Stern mount transducer on a Revo?
 

Hi all,

I have a Revo 11 and a Dragonfly FF with a transducer that's about 6"-7" long.

My Revo does not have a pocket in the bottom to mount the 'ducer inside of, so at first the options I was looking at were mounting inside the hull and shooting thru the plastic, or some kind of over-the-side arm mount.

But both of those solutions have their drawbacks and I was wondering if anyone has figured out a way to permanently mount the 'ducer on the outside of the Revo hull such that it's in the water but not in danger of being impacted when landing on the sand.

I was thinking it might be mounted on the stern somehow?

Maybe even mount it to the rudder?

(My thinking was that the rudder is usually pointed fairly straight when in the water, and when I flip the rudder up when I land that would get the 'ducer out of the impact danger zone.)

I'm fairly comfortable with drilling small screw holes in the hull, as I think they'd be reasonably easy to water-proof, I'm less comfortable trying to water-proof big (1"- 2") holes. Small holes in the rudder should be no problem I would think.

Anyway, any thoughts?

Andy

I considered a similar setup on my kayak, however the biggest drawback is that your transducer will be picking up what you have already passed.

I had an in hull transducer mount on my Outback but it was old and didn't work well. To fix it I got a suction cup mount and it works great. You just suction it on when you peddle out and take it off before you come back in.

That's really cool! What brand did you get?

Andy

Thanks octico, I've never heard of instamorph before, how did you melt it?

Andy

I use one of these on my outback.

fishfindermounts.com

I use a ram transducer arm. I was hesitant to go that route as there are a few downsides (risk of hang ups, drag, etc), but I haven't had issues with it yet. I lift it up out of the water when I'm in route to a fishing area then drop the transducer when I want to look around below the kayak. Ideally I'd prefer a molded in transducer pocket on the hull, but the ram mount is fairly practical.

I have a hummingbird fish finder and the suction cup mount is designed for that transducer, however I believe they sell universal ones that may work for your transducer.
The one I have is called:Humminbird 7400901 MHX XNPT Portable Mounting Hardware Kit

Thanks guys, this has been super helpful.

Opened my eyes up!

Andy

I also have a hummingbird suction cup mount but it won't work on my Malibu due to the texture of the hull. So I made a swing down arm to mount on the stern that will swing up out of the way if it hits anything. I'm going to try a scupper mount on my Garmin

I've got mine on a Mad Frog Gear TDA which attaches to a Yak Attack Gear Trac. Super easy mounting it in the morning, and you do get used to dodging the worst of the debris on top. Drag isn't as bad as you would think either.

When I got my Trident I tried in-hull with Duct Seal. It worked, but I really missed having accurate temps and the much better signal you get with having the transducer in the water.

The best part of kayak fishing these days is the amount of options we have. Wasn't like that when I started in 2001. Our options were limited and for the most part were being invented as we tried things.

This is where I get torn, the logic in me says a good in-hull mount (ducer in a water bath or 100% bubble-free adhesive) should have just as good a signal as an in-water ducer.

Theoretically the plastic hull it's shooting through should be a non-issue as all ducers are designed to shoot through plastic - heck, they're completely enclosed in plastic when they're made.

But then I hear real-life experiences like yours.

Andy

I never liked the in hull mount. As there are a few negatives with the ram ball mount, I still preferred it to being inside the yak


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water temp is what you will miss with a thru hull. believe dsi is also compromised with a thru hull. probably not that big a deal unless you need the above 2 items.

I've got a pre-lowrance-ready Revo, and I use a 1/2" pvc arm that mounts in the sail mount (so it's basically u shaped). I left one of the joints uncemented so I can swing it up and down.

I've thought about trying to make a mount on the rudder, but I hate it when I'm not paying attention and my line gets tangled in the rudder and I figure that will only make it worse.

Pretty clever. Where did you mount the head unit?

Andy