Smitty Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 hi everyone. i have a power drive unit that i would like to put a transducer on. from the people i talked to they say you cannot run the cable down the side of the shaft because it will eventually be cut because of the way the motor slides into the holding assembly. my question is has anyone tried to run the transducer cable down through the motor shaft and drilled a hole in the lower end to pass the cable though. or is there any other ways of doing this. i really want to put a fishfinder on the front of my boat and am contemplating if i have to buy a new trolling motor, or if i can make this one work. Thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwl Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 why don't you just do what many people do for thier little tinners, ...put the transducer on a piece of wood...marine grade plastic plywood works great for thibgs like this...cut a little strip, screw on the transducer, and devise a way to clamp it on to the front of the boat..lots of people do this on the back's of thier boats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted April 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 i want to have something a little more secure than that and more streamlined. I dont really want to have all that on the front of the boat. theres already enough up there between the motor, rod holder ,anchor lock, and other things. It has to be a pretty solid setup because of the amount of use it will receive. thanks for the input though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwl Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 really you would only need a couple inches of space to do this, the wood strip and transducer would be in the water..only thing really on the bow of the boat would be a small clamp....of course this idea is only practical for use while fishing, and have to be taken on when moving quickly under power to a new spot or on the way in and out of the fishing grounds...still not sure how you would go about mounting it on the shaft for your bowmount....even if it didn't cut the cable...the cable would get wrapped around the shaft and head of the motor I would think in applications where you areworking the motor alot..might not be so bad if your motor has reverse...my Minkotta Powerdrive doesn't have reverse so you have to turn the motor all the way around to get "reverse". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigugli Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 I do not think it would be wise to drill into the unit's shaft to run a cable. you may compromise or damage the unit. Clamping a transducer to the power head of the motor may also affect operation. A hull mounted bow transducer can also have its signal impaired by the trolling motor if not placed correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted April 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 i have seen lots of other motors with the transducer attatched to the power head, but the design on the powerdrive motor compared to others motors such as a maxxumm, does not allow a cable to be run up the shaft without causing problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjcanoe Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 I've got the transducer for my bow finder at the back of the boat on the same bracket as the console finder. There's only 14ft difference from the front to the back of the boat and I've not run into any problems so far (such as the motor being in water too shallow) Just make sure you don't have both finders on at the same time. jjcanoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted April 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 i have done this in the past but when doing the drifts on the niagara, 14ft of boat length can mean the difference between catching fish off of a break and not. i guess i will look into purchasing a new motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linz Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 I would NOT recommend trying to run the wires inside the shaft and lower unit, water will get into the lower unit. I have a transducer mounted on my MinnKota powerdrive, and its trouble free. This works for the "grip-glide" units, 2002 and up. Here's how I did it. Mount the transducer on the lower unit with the hose clamp. Tuck the wire under the clamp as close to where the shaft meets the lower unit as possible. Run the wire up to the plastic "nut" where the shaft meets the lower unit. Wrap several wraps of electrical tape around the flange where the shaft enters, securing the wire in place at this point. The tape will actually hold a very long time, usually at least an entire season. Now run the wire thru the grip-glide handle and up to where the shaft starts at the head. Tape or zip-tie it in place above the depth-adjustment collar, be sure to leave just enough slack to be able to stow & deploy the unit without the wire binding or getting pinched anywhere. Run the rest of the wire thru the coil-cord from the unit to the base, and on to your fishfinder. Done correctly, this will prevent the wire from getting caught in the mount or prop. If your's is an older non-grip-glide unit, simply epoxy a small section of tube or hose to the front of the steering box, and run the wire thru it in place of the grip-glide handle. Hope this helps. Linz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Chopin Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 I knew I had seen this done on someones boat.Guess it was Linz's boat. Shouldn't have to buy a new trolling motor unless you really want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted April 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 thanks linz. i will let you know how i make out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pafisher Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 on our boat we have the exact set up that you are wondering about. we ran the line from the transducer through the coiled line of the trolling motor and it then connected to the monitor. we added some tough electrical tape to keep the lines in place and mounted the transducer on the motor unit (part that contains the prop). with this setup the transducer line does not get twisted in the trolling motor because the line is contained inside the coiled line of the trolling motor. it think this should solve your problem im at school right now and i will try to post a picture of our set up later tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niagarafisher Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 I have mine mounted the same way Linz described and have never had a problem either.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pafisher Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 hopefully this helps. we haven't had any problems with this. the last two pictures are when it is stowed and the first two are when it is deployed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linz Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 Yep, same way as mine. Good pics Linz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted April 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 those pics are awesome pafisher. i understood when you described it but those pictures are very self explanatory. Thanks for your help. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 I have the same trolling motor and have tried to figure this out as well. I see how the cord attaches at the base and at the top but how loose is the cord running from top to bottom? Not sure how else to explain it but I couldn't vision how it would work without tangles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linz Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 On mine I have the cord taped in place just under the head, just before it goes thru the coil-cord. This controls the amount of slack in the cable. I can turn mine 360 either direction from straight ahead before the transducer cord gets too tight. Linz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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