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| Message Subject: Locator for New Boat | |||
Lunkerhunter |
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Posts: 71 Location: Waukesha, WI | I'm thinking of replacing my 2001 Ranger with a new one. Lowrance has a new locator (337c DF) with a 90 degree cone that I thought would be good for finding suspended muskies and useful for just casting along the weed line. Would the wide cone angle be helpful in both of these applications? The salesman express some concern about the transducer creating spray behind the boat because the tranducer is very large. He guess that the transducer was about 3" by 5". Do you think that is a problem? Thanks. Gene | ||
| BenR |
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| why not glass the transducer in the hull and you would not have to worry about the spray..Ben | |||
| mikie |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Gene, say it ain't so! Our lucky Red Ranger going out of the muskie business? That's been a good boat and I understand that it needs traded, you've gotten some good use out of it. Ben has a good point, if there is room in the bilge area of the new boat to cement in the transducer, that would not only solve the overspray issue, but better protect the 'ducer from - dare I say? - rocks and other hazards. I looked up that unit on the Lowrance web site, very nice, color too! Here's some text from the owner's manual for that unit: Shoot-thru-hull vs. Transom Mounting In a shoot-thru-hull installation, the transducer is bonded to the inside of the hull with epoxy. The sonar "ping" signal actually passes through the hull and into the water. This differs from a bolt-thru-hull installation (often called simply "thru-hull"). In that case, a hole is cut in the hull and a specially designed transducer is mounted through the hull with a threaded shaft and nut. This puts the transducer in direct contact with the water. Typically, shoot-thru-hull installations give excellent high speed operation and good to excellent depth capability. There is no possibility of transducer damage from floating objects, as there is with a transommounted transducer. A transducer mounted inside the hull can't be knocked off when docking or loading on a trailer. However, the shoot-thru-hull installation does have its drawbacks. First, some loss of sensitivity does occur, even on the best hulls. This varies from hull to hull, even from different installations on the same hull. This is caused by differences in hull lay-up and construction. Transom Hull bottom Transducer centerline 17 Second, the transducer angle cannot be adjusted for the best fish arches on your sonar display. (This is not an issue for flasher-style sonars.) Lack of angle adjustment can be particularly troublesome on hulls that sit with the bow high when at rest or at slow trolling speeds. Third, a transducer CAN NOT shoot through wood and metal hulls. Those hulls require either a transom mount or a thru-hull installation. Fourth, if your Skimmer transducer has a built in temp sensor, it will only show the temperature of the bilge, not the water surface temp. Follow the testing procedures listed in the shoot-thru-hull installation section at the end of this lesson to determine if you can satisfactorily shoot through the hull. It goes on to tell you to park in 30 feet of water, add some water to the bilge, and how to properly locate the unit for the best reception (using ONLY Lowrance epoxy). Maybe you can negotiate with the dealer to do this installation for you. Good luck with it, can't wait to bum a ride in your new rig! m ps - you might consider using this unit as your primary navigational tool, mounted at the console, and using another, more basic depth finder without the GPS and bells/whistles as your weedline casting unit mounted up front (transducer on the troller, unit on fore deck). That gives you max versatility. m Edited by mikie 3/2/2006 12:39 PM | ||
| Shep |
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Posts: 5874 | Gene, I wouldn't want such a wide cone angle, especially when trying to stay on a weed line. The df in the 337Cdf means dual frequency, as in 50 Khz and 200 Khz. That is why the transducer is so large. the 50Khz is for deep water, as in ocean deep. I'd just stay with the 200 Khz transducer. LMS332, or the new LMS334 with internal GPS antenna. Same price for either, but you can use the 334 in your tow vehicle easily now. I'm going with thw X-111 this year, with the 200 Khz transducer on the console, and probably the LMS334 on the bow/truck dashboard. | ||
| EsoxRookie |
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Posts: 107 Location: milwaukee | I bought the '337c DF for my boat last year. I probably fish the same lakes with it as LunkerHunter does... If I interpret the specs in the manual correctly, the transducer is 35 deg for 200 kHz and 12 deg for 50 kHz. Same manual shows 20 deg for the standard single-frequency 200 kHz transducer that comes with the '332c. So, the DF will give you a little wider view under the boat, but nowhere near 90 deg. I thought the 50 kHz narrow signal might be useful in trolling some steep dropoffs on a favorite lake, but the jury is still out on that. It does give you a different picture of the bottom. Not necessarily better, just different...seems you lose some detail at the expense of better penetration. As far as spray behind the boat, I wouldn't worry about it. The transducer measurements are 2.5" x 4". It's the same shape as the standard Lowrance Skimmer transducer, only larger. When I bought mine, the price differential was only $50....and, you could actually get a '337, as the '332s were backordered. For $50, I'd say go for it. If you can stand waiting until April, I could take you out and give you a demo on the unit. | ||
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