Transom mount transducers vs thru-hull

6915 Views 15 Replies 10 Participants Last post by X-Shark, Nov 6, 2007

offshore64

Discussion Starter · Nov 1, 2007

I know that the thru hull ones are better, but how much of a difference do they really provide? are they worth the extra money? i have an old 92 sitex fish finder on my boat right now and its not working very well. Christmas time is coming up soon and im thinking i might talk my mom into getting me one. im looking at the raymarine ds500x and the difference is about 300 bucks with the different transducers

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offshore64

Discussion Starter · #2 · Nov 1, 2007

bump...anyone?

DOUBLE "D" & LV

· #3 · Nov 1, 2007

i like the transom mount ones personally. the through hull ones are good, but unless your in very deep water or you have a lot of bubble producing things in the hull, i would go with a transom mount. give jerry a call at georges marine electronics. he can give you the best advise on the two.

Lickety-Split

· #4 · Nov 1, 2007

"in hull" gives a cleaner pic at speed. Through hull adds to the disturbed water under the ducer, transom mount has to deal woth the whole hulls disturbed water (imho).

David Ridenour

· #5 · Nov 1, 2007

A lot of your "best solution" depends on your intended usage. Get the machine you want first! You can change or upgrade the transducer later. Most serious bottom dwellers will tell you to get an Airmar aftermarket transducer designed for your machine. Some argue it's the most important part of the package.

Looking back 20 or 30 years, off the shelf transducers work pretty damn good! My experience has been the more I use my machine the more profficient I've become with it. An average machine and transducer in the right hands will out do a high end machine in the hands of an inexperienced or ignorant operator. Many high end machine owners don't bother to read the manuals that come with the machines thus missing many of the bells and whistles they paid for.

Do your homework pick a budget and ask tons of questions.After you limit your choices to a few more popular models see if you can hitch a ride and see them in action or at least go play with them in a store.

cape horn 24

· #6 · Nov 1, 2007

I got a transom mount on 24' cape and it works good at speeds up to 30mph.On atransom mount alot depends on placement. My last boat, 25' seahawk with a 225 it didn't perform well above 15-20mph, placement.

BA

snagem 1

· #7 · Nov 1, 2007

I have a DS600X Raython with a transom mountand we get excellent bottom return up to 30 mph. At much slower speeds we get very good returns in 300'. Hope this is a help.

Telum Pisces

· #8 · Nov 1, 2007

A transom mount that is installed properly does just fine for most anything the usual rec fisherman needs. My transom mount with my Lowrance will read the bottom clearly at 36mph (top speed of boat). Most people simply do not take certain factors in consideration when mounting their transom mount. And in some instances, the back of some boats just cause too much turbulance at speed to make a transom mount feesible.

When I took my boat up to Smith Lake in Alabama, it read down to 500 feet at 30mph. I was impressed. Granted it was fresh water, but I was still amazed I could see the bottom.

X-Shark

· #9 · Nov 2, 2007

7

First I would not pick the Ray unit your looking at. lot's of folk's have published problems with them on THT.

Look at a Furuno 620 if you want to stay in the price range. If you want a bigger screen go to the Furuno 585.

The Airmar [manufacture of "most" transducer's] B-60 is a super clean thru hull unit. There I been ton's of them sold in the past several years. I've installed 3 of them myself. They stick out of the hull 3/16in. That's right 3/16in and No fairing block. This is the original tilted element unit. It's a 600watt unit w/ temp.

http://www.airmartechnology.com/airmar2005/ex20/RMProducts/ElectCat.asp?ProdID=36&Man=All&PageNo=67

There is a newer tilted element unit that came out recently and it is B164 and it is a 1000watt unit.

http://www.airmartechnology.com/airmar2005/ex20/RMProducts/ElectCat.asp?ProdID=37&Man=All&PageNo=500

We have recorded a perfect pix from 0 to 44MPH with these units.

Furuno 620 on right. This unit can be run in manual mode and I teach people to run it that way.

Any unit run in AUTO mode uses filters to give you a cleaner pix. A filter, filters out info. Info is what you have a FF for in the 1st place. The more info you have the better.

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cape horn 24

· #10 · Nov 2, 2007

X-Shark

Very good pics, how does the transducer level it self ?

BA

X-Shark

· #11 · Nov 3, 2007

It is internal. Two separate models:-- 12º tilted version(for 8º to 15º deadrise)-- 20º tilted version(for 16º to 24º deadrise)? Includes Temp? Right angle cable exit protects transducer cable from damage.

The X-ducer comes with a 6ft cable on it. Then there is a longer cable that connects to that 6ft cable. The ext. cable is brand specific.

You tell them what you want to hook it to. Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine, etc, etc.

This is a great idea and is long overdue. Now if you sell the boat and want to keep your FF. The next owner may want a diffrent brand and all they have to do is order the cable. No need to remove the X-ducer from the hull.

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Instant Karma

· #12 · Nov 3, 2007

My opinion, on a boat of your size, go transom mount. We have a thru-hull works fine but don't like having a hole in the hull. The marina has damaged it more than once. One time it punched a hole in the hull.

ImHO if you can make a transom mount work, do it.

Good Luck.

wrightackle

· #13 · Nov 3, 2007

X shark is right on the money with his advice and recommendation of the airmar. A friend and I put one on my 19 Cape Horn and it works great. I had all kind of problems with the transom mount. It wasn't a lot of fun installing ithowever. We made the mistake of using the quick setting 5200. Use the slow curing stuff it will give you more working time.

X-Shark

· #14 · Nov 3, 2007

We made the mistake of using the quick setting 5200.

Why do you say that? However I use 4200 fast for all of those installs.

For years X-ducers have a Arrow on them to face forward. These B-60's have a arrow on them,but it points at the keel. Even says so on the X-ducer.

I know of one boat yard [not local] that did not bother to read the instructions.

They pointed the arrow toward the bow. This screws up the way the unit points the cone angle straight down. They had to pull the boat and redo the install.

offshore64

Discussion Starter · #15 · Nov 6, 2007

thanks for the advice guys...gave me alot to think about. pretty much anything would be better than the one ive got now, hell it would probably work better just to get somebody to put ona mask a stick their head over the side of the boat. and xshark im definitely gonna check out the furuno...thanks again

X-Shark

· #16 · Nov 6, 2007

Let me know if you need it installed.

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