Bow mounted trolling motor transducer cable ?

[Mike Targa 1900]

Hi folks, I mounted a fishmark 320 on the bow of my boat and do not know if I should run the transducer wire strait down the trolling motor or should I turn the t.m. all the way one way and then wrap the cable around the shaft all the way down to the transducer. That would take up alot of the extra cable.

[perchjerker]

Usually you dont atach it at all to the shaft. If you did, how would you slide the motor up and down in the bracket?

[Mike Targa 1900]

Thanks for the quick reply P.J. Still have a ? though. So do you just leave the wire just bundled up behind the 320 unit?And how much wire should i give for play.

[Bob G2]

Not attaching the cord to the shaft is correct, if your shaft must slide up into the turning motor unit, ala Minn Kota AP. If your electric motor turns down by the lower unit, or lower part of the shaft, such as with some of the cable drives, then you would be OK to cinch down onto the shaft.

You can use either electric tape and/or plastic lock tie straps, or both. One thing I would recommend is leaving a little slack so that the cable is not stretched with turning the motor.

I have a Minn Kota AP. I have the transducer cable fixed right under the head of the shaft, the AP unit, so to speak, and then down on the lower unit where it attaches to the shaft. I have maybe a couple of inches of slack. If it is too tight, then you can stretch and break your transducer cable(I have done that). Too much and the resultant bowing in the cable will catch weeds and can possible get nicked by the motor prop if there is too much. Adjust as necessary.

If you end up with too much transuder cable, you can wrap and cinch it behind the graph connector, or you can drill a small hole in the bow plate and snake it under your bow and snake it back up to the graph. This will give a neater appearance.

A third thing you can do is to cut the excess transducer cable down and use a co-ax splice. I have done this too, however, I would consult your graph manufacturer to see if you would lose any unique features.

[hgmeyer]

One suggestion to prevent damage to the transducer cable (which WILL degrade response) is to use tape not cinch ties... cinch ties will damage the cable... Been there and UN-done that!