How's this for a transducer install

[Kimbrey]

Finally got my electronics installed except a gateway is needed to connect the Volvo steering to the Furuno Pilot.
Dropped the boat off in Seattle sunday morning and picked it up midday Wednesday. Looked under the boat and went ohhhhhhh crap this'll be interesting getting the boat on the trailer.  The boat looks to be a bit off on the trailer so I think I can adjust the side/guide bunk on the port side in some to give me an inch or so space away from the bunk by the ducer.  But what a bummer.  I'm not sure if they could have done anything different with this ducer unless they installed it forward and a bit under the engine.  Where it's sitting it's hard against the engine stringer so that's the furthest inboard it could go.  The bunk is sitting right at the edge of an angle change on the hull....kind of like a reverse chine.  Anyway it looks like I'll be floating the boat on the trailer carefully versus power loading.

[Hydroman]

It that a raw water intake just in front of the transducer? Looks like it is also real close to the bunk. 

Jim

[croaker stroker]

That is going to give you some sharp returns. Looks really good. 

Maybe you can just narrow the bunk slightly from the transducer back.?

[Markshoreline]

Yep, move the bunks horizontally to give you clearance.  You'll have to launch the boat before doing that!

[Kimbrey]

The intake is for the bait tank.
Moving the bunks horizontally was the original thought but the hull has an angle change so it'd have to be a big move.  wish the bunk had a height adjustment...but they don't.  My plan isn't too much trailering. Plop it in the water at Westport and leave it.  Put it on the trailer to clean and maintain et cetera.  The ducer is a B275-LHW.  1000w CHIRP with a fairly wide beam which is supposed to be good for fish finding....we'll see.

[disposable]

Dang. That's a great hull and a GRRRRREAT ducer (essentially the best there is right?). You're stoked! But that installation is really surprising, you'd think on a 28' boat you could find another option... I hate to be a worrywort but I'd be afraid of the smallest vibration transferring to that penetration... so I don't see any option but to move the bunks. New bunk supports could make sense (maybe it's more a hassle to get ON the trailer, but at least towing wouldn't be as marginal), or maybe switching to more-and-skinnier or fewer-but-wider bunks would allow you work around the chines (can't tell the overall support geometry at this point), but one way or another I think you absolutely need at least an inch or two between the ducer and bunk.

[disposable]

How about adding a second layer to all the bunks and leaving a 16" cutout in that area (like people do to pass a saddle strap)? You'd have to reverse the trailer a couple inches deeper... and probably lose the ability to power into the bunks, but if you're only pulling out for maintenance that would be a reasonable trade off in my mind...

[croaker stroker]

Looks to me that the bunk is wide enough that it could be cut narrower from the transducer back ?

1/2" might be just enough to clear the transducer ?

Another option is to shim the bunk and move the supports outboard. 

I just did this on my trailer using 1/2" Starboard (roughly 2" x 3") drilled to match the bracket holes.

[Kimbrey]

It's a good ducer but it's all relative to the application.  Kind of the ducer of flavor right at the minute here in the NW.  Good for fish and hopefully see a bit more area with its wide beam when tuna fishing.  It won't work with some of the bottom discrimination stuff out there now but since I've been staring at various commercial grade stuff for over 40 years I might be able to read the "tails" and bottom thickness returns et cetera.

The ducer isn't "quite" touching the bunk now.  That's why you see the blue tape as when they tightened down they didn't want the adhesive getting all over the bunk covering.

The boat looks to be slightly off center on the trailer right now.  I think after I get it in the water I'll move the side guide bunk on the port side in a inch or a bit more so when I put the boat back on the trailer there "should" be an inch or so of space away from the ducer.  I'm not going to attempt to power on.

It's a bummer the installer did this.  Wish he would have called and said we can't make it work so basically now I gotta live with it or figure a workaround.  Lining up an open space versus missing the bunks is tight.  Maybe it might of worked in front of the engine but there's a lot of bunk under that also.  Forward of the engine room is the fish hold which would have been a bad spot, after that it'd be getting too far forward I think.  The only other thing that might of worked would have put in a pocket mount ducer but that'd be a hit in the pocketbook.  Spent enough already.  Oh well I'll make it work.

[Kimbrey]

Whups I got that wrong thinking I could shift the boat a bit on the trailer.  Thinking backwards...Dang it so much for that idea.  Like Croaker said maybe rip a bit off the bunk.  I'll have to look at shimming. 

You can see the angle change in the hull.  It looks like Pacific has built trailers for Farallon so long they have a pattern to fit the hull well but doesn't leave any room for easy adjustment.

[Hunter]

I'm probably just being overly paranoid but I think I personally might be a bit nervous about that big of a fairing block hanging down if I ever were to run over a barely submerged deadhead at high speed.   Just seems like if you hit a telephone pole sized deadhead at full speed on plane that it could knock that block off and then you could be in really big trouble....    I'm probably just over thinking this.   

