Transducer interference

[dean nelson]

Well I'm pretty sure I just went nuts because I'm going to be picking up a sonar for my boat. The reason this is nuts is my boat I'm getting the electronics for is an 8.5 foot sun dolphin. I run the boat with a small minkota tiller and a big marine battery. I'm looking at either the humminbird helix 7 or possibly the 9. So yes if your doing the math I'm looking at putting a $700 to $1,000 side scan sonar on a $500 boat thus the Ridiculousness of the situation. Joked about doing it for years but now am going through with it. The question is with mounting the transducer sense if it's put in the back it will only be about a foot-and-a-half from the trolling motor and I'm wondering if that will get the bottom of the motor into the cone and cause a problem. Also weather or not I need a second battery for the unit to limit electrical interference? I've run the little cheap ones on there before but am new to the more high end equipment so just looking for some pointers and if anyone has the 7 or 9 what you have thought of the unit. The 9 is tempting because I could mount it on my four wheeler and run the 360 for ice fishing if I choose to pick up the probe.

This is the style boat I'm talking about. They don't look like much but they are by far my favorite boat of any size to fish out of. If any of you were down at cattail back in 09 you may have seen me and my buddy out in the main pack of boats with a couple of these. Couple guys gave us crap till they saw that because we could get right in on the flooded treeline trolling we were slamming them well they had to stay a few yards out and had a slower bite. So if you have any advice would love to hear it.

 

[DirtyMike]

put the ducer on a piece of pvc and clamp it to the side. should get out of the way of that trolling motor.

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah was thinking that or possibly mounting it right to the trolling motor. What ever I do it will have to able to be taken on and off when moving the boat since it gets tossed in the box of the truck. Will be fun mapping some of these new lakes so I can see the depth and what the bottomed is and also mapping weed lines for when we come back in the winter.

 

[DirtyMike]

Not sure if that would be too much vibration for that transducer. Either way, there's not enough room between transom and shaft to get those side imaging ducers to do what their supposed to do. At least on one side. On my lund I had to trim up to get side imaging to both sides as the motor blocked to the right.

 

[Vollmer]

Would be easy to do a thru hull I would think.

 

[DirtyMike]

Would be easy to do a thru hull I would think.

side imaging wont work then. but if you buy a y cable, you can do both transducers.

 

[Captain Ahab]

I think you are worrying a lot about nothing. You can run off the same battery as the troller as long as it has a good charge. If it gets weak and you goose your motor the locator will cut out. Secondly, the trolling motor head will not interfere with your sonar or imaging. You may get some surface clutter from it, but that's about it.

 

[johnr]

Looks neat.
My boy has a little cayak he has been telling me needs a trolling motor, would be fun

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah there definitely fun and by far more fun when trolling for walleye because of how maneuverable they are but even more so that you can turn the motor off and actually fight the fish instead of skiing them in. Just remember the second you put a trolling motor on it has to be licensed by the game and fish.

 

[dean nelson]

Ended up finding a perfect setup that is geared towards kayaks but will work perfectly for my little Sun Dolphin.