depth sounder replacement

[texsun]

I made the decision to replace my 2000 yr old Lowrance 3500 with a new Faria Chesapeak SS. The SS is an updated depth gauge that comes with an InHull Transducer. My question is can I simply use a putty knife to remove the old Lowrance Transducer, sand, and clean the area ...and glue down/silicone the Faria Transducer in?? If the putty knife is not cool...please let me know the best approach.
Thanks in advance!

 

[cyclops222]

Perfect way to do it

 

[airshot]

I made the decision to replace my 2000 yr old Lowrance 3500 with a new Faria Chesapeak SS. The SS is an updated depth gauge that comes with an InHull Transducer. My question is can I simply use a putty knife to remove the old Lowrance Transducer, sand, and clean the area ...and glue down/silicone the Faria Transducer in?? If the putty knife is not cool...please let me know the best approach.
Thanks in advance!

2000 yr old Lowrance 3500.....?? Was it used by Jesus ? Couldn't help having a little fun with your typo....

 

[roscoe]

2000 yr old Lowrance 3500.....?? Was it used by Jesus ? Couldn't help having a little fun with your typo....

no, not used by Jesus, he walked on top of the water, regardless of its depth.

 

[dingbat]

Would advise against the use of silicon in a transducer install.

Silicon is a sound deadening material. Epoxy propagates sound magnitudes better. Better sound transfer, better performance

 

[cyclops222]

Do you have any TESTED data results of the squeezed out Silicone. I do. No difference compared to a transom mounted Transducer. The small boat has 2 identical fishfinders. No difference. When both are on at the same time and different frequencies.
1 in the Aluminum hull. The other outside the transom.

 

[airshot]

The silicone will fail, in my 60 yrs of boating, I have never saw a successful silicone use. Then when it fails, it is very difficult to get anything else to stick in that area. No silicone anywhere near my boat...

 

[texsun]

Perfect way to do it

Got it done! Been down there for 20yrs....not 2000 ) I have a 2005 Larson 208.
I looked at the original set up and thought 'should be pretty straight forward'...
This Faria IN HULL transducer has a plastic 'well' that it recommends using sillicon to stick the 'Well' to the hull...then you pour RV grade anti freeze (looks like a few ounces to keep air space out) in the 'well' ..and then you mount the transducer into the well.
And they advise I conducting a couple of test to determine the 'best location'
Has anyone has any experience with this?

Thanks

 

[cyclops222]

Faria gauges were terrible quality decades ago. Sounds like they are the same with transducers.

 

[dingbat]

Do you have any TESTED data results of the squeezed out Silicone. I do. No difference compared to a transom mounted Transducer.

It’s a well proven and recognized fact that using a silicon to mount a transducer is detrimental to its acoustic performance.

From a physics perspective, I would argue that your test results are invalid given the fact that you’re comparing different frequencies and not seeing a difference.

Given the circumstances, a better argument could be made that the degradation in performance is within a range found acceptable to you, the end user.

The running joke at work, as long as the customer gets the answer he is expecting, the accuracy doesn’t matter

But to answer your question, we did side by side comparisons using a high end commercial sonar system when setting up my boat. The difference in sensitivity between a “wet tank” shoot thru installation and the traditional thru hull installation that I finally settled on was noticeable.

 

[dingbat]

Got it done! Been down there for 20yrs....not 2000 ) I have a 2005 Larson 208.
I looked at the original set up and thought 'should be pretty straight forward'...
This Faria IN HULL transducer has a plastic 'well' that it recommends using sillicon to stick the 'Well' to the hull...then you pour RV grade anti freeze (looks like a few ounces to keep air space out) in the 'well' ..and then you mount the transducer into the well.
And they advise I conducting a couple of test to determine the 'best location'
Has anyone has any experience with this?

Thanks

Same transducer setup I had in my last boat running a fish finder.

Not sure why you would need to test with a depth finder only display. Replace one transducer with the other but…here was my technic for a fish finder

You need a zip-loc bag of water and your head unit set for manual gain control.

Took a reading from the transducer hanging over the side. Adjusted the gain to get the clarity I wanted.

Then I put the transducer in the bag of water. Tried a couple of different locations in the bilge. Testing each location by adjusting the gain to get the desired clarity.

Quickly eliminated all but two locations. Still took almost a 40% increase in gain to equal the quality of the returns of the transom mount.

Solved my “reading at speed” issue so happy with the results

 

[cyclops222]

I also have a hand held 3rd transducer to look sideways at any angle all around the boat.