I’m having trouble keeping my transducer stuck down. I’ll have to go look to see wat kind of silicone I’m using but its a marine grade that doesn’t setup hard and is almost crystal clear when cured. I have no problem reading when its down but after traveling a couple times from the water to home and back it falls off. anybody had this problem or know how to solve it?
Make sure you use a good grade silicone and try gluing down soem thick single cell foam around it… this will reduce “echos” and it should help keep the transducer in place…
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
If you are gluing it to a polyethlene kayak with silicone take a small propane torch and “flame treat” the plastic in the kayak where you will be gluing the TD to, makes a HUGE difference in allowing regular silicone to adhere to the polyethlene.
The purpose here is NOT to heat up the plastic but rather to oxidize the surface of the plastic, you want to quickly pass the torch over the plastic fast enough not to heat it up. Tried and true method still used in the industry today. But again, the purpose is NOT to heat the plastic but to oxidze it with the flame.
If you have a scrap of polyethlene flame treat one portion and then put a bead of silicone on the treated portion and another on untreated portion, let cure and you will be amazed at how much better the flame treated adheres.
Shoo Goo sticks pretty good to polyethlene as well as 3M 4476 plastic adhesive and Geocel but have harsher chemicals in them that could possibly attack the transducer face.
Russ B.
www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
i have good luck with creating a wet well out of closed cell foam. glue the foam to the hull, let it cure, then just set the xducer in place. pour water in the well to cover the xducer and youre golden
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T2B1-is this to open the pores of the poly and allow the silicone something to adhere to?
TB-I’ve been thinking about this but I seem to be coming up short on pieces of closed cell foam large enough to put my transducer in and allow room for water. I have an old(circa 93-95) humminbird tranducer that was never used but just sitting in storage. when I got home from the tournament Sunday night the transducer was laying upside dwon in the bottom of the kayak.
a couple wood screws and an arc welder and you’ll be fine 
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
No, it actually will close off the pores, the main purpose is to oxidize the surface which will allow better adhesion. One can actually paint a polyethlene part with some sucess after flame treating it. Fellow in Canada actually paints all his large plastic parts after oxidizing the surface of them with a plasma treating system, same effect.
Russ B.
www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
I use closed cell foam and a marine adhesive that has never come loose. Then I fill the well in the foam with vasoline, vasoline works well since it tends to not get any bubbles and will give good returns. If your turning the kayak over to transport it can be a bit of a problem in the summer when the vasoline can get soft and run due to the heat.
Hobie Fishing Team
Fin-Tech Pro Staff
NJ-father in law has a wood shop(actually built the rack that we had on the truck last weekend) and I just bougt a millernatic 212 off of a race shop. I think we can handle it.
T2B1-thats quite interesting. I was also wondering if the chemicals in the poly were outgassing causing degradation of the adhesive next to the ppoly but not on the outside where we can feel and touch. we have this problem in the auto business quite often but with film on the insides of the vehicle glass due to chemical release from all the plastic used in vehicles today.
S1t-I do currently carry the kayak on its lid but was carrying it on its side before. both ways have caused the silicone/sealant/adhexive to come free. I’m going to try the oxidation suggestion and see how that goes and then possibly try the wet well.
all-if I’m haveing a hard time getting the transducer to stick won’t I have the same problem with the foam or the pvc for the wet well or does the flex in the foam allow it to move without pulling free?
PVC yes, foam no. What happens is the hull flexes and the rigid xducer doesn’t so the adhesive peels away from the hull. The foam flexes with the hull.
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