I got my Humminbird 678DI yesterday and I need to mount it up. I currently have a Garmin and I want to be able to have them both hooked up. Where the Garmin transducer is mounted, I read bottom at all speeds.
Here is my issue. Do I try and scoot the garmin ducer over and mount the HB ducer beside it (HB ducer is very narrow but long) or mount it on the other side of the boat? I dont like drilling holes in my transom and I would have to do a whole new batch of holes to mount it on the other side. If I mounted them side by side I could run the wires beside each other. (I do not plan on running both at once so interference should not be an issue)
I think I read somewhere that Cracker Larry suggested to drill a bigger hole and fill with epoxy. Let it cure then put the screw into the epoxy plug to keep water out of the transom vs using 5200.
I think you could mount them side by side. Use your existing screw holes to attach a piece of star board, cut it to the transom profile and size it large enough to accommodate both Xducers. If the screw holes are not epoxy filled already, I would do that first, then seal the star board with 5200. Mount both transducers to the star board. No new holes in the transom. Everything sealed tight.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
The reason you don’t want it on the port side is because a standard right hand prop will throw the prop wash against the Xducer, causing all kinds of havoc.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
Thanks Larry, I really like the idea of the starboard. That way if I have to tweak the mounting because of turbulence I will not be making swiss cheese of the transom. Looks like I have a little project now.
Cutting board from Walmart works just as good and is less expensive.Both my boats had that mounted to the hull and worked just fine.The plastic board i think is $6
You can buy the “starboard” for much cheaper through McMaster.com. Its sold as high density poly ethylene , or HDPE
I bought a large piece of 3/4 for my trolling motor mount and to this day I find uses for the scraps.
Since you’re keeping the garmin and adding the HB, I assume you mainly want the HB for the down-imaging.
The HB X-ducer bracket is a POS and will break pretty easy. You may want to consider raising it to at least flush with the bottom of the hull or maybe even a little above the bottom so it’s not in the water when on plane. The DI only works at slower speeds anyway.
I like the idea of using the Starboard on the transom, I have all my boats rigged like that now and it’s a lot better than having the x-ducer mounted directly to the transom.
Stono, I got the thickest cutting board from Walmart. Its about 3/8in thick. I think I need to sandwich 2 pieces together to use 3/4in screws.
Larry, thank you for the generous offer. I sent you a PM. If you think there will not be an issue with the plastic 5200 sandwich, I have what I need now.
RDW, I do plan on using the HB for the down imaging. I want 2 fish finders though for redundancy. One time I was running out to a reef and I was with my wife. I Miami Viced my boat off a wave to see what she would say and came all the way out of the water. When I splashed down the force pushed up the Xducer. Because its mounted under the transom inside the pocket I had to strip down and swim under the boat to push it back down. I might have to do something to the HB bracket to reinforce it.
I like the thought of redundancy for running offshore. If I go 20mi out and I cannot read bottom because something happened to my fish finder, it would be a crappy day. It seems to be a rare treat that I get 2’@10 secs on a weekend day,I try and take advantage of every chance I get.
Matt, I wouldn’t sandwich the HDPE material, that’s tacky:smiley: True starboard is also much stronger than that stuff. I’ve got some 3/4" that I’ll send out to you today.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
