Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Ok, this is my first post, and one of two questions that made me look on the internet and find this forum.
I would like to install a depth finder on my pontoon and was wondering if anyone knows how to attach the sounder to the bottom. Can it be put on with adhesive or does it have to be drilled and screwed in? Also where would be the best location to affix the sounder to the toon? I tried looking online and I get tons of sites that sell depth sounders but no instructions on how to install them on a pontoon boat. I dont want to buy it if it wont work out right. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks guys.

Welcome .....

im guessing you dont have any mounting brackets on the back ot the toons, so this is what i think..

1. i have seen them apoxyed to the toons but i have seen them come off too..

2. i have seen them screwed right to the toons too

3 (my choise) is to get a piece of alumunum and have it bent into a box the use silacone to
seal it and use stainless steel screws to hold it on..

that is what i did with mine. that way you can add other things to the bracket and not be drilling any more holes in the toons.. and when you change deph finders you can just unscrew it from the bracket and not wory about sealing the holes

one like this

can be welded on or have it made with a lip on top and bottom to screw it on

Hope you were talking about the display and not the transducer, with adhesive. Just about all toons, I have seen, have a bracket at the rear of the logs for mounting them. If you don't want to drill holes for the display (don't blame you) HD and or Lowes carry industrial velcro which I have used and works well.
doc

dockholiday wrote:Hope you were talking about the display and not the transducer, with adhesive. Just about all toons, I have seen, have a bracket at the rear of the logs for mounting them. If you don't want to drill holes for the display (don't blame you) HD and or Lowes carry industrial velcro which I have used and works well.
doc

oh chit i wasnt thinking of that LOL

OH wait i read it right he sait (attach sounder to the bottom) LOL

Be really careful with different metals when mounting the sounder. Bronze and Aluminum don't play well together. I don't know which one you're considering, so maybe not an issue. Mine is a bronze thru-hull design, and we fabricated a bracket and welded it to the center pontoon with isolators between it and the bracket. With the cable coming out the top of the thru-hull, we extended the top shaft with PVC to the underside of the deck for the cable. Mine is mounted about 10' back from the bow (~1/3 of boat length) so that at higher speed it is nearly clear of the water, while at idle it is submerged enough to work. There's little point in knowing how deep the water is at 20+ mph simply because if you run over a shoal at that speed the shallow alarm really can't be heard over the noise of the crash that well. Creeping around shallow places at idle, the sounder is 20' ahead of my prop, giving me some chance to reverse back before the lower unit confirms what the alarm is screaming about.

This is how mine is mounted to the console (with screws)


This is how mine is mounted to the toon (with screws)

Thanks guys, I may go to my marina and see what they say. I would rather weld a bracket and then mount the sounder to that. MrGaget that's a good idea to mount it towards the bow rather that find out your in shallow water the hard way. Thanks for the ideas.

MrGadget wrote:Be really careful with different metals when mounting the sounder. Bronze and Aluminum don't play well together. I don't know which one you're considering, so maybe not an issue. Mine is a bronze thru-hull design, and we fabricated a bracket and welded it to the center pontoon with isolators between it and the bracket. With the cable coming out the top of the thru-hull, we extended the top shaft with PVC to the underside of the deck for the cable. Mine is mounted about 10' back from the bow (~1/3 of boat length) so that at higher speed it is nearly clear of the water, while at idle it is submerged enough to work. There's little point in knowing how deep the water is at 20+ mph simply because if you run over a shoal at that speed the shallow alarm really can't be heard over the noise of the crash that well. Creeping around shallow places at idle, the sounder is 20' ahead of my prop, giving me some chance to reverse back before the lower unit confirms what the alarm is screaming about.

Is your xducer outside the toon or inside? If outside-is it vulnerable to being hit by rock, stumps, etc? Or will water pressure tend to fatigue the mounting bracket? I had thought about doing this but figgered I'd have to put a thru hull xducer thru the log which I dont want to do.

It's mounted to the side (outside) of the center toon and hangs down beside it below the water line but not below the bottom of the toon. The toon would probably get the rock before the x-ducer did. I've beached the boat without grounding the x-ducer.

The lowest point of the bracket is right at the waterline (or real close) so underway, the more lift I get, the higher it all rides up.

It looks like this: http://interphase-tech.com/transducers.htm