After much research over the winter I purchased a Humminbird Depth sounder/GPS Chart Plotter with down imaging. Beautiful unit. I have a 2010 2250 RCW and sadly the stock transducer cable is just about a foot short for where I want to mount it on the console (top left side). I had to purchase a 10 foot extension. So if you planning on buying a new sonar unit i highly reccomend this for function....but be ware the cable is a bit short for such a high end GPS/Sonar unit.
Humminbird 788 CI DH DI
- Thread starter dmctruby
- Start date
II always had good luck with my hummingbirds. Good units. Last boat I had a 10in garmin unit gps plugged into radar and a 10" hummingbirds for with side scan. How does the bird look on your console? Pics would be nice to see. The garmin upgrade imho has too small of a screen to be very effective
Todd
Todd
I wasn't expecting to have an issue with the cable length so I just got the 10 ft extension via mail. I have not installed the unit on the console yet. I am leaning towards toward the top left of the helm because I want to swivel the screen towards the seating areas at times to show folks on the boat the cool 3d imaging. The lake has submerged structures likes bridges and old settlement foundations which look amazing with the 3d down imaging technology. Hopefully I will get it installed this weekend and post pics. I have a RAM mount made for another application so I also need to make a new base plate for the sonar base to mount to the RAM arm. Hoping to make it fit on the curved console ledge next to the windscreen.
Install pics. The 788 is a pretty large unit. Mounting on the right hand side would mean taking your hand off the throttle so I mounted to the left using a RAM mount for height and angle adjustment. I made the connector between the ram arm and the gps out of a wood block. The underside of helm is reinforced with a 4x10 inch piece of maple to add support to the fiberglass. For those with a live well switch, use the black wire for ground on the switch and the orange and gray wire for power. There is a 3rd orange and white wire, that is the constant power and if you use that the toggle switch won't toggle power on/off.
To complete the install I am just adding a rubber isolator block under the ram arm to support the arm and absorb shock. That is not installed yet.
To complete the install I am just adding a rubber isolator block under the ram arm to support the arm and absorb shock. That is not installed yet.
BulldogsCadillac
Just some guy
Looks pretty good! Well done!
Derrick
Derrick
I'm installing the same unit on my new 24SL. Can you offer any suggestions for mounting the transducer. That seems to be the toughest part of the installation. Pix would be great!
The transducer install is pretty simple and somewhat limited in terms of options. There is a square mounting tab on my toon. I am not sure if that is meant for the transducer or something that is there for boats with livewell pumps. It's where I have seen every transducer installed on a bennie. I know there are pics on the site of some new boats where the stern is pictured and you can clearly see the transducer. My only suggestion is to mount it so the transducer is even with the bottom of the toon, and as far away from the motor as possible. Again it's a small bracket so you can only move it an inch or so right to left.
I believe you are going to need the transducer cable extension to reach. If I had placed my GPS near the throttle control it may have reached....but the unit was to large to fit in that area.
Routing the cable was not to bad. Getting it across the top of the transome guard was tight, and then down the first few feet of the toon was trickey. I used a coat hanger and a long wood pole with the cable attached via tape to push it through (between underside of floor and toon).
If you have a live well switch and no livewell see my note on wire colors to use. Sorry the boat is in the water so no pics now of the transducer install.
I am still making adjustments to the transducer angle and I may need to shift it left a bit as at full speed the down imaging is effected by propwash or toon turbulance. Every things work picture perfect up till 15mph or so, over that it's going to be a challenge to get that large transducer surface in clean water at higher speeds.
I believe you are going to need the transducer cable extension to reach. If I had placed my GPS near the throttle control it may have reached....but the unit was to large to fit in that area.
Routing the cable was not to bad. Getting it across the top of the transome guard was tight, and then down the first few feet of the toon was trickey. I used a coat hanger and a long wood pole with the cable attached via tape to push it through (between underside of floor and toon).
If you have a live well switch and no livewell see my note on wire colors to use. Sorry the boat is in the water so no pics now of the transducer install.
I am still making adjustments to the transducer angle and I may need to shift it left a bit as at full speed the down imaging is effected by propwash or toon turbulance. Every things work picture perfect up till 15mph or so, over that it's going to be a challenge to get that large transducer surface in clean water at higher speeds.
I should add, as i currently have the transducer positioned the speed, water temp....and all the GPS features work just fine at any speed. There are not dependent on the sonar echo. It's only the down imaging at higher speeds not working that is the issue. Hopefully I will get that sorted out. I have heard the large transducer hummingbird uses for this model is sensitive to install position a it creates its own bubbles and water turbulence when not in the perfect spot.
cwag911
Moderator
Angle the transducer down about 5 degrees from level. This worked for my Garmin.
Thanks very much guys. Spent the afternoon fishing wires under the Benny in a heavy chop. After all that, I found out I need an extension cable for the transducer. I've been reading about the turbulence effect at high speed, and I'll let you know how I make out once the job is done. I've only had the Benny for a week and I'm very pleased with this forum! Thanks again for your quick reply and advice!
Thanks. I plan on trying some angle adjustments this weekend. My transducer is also dead center on the toon log, which has that v shaped strake on the bottom. I don't think that is helping matters. So if adjusting the angle doesn't work I am going to redrill the mounting holes and move as far to the edge of the bracket (and away from the toon strake). There is quite a bit of water disruption behind those logs, will see if I can find a spot where the 3D imaging works at higher speeds still. At this point with everything else working it's not urgent as I mostly need the 3d detail for when were moving slower anyway.
Dan's Benny
Active Member
I too am adding a new locator (actually two) to my toon. I'm putting a HDS-5 in the dash where the prior Garmin 95 was by making the hole a little bit longer. Weather permitting I'll get the dash installation done this week along with running the two sets of cables for structure scan and down scan to the left toon and install in the same area as the garmin transducer. The second unit is a HDS-7 that will be mounted up front. Both units will be linked via Structure Scan so anyone sitting in the front will see the scan details I have at the dash. I too had to buy extension cables for the lenght plus the cables to run between the two units.I plan on hooking the front unit up to the trolling motor transducer for normal use. I have the 2275 FSI, 115 Yamaha, and express tube. To avoid the solid keel (vee under the toon), I'll mount both transducers as far apart as possible to get as much clean water as I can although from reading about structure scan articles, getting readings above 15 mph is not expected although you can still read depth at high speeds. I'll let you all know how it works out once its installed and lake tested.
The humminbird 788 model with down imaging uses one large combo unit transducer. I think my manual states the imaging scans should work at higher speeds. I would be fine if I could just get the depth to read correctly when going faster then 15mph. I even tried setting the max depth maually to see if would help. I know at speed when I was in 30 or 40 ft of water the depth reading were at 100+ ft, and bouncing all over the place on the down imaging view...so your comment made me think. I have other views on the sonar. I may switch to the simple echo/flasher image to see if I get good depth readings at speed with that. If that works I am in no rush to mess with the current transducer location as at speeds below 15 mph it gives amazing 3 d images. As mentioned all the navigation and chartplotting functions work perfect at all speeds.
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