Great topic! As a guy that uses his FFS sonar on almost every trip out, I would be very leery of using a ram mount to hold the pole in position. I would be afraid of the flex that will happen at the ball, the last thing a person wants is un-necessary angles being subjected to your transducer. At the very least, I would also purchase summits LS MAX pole mount. When dealing with larger diameter poles, the resistance in the water is easily amplified at the mount.
Judging by the fact that you are using the mega live, I am presuming that you will not have this mounted on a shuttle, but some consideration should be given to if you plan to take this with you when you ride along with a buddy in their boat, having the same setup as others you associate with make it very easy to run and gun between boats.
In order of importance, from most to least, my checkboxes for purchasing livescope pole equipment are as follows:
- How solid is the mount
- How stiff is the pole (thats what she said)
- How easily can modes be switched (Forward,Down etc)
- How does it stow in my boat while running down the lake.
In the world we live in, there are hundreds of options out there, in about any form factor and dollar amount you can imagine. Keep it neat and clean, and keep it solid, and you will love it!