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Depth finder problems

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Randy Cantrell

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Hey folks. I have a 2013 22sslk tritoon with a mercury 115. I have a Hummingbird 385ci Combo that at speeds of 25mph or above starts giving me wild readings spiking to extremely deep readings to extremely low readings. The dealer told me it was a common problem with pontoons. I don't buy that and what use is it if you can't depend on it at higher speeds? Anyone have any ideas?
 
Try to adjust height up or down 1/4" increments. A standard transducer must be in "water" to work, you are probably getting air under it.... Also see if the sensitivity setting can be adjusted as that might help.
 
I'm new to these things as we don't fish and have not used Sonar. My Garmin loses lock (flashes depth reading) as it gets shallow abut 4' or less. Once it finds water deep enough to auto range down a click it locks right Back on. I've fiddled with the gain and other settings to no avail. High speed and deeper water is no problem on mine, works like a champ. It is the P66 tri-ducer which is much bigger than the Garmin 100 one I replaced and dual frequency 50/200 kHz. Suggestions?
 
I know it sounds dumb, but it doesn't have a "minimum depth" setting does it. I have mine set with a 3' alarm. Nice thing with the toon is I can get into water about 18" deep.
 
SEMPERFI8387 said:
I know it sounds dumb, but it doesn't have a "minimum depth" setting does it. I have mine set with a 3' alarm. Nice thing with the toon is I can get into water about 18" deep.
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Yeah I thought of that. I turned all of the alarms off and it was the same. I'm a littler puzzled. Maybe I should start adjusting the angle and depth of the transducer but its a pain to trial and error that when you don't know what you're doing. Weird that its at low speed so turbulence is low and the transducer is buried underwater.
 
Maybe at slow speed the waters really "rolling" off the back of the toon (like a low head dam) try dropping it a 1/2" or so and see what happens. I think it's just "dirty" water at low speed. I think at high speed the water "flows" from under the toon better.
 
SEMPERFI8387 said:
Maybe at slow speed the waters really "rolling" off the back of the toon (like a low head dam) try dropping it a 1/2" or so and see what happens. I think it's just "dirty" water at low speed. I think at high speed the water "flows" from under the toon better.
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Thanks I'll give that a try this weekend.
 
Have a 22SFFX with Garmin 100 installed in dash (transducer on one pontoon) and a Lowrance Elite 5 on standing bracket (transducer on the other pontoon).

Had pros telling me they would interfere with each other - NOT - they both work fine and read fairly close to each other.

My top speed with the Yamaha 90 hp is about 21 mph and I don't see any issues at any speed or any specific depth.

Both transducers are set so the bottom of the transducer is even with bottom rear of the pontoons and parallel to them when sitting level on the trailer.
 
The humminbirds will definitely give you very erratic readings at speed. I have had them for 15+ years, lots of models, and they all tend to do it once you hit 20+ mph. You can try to set your transducer a little lower, but the way they are supposed to work they are supposed to 'skim' the water at speed. But air and all the other stuff really tend to screw them up. To be honest, I've never gotten one to work at 25+ mph for accurate depth readings.
 
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