My Boat Project- Installing & Wiring Depthfinders

Started by D.W. Verts, June 20, 2018, 05:54:58 PM

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D.W. Verts

Okay, so I bit down yesterday and started back on my old Charger. The project for the day was to-

1. Install the Garmin 93sv on the console

2. Wire both Garmins to a dedicated power source

3. Install the rear transducer.

Now this doesn't sound like much, and it isn't. Except I'm a little out of practice, and it was HOT. And I worked entirely in the sun from 12:30 until 3 or so, then shortly thereafter a thunderstorm ran me off. Then I went fishin'. Sue me.

So, first off- make sure you have all the parts and tools that you think you'll need before you start your project. I did well here- the thought of jumping in and out of that boat for four hours made me think ahead. For a change. And you still have to climb in and out a bunch- these kind of projects make having someone to help a very nice thing.



I bought several items brand-new because I don't want to run out of anything in the middle of the project. It's a long way to town for me. Besides, we call the extras you end up with INVENTORY.

Secondly- empty your boat of ANYTHING that might get in your way. Moving it from one side or one end of the boat to the other does NOT count. It looked like an explosion had taken place yesterday with rods and reels, bags of worms and trailers, landing net, etc. all throwed out on the ground. But you WILL work better without all of that crap in your way.

I ran wire for the front first. These depthfinders come with 18 AWG wire- I used 16 for my add-ons. I think a little bigger is better.

I don't use wire or butt connectors for electronics. I don't trust them, and they can corrode easily, not to mention be pulled apart or not make good connection to start with. And that most definitely will not work with a depthfinder.

So I made an approximation on how long of wire I would need to get from my existing piece to my new battery location. Then I added on about a foot. Too much is not too much.

I stripped back about a half inch of insulation, and did an old-fashioned tight twist with the depthfinder wire. Now, I would have liked to have just lain them side by side and soldered them together that way, but the sweat was already pouring down my face and my vision was getting blurry, plus the deck of a bass boat is not the best work station. I did make use of my trolling motor recess tray for the soldering. THAT was handy.



Sorry for the out-of-focus. It was HOT. That's what it looked like to me, too with all the sweat in my eyes.

So I've soldered my wires together. Now I fold them back against the smaller wire, and make 'em as small of a diameter as possible. The I wrap them a couple of times with electrical tape-



The I wrap them in a 1-1/2" length of shrink wrap tubing-



If you think that all of this is not necessary, then good for you. I''m telling you that bass boats and weather are hard on wiring. All of these measures help rid the stupid issues that folks have with improperly rigged wiring. Remember that I sold, and rigged, boats for a lot of years.

I put a wrap or two of electrical tape every 10-12" on my wiring too. It keeps me neat, and keeps slack out. Getting wires hung up is not a good thing.

I drilled holes in the console to the next compartment, from that compartment into the NEXT one, then one more hole into the battery location. Then I drilled one more hole into the front of the boat under the front deck. Foam here was a slight issue, but I use a piece of annealed aluminum wire to use as a tracer-



I tape about six inches of my tracer wire to the same amount of my electric wiring, then CAREFULLY pull the wire through any obstructions. If you can find a 4-6' piece of vinyl-covered annealed (soft) wire you'll be miles ahead when it comes to chasin' wire in a boat.

I then repeated the process from the console forward, although this time I could run it all by hand. When I had my wires all ran into my battery compartment I checked my length, and it was pretty much spot-on. Just enough extra for me to be comfortable that I can still adjust where I'll finally rig my new battery.

Then I hooked everything up to the battery, and checked to make sure I could power up, Bingo, just like it should be. Then I ran split conduit over all of my new wire, and also lightly taped it too. It'll get pinned up tight into the corners before I'm through, safe and out of the way.



I need to research to see if my conduit can support my new compartment lights wiring when I install it without interfering with my depthfinders. This conduit would make it awful easy to run that wiring.

Now I went to my console and removed the old Lowrance graph. It got tossed. I hope I remember next time that I mow the grass.



That's one ugly old dash, I know (sounds like a bar joke), but pretty don't catch no fish.

I set my new unit in its mount on the console to check for spacing. There's not a lot of room- that 9" Garmin is about all I could put there without a semi-custom mount. I also checked to see if the existing hole drilled into the top of the console will be positioned to handle my new plug ins. Good deal- it'll work.

So now we have to run a new transducer. This can be a real pain in the nether regions, and you have to take care. We don't need to damage our new transducer cable!

Since I have no need for the old transducer, it gets cut off and joins the old graph in my pasture (note to self- remember to get them before you mow next time).

I run my new transducer cable, plug end first of course, thru the drain hole in my transom. I then overlap about a foot of the OLD cable, and apply a LIBERAL amount of electrical tape, until it looks like this-



You can see the plug in the middle of the wrap. The big lumps to the left and right are about 25 FEET of extra tape to help transition the sizable wad made by the cable plug. This SHOULD help me negotiate the tight mess that I'm fixin' to try to get through. Fingers crossed.

To get things in my favor, I pull my vent cover off to give me as much access as possible to my cable-



I found the old depthfinder cable under the console, and got it freed, only to discover that it was wire-tied to all of my old and new (from my Mercury motor) stuff, so I carefully cut everything loose. When I finish all of my other wiring all of it will be tied up really neat.

There was also another set of wires tied into the cable- I assume it was probably for a water temp probe- it's no longer on the back of the hull, so snip-snip there too.

