guys i have a vexiler flasher for ice fishing and would like to use it on my boat and iam thinking of a new high speed transduser and thinking of gluing it to the inside of my warrior boat will i be able to get as good of readings as if it was mounted on the back of my boat thanks rick
Rick,
An in-hull mount will work almost as well as a water-contact mount will, but of course there will be some acoustic loss as the sound signal passes through the different mediums (first the glue, then the glass of your hull, then the water, and of course the same thing reverse on the way back. There is another down side to in hull mounting as well. If the transducer has speed measuring capability it will be lost and if it has temperature measurement though it will continue to work it won't give you any meaninful information (the temperature of the hull is not necessairly the temperature of the water, particularly in moving water). On the other hand there are certainly some up side considerations to in-hull mounting. The first is obvious, it can't get hit and knocked off or knocked out of alignment. The second is that in-hull mounts are usually very good at holding bottom at speed.
So, let me just make these simple suggestions to you for your mounting, make sure you use a mounting medium that sets hard. Simply put sound doesn't travel as well through foam rubber as it does though steel and so if the glue you use sets up hard it would be a lot better than if you use one that results in a soft mass. The second is this, if the stuff you use to glue it down is a 2-part material where you have to mix a hardner with the glue itself try very hard to mix it so that you don't get air bubbles. Air bubbles are the kiss of death for good transducer performance. And the third thing is this, test your mounting spot before you commit to it. You can do this by getting some modeling clay (or Play Dough) and making a ring of it and sticking it to the bottom of your hull in a likely mounting locaton then filling the ring with water and sticking the transducer into the water and againts the hull and holding it there by whatever means you can while you go out and test it out. Some mounting spots are much much better than others (air bubbles inside the fiberglass is usually the reason).
Also, let me suggest this to you. If you go over to the WMI set of message boards (there are about 20 different boards there, each devoted to a different subset of interest) and go to the Bass fishing parts you might want to ask for a fellow named Mike Wittenhouse. He is a very experienced and prime advocate of in-hull mounting and has written up a very detailed set of instructions on how to do it. Also for the mounting medium, go to www.raka.com and take a look at one of Raka's sampel kits of epoxy. Raka is a fiberglass dealer down in Florida, he has great prices and also sells his products in kits that are really great for home use. The sampler kit (about $10 or $12 as I recall) is about the best deal going that I am aware of.
Thom
I have a transducer mounted in the hull and another outside the hull,you can see a VERY noticible difference in them. I personally would mount it outside the hull. The benefits outweigh the negatives in my opinion.I no longer use the one inside the hull because of the poor readings in comparison with the outside mounted transducer.