New Transducer Mount

[quikdrive]

I picked up a new DSI fish finder a few weeks ago. After reading mixed reviews on peoples success with the 455/800 fish finder shooting thru the hull I decided I wanted to try and mount the transducer on the outside of the hull. This is what I came up with.

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The pin allows you to lock the arm in the down position or in the stowed position facing forward or facing aft. I want to give this a few test runs to make sure I like how everything is laid out and then will eventually paint the aluminum.

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[Goody]

Nice setup. Did you custom make the parts?

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[PigPen]

That is cool. My ram mount twists when going full speed. Something like this would be great.

[quikdrive]

Nice setup. Did you custom make the parts?

Thanks Goody. I ended having our machine shop at work do the brake & shear part. I was trying to get this to fly under the radar so I kept everything generic and could trim it when I got home. I wanted to add a chamfer to the vertical part holding the trandsucer also but didn't have time. The pin w/ lanyard was just a few bucks from McMaster-Carr.

Might end up triming the arm down a bit if this gets in the way when securing my kayak to the roof rack.

[Midnight Toker]

Nice job. Looks very rugged.

My only concern would be with depth. From the looks of the first picture, you could actually shorten it quite a bit, the transducer would still allways be fully submerged, and you'd spend alot less time worrying about having to raise the arm everytime you come across 1-1 1/2 ft of water...which is often around the Chesapeake and it's tributaries. Just for reference, I have a Tarpon and bought the slide trax transducer mount. It's arm length is 12" from the top of the boat. In other words, I'll have to literally run aground before the transducer hits bottom. Just a thought. Other than that, I'd take yours over mine.

[quikdrive]

Nice job. Looks very rugged.

My only concern would be with depth. From the looks of the first picture, you could actually shorten it quite a bit, the transducer would still allways be fully submerged, and you'd spend alot less time worrying about having to raise the arm everytime you come across 1-1 1/2 ft of water...which is often around the Chesapeake and it's tributaries. Just for reference, I have a Tarpon and bought the slide trax transducer mount. It's arm length is 12" from the top of the boat. In other words, I'll have to literally run aground before the transducer hits bottom. Just a thought. Other than that, I'd take yours over mine.

Thanks and I appreciate the intel on the slide trax mount. Right now the arm sits at 16" but do plan on trimming it down. I read where dsi transducers shoot at a 180 degree slice versus the conventional frequencies shooting like a cone. I wanted to make sure I was below the bottom of kayak to avoid any interference. If I don't trim it I can always use it as a stake out pole

[yakersaltlife]

Thanks for the setup pictures quikdrive. Hope you dont mind, but I am stealing your design for the new Elite4 HDI that I just bought.

[quikdrive]

Thanks yakersaltlife. Here is the fab sketch. If you need the 3D models shoot me a PM w/ your e-mail and will send them.

Tran Mount.jpg

[Cowpokey]

Thanks for the setup pictures quikdrive. Hope you dont mind, but I am stealing your design for the new Elite4 HDI that I just bought.

Your PA doesn't have the transducer pocket?

[Frogsauce]

I fished a lot of creeks before the bay, so I did the through-hull transducer and haven't had a problem out of it yet. Shows me the deep waters (100+ ft) out in the middle of the bay.

That one you made there looks tough as nails though.

[yakersaltlife]

No I have the older model (2012).

Neil - Have you used it since you made it? anything you might change? make stronger?

[quikdrive]

Keith - overall the assembly is plenty strong. I would recommend trimming the arm down to the minimum depth to where you can get 180deg coverage under your yak if you are using a DSI. From what I read DSI shoots at 180degs rather than the cone shapes you get from a typical 83/200 fish finder. I also load and unload my yak from the port side and the longer arm got in the way a bit. I trimmed the arm from 16" to 13" and it helped a lot. That dimension is going to be unique for each model of kayak.

I also added a nylon washer between the rotating parts. When it was just straight aluminum on aluminum I didn't care for the action. Right now the unit is bare aluminum but plan on painting it or chem filming it. The only other thing I might do is add bushings to the receiving end of where the pin goes. I used a quick release pin with a spring bearing on it (http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-qu...e-pins/=s5f7c7) and think it is going to open up the hole after a while since the spring pushing the ball out is pretty strong. If you use a hitch pin or something else you might not have the same concern. Or I just might need to open up the hole a bit so the fit isn't so tight.

[john from md]

Neil,

Does that transducer have 83/200 capability or only 455/800? The reason I ask is that I had a DSI setup on my boat and wasn't too impressed because there isn't much structure in the bay. I guess it might be good around the bridge pilings but I never got close to them with the boat so I never used it in there.

Regards,

John

[quikdrive]

Hey John,

I have an Elite 4 DSI so I just have 455/800 w/ GPS. I replaced an old hummingbird 343c 83/200 fish finder that I loved but wanted to upgrade and get GPS etc. I wish I held out and got an all in one (including 83/200) but couldn't pass up the deal on this DSI unit. I believe the transducer just does 455/800 but not 100%.

Here is a great write up that goes over the cone shape and how you can miss fish with a cone shape. Besides the extra detail of DSI this was the other reason I migrated to DSI.

http://www.jasonhalfenoutdoors.com/downimagingfish.html

I kept telling myself that was the reason I wasn't catching a lot of fish

[yakersaltlife]

quik, the one thing that guy was missing was at that shallow of a depth, no one in there right mind would use the 200khz beam in that shallow of water. I am not saying that what he is saying is not right, but that is more than likely the reason he missed the fish on those two 2D shots he has on there.

I am excited to see how the HDI work for the freshwater areas as well as the bay. Once I get my mounting post "broke" I can rig it up and test it out!