I've been thinking real hard about biting the bullet and installing a 1000wt Chirp through hull ducer on my tin can and I was thinking about something more along the lines of a flush mount like the Airmar B175 HW.

https://www.boemarine.com/blog/post/airmar-b175hw-high-wide-chirp/

[Wiley]

If you do rip down the bunk to create space. Save the ripped piece and screw it back to the bunk to the outside, so just moving to the flat part of the hull. It would then be self guiding and conforming to hull shape. Basically like cutting a new one to follow hull bottom angle and flat with room for transducer

[wedocq]

I have the 1 kw Airmar transducer with that huge fairing as well! Mine just misses the rollers on the trailer. I absolutely LOVE the transducer. I can maintain bottom doing 35 mph, even if I am in 3000' of water. BEST electronics investment ever for me. Thanks again to Croaker Stroker who found it for me and shipped it up from So Cal several years ago!
-Shawn

[Ssericz]

I'm running the same faring block and hold bottom up to 30-35 out to 200ft beyond that it's too fast to get the returns

If it allows id option the same as disposable and step the bunk like you would for a sling. My last boat had a similar step in the bunk to clear a high speed pickup used as a high speed drain in the fish hold and it was forward of the middle of the boat.

[Markshoreline]

Yep, 1k duckers are the bomb!  I've had one since 2005 and will never go back!

[Hunter]

Yep, 1k duckers are the bomb!  I've had one since 2005 and will never go back!

Mark.....  does your ducer have the large fairing block like Kimbry and Wedocq or is it more of a flush mount like Airmar in the link below?    Also, can someone let me know the reason or advantage of the fairing block over the more flush mount type ducers...     Thanks....   

https://www.boemarine.com/blog/post/airmar-b175hw-high-wide-chirp/

[disposable]

can someone let me know the reason or advantage of the fairing block over the more flush mount type ducers...     Thanks....   

[Kimbrey]

Yep, 1k duckers are the bomb!  I've had one since 2005 and will never go back!

Mark.....  does your ducer have the large fairing block like Kimbry and Wedocq or is it more of a flush mount like Airmar in the link below?    Also, can someone let me know the reason or advantage of the fairing block over the more flush mount type ducers...     Thanks....   

https://www.boemarine.com/blog/post/airmar-b175hw-high-wide-chirp/

I'm not 100% sure if this is the reason for a faring block but I'm fairly certain it's to get the transducer below the bubbles.  IE they travel along the hull.  On the larger vessels for the various transducers we use hull tanks which are basically large faring blocks welded on the bottom.  These things would be anywhere from 1' to 3' deep if not deeper and at times contain more than one ducer.  The theory was the bubbles or turbulence would travel along the bottom.  We used to have fins welded on the hull tank that would attempt to trap the bubbles above the tank. Even with 15' to 18' of draft we'd lose the signal in weather.  Also the faring block is shaped to let water flow around it.

There is a guy, Trevor, that fishes a lot out of Westport.  This summer he had a brand new Ocean Sport Roamer.  They installed a pocket mount transducer.  He couldn't see anything when running but what they did was install the transducer a bit too far up in the hull with the lip of the pocket causing a bunch of bubbles.  They're redoing it this winter.

A flush mount should work just fine, maybe not as good as one with a block but should work really well.  On my last two boats, Sea Legend and a Duck I had a transom mount 1000w ducers.  Worked really well, better on the SL than the Duck but I think that was all in the adjustment.  I didn't want to do transom mount on this boat.

My nephew, The Peddler suggested trying to move the bunk board outboard and reshaping the outer edge instead of ripping an inch off.  That might be the best idea.  Nice to have someone smart in the family instead of a rock crusher such as myself.  Looking at it a bit more this morning it looks like all I have is about 1 3/4" before I get to the edge of the mounting pad if I end up ripping it.  Also I might be able to slide the bunk out an inch before the change of angle in the hull causes a problem.  Of course doing that would require me to shift all bunks out assuming there is no change in angle.  IE the boat would be slightly lower on the trailer.  What a pain in the butt.....but it keeps life interesting.

[croaker stroker]

I installed one of those on my boat back in the eighties. I don't recall a factory block being available back then. (Or maybe I just didn't want to buy one?) I had to make my own out of solid teak. The teak was cut in half to match the deadrise of the hull, and also cut to match the same football shape of the transducer.  (Much smaller than those rubber ones)  Half was mounted inside the hull, and half outside to allow the transducer to point straight down. The transducer worked fine without the large, long fairing.

If there was no room inside of the hull, it begs the question... did they mount the whole inner part, or did they use a smaller part of it ?

https://www.airmar.com/uploads/InstallGuide/17-276-01.pdf