Proper size thru Hull transducer for 1996 Sea Ray 210

[Nextelbuddy]

1996 Sea Ray 210 that has a lowrance 3500 system.

I asked about this over on the Sea Ray Club forums and they told me that I should get a P19/B619 Air Mar transducer that it would fit right inside the hole.

So I purchased it and I came to the boat today to remove my old transducer and when I removed the collar I can see my transducer is only about 1 inch in diameter.. the new one P19/B619 is a 2 in transducer

I really hate to have to drill a larger hole through my hull is there another transducer that I can purchase that is the same diameter as my existing one?

Gauge that I will be using is a lowrance 3800 gauge.

 

[dingbat]

The old transducer doesn’t look like any “thru hull” transducer I’ve ever seen.

Are you sure the old transducer isn’t a “shoot thru” glued to the hull?

 

[Nextelbuddy]

It's definitely thru Hull just seems to be a really small cheap one.

 

[dingbat]

It's definitely thru Hull just seems to be a really small cheap one.

Boy.....you got that right.
Not sure I'd risk my boat on a piece of cheap plastic. The thru hull for my fish finder (95mm) is bronze

 

[Nextelbuddy]

I just installed the transducer in my boat following the directions boe Marine video so I'm curious on one part about tightening the nut.


On some forums people say to just hand tighten the nut and let the sealant fully cure and then go back and tighten it with the wrench because they say you can squeeze out all the sealant if you tighten it all the way from the get-go

I tightened the nut with the wrench nice and tight and saw all the squeeze out and I'm hoping that's okay and I wasn't supposed to only hand tighten and then wrench tighten later after it cured.

Used life caulk in the yellow tube the one that says it works underwater lol

I'm a little nervous because the transducer the bronze when I got was a 2-in transducer and I drilled a new 2-inch hole with the hole saw a 2 in Milwaukee one.

The transducer was not super snug in the new hole I was kind of expecting that the transducer would be snug enough where I would kind of stay in the hole and not fall out but the hole was ever so slightly large enough to where the transducer had to be held in by tape.

The transducer flange and the nut and rubber washer both covered the hole adequately

So I'm really hoping that everything is nice and sealed properly the instructions say to give three to seven days for cure time so I'll leave it alone

I'm curious with life caulk when it cures is it still soft and malleable? Will the transducer still be able to spin in place once it cures? Or does it get a little hard similar to 4200?

 

[Grub54891]

You will be fine.

 

[Nextelbuddy]

You will be fine.

i hope so, i'm tempted to yank it all back out clean it up and use 5200 instead. regardless of people saying never use 5200 on transducer. i dont plan on changing transducers often at all and it feels like i would be more comfortable with the solidity and firmness of 5200 over the gummy elastic properties of life caulk.

 

[Nextelbuddy]

I came here two days later to check on how everything is curing and so far everything is nice and snug and firm so that's a good sign. The top in the bilge it looks nice and watertight and underneath I'm a little disappointed with how the squeeze out resulted. There are some nibs of caulking around the edge of the flange and I would love to remove them but I'm scared to cut them off and risk of breaking any type of seal that might be there. Looks a little ugly.

I replaced my lowrance 3500 with a 3800 gauge and the transducer with a 2-in brass thru hull airmar transducer.

I wired up the gauge using a wiring pinout diagram I got from a nice gentleman over on the Sea Ray Club forums that went pretty smooth and I routed the cable along the factory body harness.

 

[Grub54891]

My first rule of thumb is to clean off the squeeze out off the outside right away. You still have sealer under the flange and up the threads, Removing it now wont cause any issues.

 

[Nextelbuddy]

My first rule of thumb is to clean off the squeeze out off the outside right away. You still have sealer under the flange and up the threads, Removing it now wont cause any issues.

Understood, thanks for the advice and I'll carefully use a razor to remove the excess nibs. I'm sure leaving those nibs there will cause water turbulence I'm front of the transducer causing air bubbles and false readings.