Mounting transducer in yak

[Dinodadog]

Has anybody noticed any problems with mounting a through the hull transducer ie like a lowrance that is not flat on the bottom, somebody said that the flat bottom ones work better. Someone else said its what you stick it in with that counts. Any ideas greatly appreciated.

[kreel]

Hi Dino, I have a NAVMAN sounder and had some initial problems getting it to work. It was a mounting problem that resulted in little or no output to the screen.

The thing I found was that the sounder needed to be firmly set to the hull (I used Sellys Allclear) to make sure there were no bubbles under the transducer. I also felt it was critical to have it flat and inline with the long axis of the yak.

The best place to get info on the procedure is the AKFF WIKI (www.akff.net)

Good luck mate

[Feral]

No problems once it is in. You just need to be careful glueing it in, particularly if you use the favoured "selly's All Clear" which takes for ever to go off inside a yak (mine took over a week).

This is because the rotten transducer will roll or move if you dont set things up right. Mine did, I was very lucky, it slid about 2 inches before it stopped moving, just as well I had a huge blob of all clear, it is right on the edge of it.

Make sure the bit of the yak your glueing it to is dead flat (might mean you need to prop up one end), if it will not sit flat on its own, screw something to the mount so it will sit flat, preferable big enough / far enough away that when you undo it later on after the all clear has set, you dont find you have accidently glued that to the hull as well!

if you have a look here (might have to sign up) they have a lot of good stuff on kayak mods such as installing your sounder.

http://www.akff.net/

look under the "akff wiki" tab at the top, then the "do it yourself" section and pick whatever it is your interested in. Be careful you can waste hours in there looking at everything!

[Dinodadog]

thanks fellas

[rayke1938]

AhHa do I detect another yak owner?

Cheers

Ray

[apoklyps60]

marine goop and duct tape. drys in 48 hours

[Dinodadog]

ya gotta hav someone to fish with or your yak will gather dust

[WayneD]

I prefer a wet mount for my yaks. I personally don't like the idea of permanently mounting the transducer in the yak, what happens if you change yaks, or your transducer dies? Plus if you have more than one yak then you can change it between them.

I got a foam kneeling pad from the hardware store, cut out the shape of the transducer from it, all cleared that to my yak. Put a small amount of water in it and squeeze the transducer into the cut out shape. Nice and easy. Although now I am waiting to see if my old navman transducer hole will fit the new humminbird transducer......

[Feral]

Easy enough to cut them out. Although I am considering using a wet mount for the unit I got of you Wayne.( After I cut out the Garmin one that is in the way! )

[bigtez]

I have made up a bracket to go on my Tarpons that lets you swing the transducer out of the water when not needed. It also means you can get an accurate water temp reading. I will go and take some pics of it now.

[bigtez]

Here they are. I am waiting on some bolts to finish mounting this to my yak, but you get the idea.

[Bommie]

make pvc pipe your friend, this is my son's yak with transducer mounted over the side, it slides into a rod holder mount so its easy to attach and remove or lift it up out of the way

[Dinodadog]

gee there sure is some different ways

[tomca]

WayneD wrote:

I prefer a wet mount for my yaks. I personally don't like the idea of permanently mounting the transducer in the yak, what happens if you change yaks, or your transducer dies? Plus if you have more than one yak then you can change it between them.

I got a foam kneeling pad from the hardware store, cut out the shape of the transducer from it, all cleared that to my yak. Put a small amount of water in it and squeeze the transducer into the cut out shape. Nice and easy. Although now I am waiting to see if my old navman transducer hole will fit the new humminbird transducer......

My humminbird tranny fits in the hole you cut in it perfectly Wayne.

Using this method means its a 5 minute job to remove the sounder from the yak and mount it on the boat, so I didn't need to buy a second sounder.

The only downside is when the sun is beating down on the yak, the water temp reading is around 3-4 degrees higher than the actual temp.