it on the trolling motor. (esp if the trolling motor for the 12' boat is a different one than is on the Stratos). I have a Magna II ... and it has connections for transducer AND power cord. I wouldn't be undoing the power cord to trade the unit between boats. If you really want to use the same unit between both boats ... then you'll need both power and transducer cords to fit the unit - one set for each boat, and just move the unit itself back and forth.

You can find transducers, power cords, and cross connection (old to new, new to old style) cords at www.lei-extras.com/store/default.asp .... but, let me warn you first - for a "puck" or "skimmer" style transducer and a power cord for a Magna III (without the temp sensor) .... you're going to spend around $75 or more (with temp sensor it'll be around $90 +). Now - for that much money, you could buy a whole new separate unit for the alum boat !! You can get a Eagle Cuda 128 for $84 (+s/h) at this site --
www.fishfinder-store.com/eafifimocu12.html ... or shop around and see what you can find. ...........luck2ya ...........cp

[Moose1am]

I mount my Humminbird LCR 8000 unit's bracket to my boat in two places. Both places have oak wood screwed in place with sheet metal screws and then I covered the Oak Wood with some industrial Velcro. I cleaned the bottom of my depth finders bracket real good with acetone and then applied the other parts of the industrial velcro. I can move my depth finder around easily from one spot on my boat to the other spot and the velcro does a good job of holding the depth finder in place. I can go down the highway at 65 mph with the depth finder mounted to my steering console and it will stay in place. I do rotate the depth finders to where the screen points straight down so that the unit cuts into the wind better. I got the Industrial Velcro strips at Home Depot or Lowes. It's not very costly and works very good. The oak wood is about 1/2" thick and about 4" wide and came in 5ft sections. I sanded it and drilled some holes in the corners and counter sunk the holes for the screw heads. I stained the oak wood with a nice golden oak stain and then applied about 4 coats of outdoor varnish to water proof the wood. The velcro was glued to the top of the wood and the dried varnish adhears to the velcro real tight. So far it's holding up great.

I like this method as I can quickly move the depth finder from the steering console up to the very front of my boat. I like it up front when I am slow trolling for crappie.

I have seen some guys use a metal stand similar to the Black Widow rod holders from titloc. Titloc may even sell something like this. In that case you can put the velcro of the aluminu crossbar that holds the rod holders. That way the depth finder could be within reach so that you can make adjustments to the unilt and also it's closer to your eyes so you can see it better or adjust it to get ride of glare from the sun.

The velcro could easily just be glued to the metal top of to any fiberglass surface. My boat is made out of aluminum. And the front deck is covered with carpet so that is why I screwed a small piece of wood on the deck to cover the carpet and give a surface for me to glue the velcro too.

I used stainless steel or zinc plated screws to attach the wood and then added some wood plugs over the holes in the wood to cover the screw heads and hide them in the oak wood piece.

As for mounting the transducer I would just get a trolling motor transducer and mount the transducer to the bottom of your trolling motor. Some brands have adaptors that let you mount any of their transducer to either the transom or the bottom on the trolling motor. That way when you haul the boat out of the water and put it on the truck you can either take the trolling motor off the boat and store it somewhere safe.

BPS had a thick piece of plastic plate that you can screw to the back of your transom and then use that thick plastic plate to screw the transducer bracket onto. That way if you want to move the bracket you won't be putting any more holes in the boat itself but in the thick plastic plate instead. The plastic is thicker than the screws used to mount the transducer bracket so that the end of the screws don't penetrate into the metal of the boat's transom. I wish I had used one of those plastic plates when I put my transducer bracket on my boat's transom.

This latter method may not work well if the boat's back end is going to be touching the bed of the truck. The transducer is normally mounted below the bottom of the boat and the transducer could be scratched or knocked off the boat if it hits something like the truck's bed while loading and unloading the boat.

I would go with the type of transducer that can be mounted to the trolling motor.

In fact there are now some trolling motors that have the transducer actually built right into the trolling motors underwater areas. Then you buy an adaptor cable to connect your particular brand of Depth finder to the Trolling motor's transducer. This may not work if your depth finder needs a special type of transducer like some of the quad types from hummingbird.

These trolling motors are either the Min-Kota brand or the Motor Guide Brands. Check both their web sites to see which one has the built in trolling motor transducers.

I just bought a 12' alumacraft boat and was hoping to use my existing fishfinder from my 16' Stratos. Switching the unit from boat to boat. I'll get around using a troll motor in the coves, but I need a fishfinder.
The model I have is an older one -Eagle Magna III. I am guessing I would need the transducer /cables only. And how would I mount this to an aluminum boat that would be taken out of the water and loaded in the back of a truck each time. Any suggestions? Thanks to all.

[Angela]

First Breaux Bridge is about 20 miles east of Lafayette. Down South.
The unit does have black cable connect in the back of unit, are they all universal with the black connectors?
This Eagle Cuda, how does it rate compared to the magna III?

[Shellback]

Awhile back Lowrance and Eagle ran grey cable connetors, and then went to the black. Most powercords and transducers were interchangable if the same color, but not all. What you could do is go to their accessories site and see what models use the same power cord and transducers. Older Cabelas catalogs used to list the different models they worked on. If you had a old catalog you could check there.

[Barnacle Bill]

How about this for the transducer?
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...results1.jhtml