1989 Sea Ray 160 I/O in hull Transducer?

[smokeymtndaddy]

Is it ok to use a in hull transducer on my sea ray is it solid or do i need to drill the hull (which i do not want to do) I am mainly concerned about depth not as much fish....thanks

 

["G"]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray 160 I/O in hull Transducer?

Smokey-
Mounting the transducer inside the hull is uncommon today. Back in "the day" we stuck 'em in the bilge all the time with pretty good sounding results. Today's sounder/finder technology has MHZ's and KHZ's that are changeable so they don't read each others sonar waves.

If you wish to mount it inside: take extra care to ASSURE there are no air bubbles when you set it in silicone and don't expect much more than marginal depth sounding at higher speeds. Remember, back "then" we had those rotating depth finders with lights showing the depth.

If you want to set the transducer in a box filled with antifreeze it's harder work but you get better results. Getting it to stand straight up in the bottom of the bilge is trick. Of course there's always hanging it off the transom like most folk do.

 

[skargo]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray 160 I/O in hull Transducer?

^^^^^^^ It's uncommon today?!?!?!

I'd say it's more common then ever. I'm putting one in my Nova as soon as I test it and figure out where it works best.

To the OP's question, you don't need to drill, you put it on the inside and as long as it's not a double hull you will be fine.

Here is a PDF for the Humminbird 610 I installed in my boat. Go to the transducer install section. They have directions for using a transom mounted transducer in an in hull install, and they also have the puck installation, which I used.

store.humminbird.com/download.ep?file=hdr610.pdf

 

["G"]

Re: 1989 Sea Ray 160 I/O in hull Transducer?

OK, I stand corrected... back in "my day" we used silicone and mounted 'em with limited success. I see they are still saying signal strength is not as good and I also see that they use slow cure Epoxy. I've been out of the "rigging" department for 20 years now... Lots of things have changed but so much is still the same. This inside the hull method is so much more secure. Anyone have data on how well they do for fish finding?