Looking for install ideas - Dragon Fly 7
 

All,

I'm preparing to buy all the required stuff to install my Dragon Fly 7pro, and looking for some inspiration. Anyone have some favorite projects they have seen/tried/referenced that you'd like to share?

Here is what I'm considering:

*Wet, over the gunnel ducer install. Possibly RAM, possibly DIY. No Scotty.
*Track mount + RAM arm screen mount. 1" should work
*Simple drybox battery, but setup for either home or auto 12v charging
*Blue Sea Systems wire and cable management

Any and all ideas/suggestions are appreciated!

:cheers1:

On which Kayak...?

That will make a difference.


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If you don't have a rudder don't put it over the side. I had an arm on mine and it created enough drag that it needed slight paddling correction. Luckily I had a rudder on my old tarpon 140.

Under water is your best option. Now I have a lowrance ready kayak but my next move on the tarpon would have been to install the ducer in a scupper hole closer to the front. That way it doesn't get damaged when I drag the kayak.

I see a bunch of people waste time on battery boxes. Imo they are not needed. Just clean an lube the plugs.

Fair point.... 2016 Ride 135. No rudder, no in-scupper option for 'ducer (the Raymarine transducer is HUGE.)

Hmmm, not sure why it would cause THAT much drag, but it makes sense.

The battery box is a must when you have a less-than sealed hull.

It wasn't that much but enough to be annoying. Enough that I was going to redo it. Lol


As far as the battery box goes, it all depends on how much water you planning on taking in. My cheap $10 12v 9ah batteries are fully sealed and sometimes sit in water in my PA. In my tarpon, they would sometimes sit in a inch or two of water after rolling in the surf with no issues. Never even blew the inline fuse either.

I use a ram arm and it makes a little noise, but less than my paddling. Also, the drag is there, but not enough to bother me - I bring up the arm when I'm focused on reaching a destination anyway. The ram arm isn't ideal, but it meets my realistic expectations of it.

I've been using a Madfrog TDA since they came out (long before they were in my signature). On my Ride I have the TDA on the track mount, the battery goes in a drybag in the footwell with the extra transducer cable, and the head unit is on a Ram mount above the cup holder.

I have a rudder now, but this is the first time I've had one. Drag is negligible. If on a really long paddle, I too just flip it up.

The way I have mine setup is obviously not good for beach launching, but I never surf launch. So, it's a non-issue. If I did regular surf launches I'd move the battery and extra cable inside the yak.

For battery options I picked up a lithium nocqua power pro battery. A little more expensive than the classic bricks but is all self contained with water proof attachment to FF provided and is super small/light weight which I love. They have 4.4 AH and 10AH and since I don't have a livewell I can get away with just the 4.4 AH for my FF. Haven't done a full day yet but rated to be able to handle 6-8 hours for FF alone. $80 on sale on Austin kayak right now. The 10AH is $130.