Okay, I'm freed up as well as I can be up front, so I carefully (I keep sayin' that, but you really do need to take care here) begin to pull my new cable into the hull. Actually, I helped it thru the rigging hole by hand- there's so many cables, wires and hydraulic steering hoses there that it's a really TIGHT fit for a few inches. But then I hit a snag as soon as it's in the hole, so I reached in where my vent was, and try to route the new cable under and away from everything else. This is where another set of hands can come in handy, as long as they're not yankin' the hell out of everything.

By myself however I have to take several trips from the vent cut-out to the console, pulling gently. I got hung up bad one time. Folks, don't do this-



This is the extra cable from the old transducer. Makes a mess- leave all of your extra stuff under the console, and tie it up NEAT.

After that it only took a couple of minutes, and I had my new transducer plug under my dash. Then I spent about five minutes, still sweating profusely, unwrapping it from all that tape-



That's a wad of tape, but it really does make things go better.

I got under the back of the boat then and checked my length on my cable to my transducer. We'll want enough of course, but it'll be SNUG too. No loose cable to get torn up.

The old transducer bracket came off easy enough, and good news. Some water ran OUT of the screw holes when I pulled them. That's good- they're holding water in, just like they're supposed to.

And that's when it began to get dark and windy as a line of thunderstorms prepared to move through. I got my new transducer bracket together and installed the transducer, and checked my placement- there are several other old screws and holes that will need to be tended to, and of course I won't be able to use any of the existing holes. Of course.

Then my wife helped me get everything put up with no time to spare, and we started getting some much needed rain.

After the storm I went fishin', and instead of working on the boat in 95 degree heat again today, I went fishin' again. I mean, that IS what it's all about. And we have rain forecast every day for a while, which is a good thing. I'll get this done soon enough- the boat can't be run this way. It's a good incentive.

The rest should be the easiest part anyway. After getting the transducer mounted and everything siliconed good, all I have to do is mount the unit, tie everything up and out of the way, and then learn how to use the dad gum thing.

Ought to be a good summer.

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Bud Kennedy

Yep, me too.  That is the only way to go D.W.  Do it the right way and it will never cause you a problem unless some hungry critter gets in the boat and decides to chow down on the wires.

Donald Garner

Dale, tks for sharing the project with us as well as the pictures.
Belton Texas part of God's Country
G3 1548 Alweded Jon Boat; 25hp Yamaha outboard; Motor Guide Trolling motors;

D.W. Verts

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Oldfart9999

Good job Dale!!! The only thing I do different is connecting the wires, I use butt connectors, peel off the insulation, run shrink tube up the wire, crimp the wires in the connectors, solder them, shrink tube them, then liquid tape them. Never had a problem with them leaking and I hate do overs. You taught me a couple things that will be useful when I hook in new electronics this fall and next spring.
Rodney
Old Fishermen never die, their rods just go limp.

Lipripper

Dale thanks for the play by play of the fine work you did on the Installing & Wiring your Depthfinders. ~c~ ~c~

Kats Rule And Bass Drool.Viet Nam Vet

Bassinkorea

Nice tutorial Dale, looking forward to the conclusion and the final photos of those Garmins.
2020 IBASS Gold - Zone 2 - AOY
2020 IBASS Classic - Winner
2020 IBASS Team Tourney - Winner (with FD)

D.W. Verts

It's gonna have to quit raining. And we need the rain.
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Lipripper

Quote from: D.W. Verts on June 21, 2018, 06:29:16 PM
It's gonna have to quit raining. And we need the rain.
So y'all getting hit by that big line of storms? It came through here but we just got about an inch of rain out of it. The worst of it went North and south of my house.

Kats Rule And Bass Drool.Viet Nam Vet

D.W. Verts

Yeah, we got about an inch. More forecast thru Tuesday. YAY!
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Wizard

I haven't seen a Charger 195 Tournament Fisherman in awhile. An Ozarks boat for an Ozarks man. At the time it was built, Charger had a great ad for the boat. They showed a picture of a large man lying in the rod locker. Who knows, maybe the man was Dale. Other boats had fairly puny storage at that time.
I don't know why he needs new electronics. He doesn't need them. I'm guessing he just wants to pretty up his boat. He already knows every secret about this lake and every community hole. I have a suspicion that he's one of those vintage anglers who just say, "Here fishy, fishy, fishy" and the bass swarm his boat.  I'm sure the other tournament anglers have heard he's fishing again-------and hoping he doesn't enter their event.

Wizard

Bud Kennedy

Here is a Dale inspired video that is probably what Wizard is suggesting.


D.W. Verts

I think I'm being played here...

There have been a few ask, however, if I was gonna fish derbies again (it was mentioned several times at Gete's funeral). I just shake my head, and say real slow like- Noooooo...

A couple did look relieved. Most just yawned and walked away.
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Wizard

Yep! That's the video I watched yesterday, Just seemed appropriate. I asked a couple of guys about Dale and if he could take a little ribbing. They said he could. They also said when he was young he was a much better angler than he realized. Fishing is serious at LOZ. The average stick doesn't want a new guy to take money from them. What the top sticks realize is 95% of tourney anglers are just donating money. The top anglers don't care who enters.

Wizard

Donald Garner

Bud tks for sharing Dale's inspired video  ~shade  I had a mentor like that.  You could be standing shoulder to shoulder using the same equipment and not a strike etc.  He's be loading the boat  lo
Belton Texas part of God's Country
G3 1548 Alweded Jon Boat; 25hp Yamaha outboard; Motor Guide Trolling motors;

D.W. Verts

I was my own worse enemy "back in the day". I try to preach it here all the time. Maybe I can save someone the heartaches that I had...

It's amazing anyone remembers me. I just wasn't that important.

Now, back to the bass boat, and the DREAM, Part II.
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