Hobie Lowrance Cover - Sand
 

Discovered sand in the Lowrance cover when I was installing my fish finder today. Does this happen at launch or landing? I'm thinking it's when I land. I've seen photos of people taping mesh around the opening. Any tips on avoiding sand?

Probably from beach landing. A little sand won’t hurt things. You’ll be fine

No depth reading from the fish finder today. :mad: I'm guessing sand from the beach launch was blocking the signal.

Sand is inevitable and normal.
 

[QUOTE=jkim0130;309844]No depth reading from the fish finder today. :mad: I'm guessing sand from the beach launch was blocking the signal.[/QUOTE

The sand is probably not the issue. What kinda of unit are you running? If it is a Lowrance, check your source for depth. Was the picture Ok?

Photos attached. The display will show depth once in awhile. Thanks for any help.

I am not familiar with the hook
 

but have used a gen 1, elite, gen 2, carbon, and live. I am not sure if you can manually set your depth, but double check that you are set in auto depth. If it is set at a manual depth and you go beyond the set parameter, you will experience a similar symptom. Hope this helps. If you are uncertain about your settings, than resetting them will bring you back to factory. Hope this helps. By the way, the sand probably comes down the from the top of the kayak through the scupper drain. Rolling in the surf is a sure way of achieving this and also taking heavy waves over the bow during launching. Sticking a garden hose in the scupper hole drain could help flushing the sand out. But usually the sand has hardened or cured to the back of the plate an will not be easily removed without some applied pressure from something like a brush.

Hook2 series sucks. The transducers aren't powerful enough to reach that deep.

Let alone
 

the ability to change settings. I was about to ask what were readings on the displayed image. What depth were you in? 600' or 300'?

Depth was less than 100'. I was at La Jolla today and near the kelp. It was just displaying noise.

I feared the same issue so I used a dremel to cut a hole the pattern of the transducer out of the plastic plate. Then you just mount the transducer a little higher so it won’t be damaged during landings.

after having cleaned it out?
 

Then you have eliminated sand in plate being the problem? A little unclear.

IT"S NEVER the sand. Those issues are alway related to connections. It's not at the battery cause it's powered up and the temperature sensor in the transducer is also working. It has to be one of the pins at the unit or at the connector on the cable. Just as a reminder to reduce corrosion at connections, NEVER plug in the battery first, before the unit and ALWAYS disconnect the Battery FIRST. Also you should use dielectric grease at both ends of the unit connectors and at the fuse connections at it's housing.

Skipped La Jolla today and went to the harbor to check out this fish finder issue.

I figured out the noise setting affects the reading. It was set to LOW and I changed it to HIGH and it started working. I tried a test without sand in the transducer plate and the reading looks clear. I intentionally stuffed sand down the scupper and in the transducer plate and the reading was very noisy. The sand does affect the reading and adds noise.

After my test, I washed the scupper with water. I probably flushed the scupper for about 20 seconds with a hose. The attached photo shows what it looks like after the wash. A shell was even lodged in between the transducer and the plate!

bolocop's cut out fix may be the best solution for sand. Thanks bolocop.

I'm returning this fish finder because it doesn't seem right.

I have done this cut method also
 

be careful with this approach. I would not recommend it. The plate will loose rigidity if too much material is removed. Also, it could add more turbulence which will add surface noise. Thanks for sharing the post and your experience. I would definitely return it if possible and think about upgrading to next model. That transducer looks weak, which would explain why it was having issues. The head unit is not putting out a lot of power. Looks more oriented for fresh water.

I had the same problem with sand and seashells getting jammed between the cover and the transducer. I cut out the cover and have been fine now for 4 years.

Remove sand easily
 

I noticed, early on, that sand was affecting my fish finder readings. It was from landing the previous outing. So, when I wash down my kayak after every outing, I always spray the sand out from the backside of the transducer cover and have never had a problem for years.

The original plate worked pretty well if you left a 3/8 gap per the instructions between the bottom of the ducer and the plate. Hobie later added vents in the face of the plate to increase flushing. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABAD

The original plate works great if you have a smaller transducer, but if the length of the transducer forces one to mount it flush with the plate to keep it horizontal to the bottom, the cut out is a good solution.

Upgrading to the Guardian system is an even better solution.