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Replace in dash fish finder

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Tripb

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High Rock Lake, NC
Looking for information on what to do to replace my in dash Garmin Fish Finder 85. The dash was cut to fit the Garmin but I lost my transducer. Garmin doesn't make the 85 anymore or one in the same size. Any ideas from someone who has experienced something similar?
Thank you
Ben
 
It figures, I had a working F85 sitting around for years that you could of had for free but finally tossed it a few months ago. But having had the F85 and upgrading to something new, I think I did you a favor by getting rid of it. There's just no comparison between old and new, the detail on new units is just so much better now it's really worth the upgrade. Installing a Garmin 551dv was pretty simple, I purchased an install kit online for $10 that had a pattern for the footprint of the 551. Laid it over the existing F85 hole in the helm and trimmed a little bit with a Dremel tool. Ran the new transducer, hooked up a couple wires, and it was good to go. The 551 is a semi-surface mount unit. It sticks out an inch or so, not flush like the F85, but looks and works great. The last pic is how I use mine with a split screen. The DownVu screen on the top half shows structure and detail while the 77kHz screen at the bottom shows fish arches as noted on the left side of the bump.
f851.jpg


f852.jpg


f85-3.jpg


f855.jpg
 
This is a question for anyone that replaced their Garmin95, that was mounted on the lower right part of the console, with another unit that has gps and/or mapping, and put it in the same spot the 95 was. Or anyone that wants to chime in with good advice. Could you properly read the unit while you were underway? Was it difficult to look down to where it is mounted and see it? Would you do it again or would you get a different/bigger unit and put it elsewhere? And where was that?
The transducer on my 95 broke this past year and I have been thinking about upgrading. I don’t want a hole in my console but I don’t want a non functioning piece of electronics there either. So I have been debating the replacement. If a 53 will fit there I would be happy with that as long as I could see it and be able to read it. I’m looking for opinions and/or pics of other installs. Thanks for all the great discussion on all the topics, I have certainly learned a lot just lurking on here. John
 
We put a 53DV in place of a 95. Easy to see, now bear in mind, ya’ll are running 30-40 mph where I’m at 10 max ... ;)
I now run a SIMRAD GO5 and other than fish ID, it’s awesome!!!
 
Thanks for the pics, looks like it fits in there nice. I’m only running about 6 mph faster with my little 70 on a 20 SFX. Perfect for us in the shallow bay we are on. I didn’t realize there were all these choices for a depth & fish finder/gps unit. But I need all the help I can get, I had a few times where I ended up at a totally different spot than where I thought I was and only realized it because of the depth readings. I’m giving myself plenty of time to make this decision as the shrink wrap won’t come off until April. I hope by then I’ll have over-thought it, over-engineered it and then I’ll see someone’s set up and decide that’s what I want. Once again thanks for the info.
 
I'm also replacing my depth finder for a newer one. I have a 2005 tritoon. How can I run the transducer cable? I had thought about just taping it to the old wire and pulling it through. I can't see the hole where the cable goes between the sub floor. Not sure if the connection plug will snake through. Any ideas? Much thanks in advance.
 
We have a 21sx model and just upgraded from the original garmin to a newer one with inland lakes gps. What we did was to get some flexible fiberglass fish rods and snake it over the underskinning from the left pontoon to the right and then zip tie along the outer rail where there are other wires already run that way into the console boot. This weekend, we also ran new 6 gauge wiring from the battery to the same console area to add a bazooka type speaker with amp, since the original stereo had very little deep sounding bass, if any. This is really a two person job, for the sake of your sanity.
 
I did finally get the transducer cable ran. Used electrician's snake (fish tape). Had to tape connector end of cable to snake, push from the rear through channel, use a coat hanger to fish the cable out the left side. Then unhook cable, push snake from starboard side between floors to the port side, re-attach cable and pull to starboard side. THEN, unhook, run snake down from under console, hook cable and pull up through the floor! After all that work, cable was about 2 feet too short!!!! Having to order 10' of cable ($50) to hopefully finish the job. It would be REAL NICE if depth finder / gps / fish finder manufacturers would offer different length cables on these items.
 
No problem Bama. We used an electrician's tape and taped the cable connection end to the tape. Pushed it through one of the channels between the pontoon and floor (from the back towards the front). We were on the port side (mount is on that side for the transducer). Pushed it up to about even with the console. If you look, there is a way to see across looking under the bottom of the side panels (about every other section). We fished the tape out the port side with a coat hanger, untaped the cable, and went over to the starboard side. Took the tape and pushed it through from under the console (between the floors) on the starboard side to the port (should come out hopefully on the port side about where you left the end of the cable). THEN, tape the cable to the "snake" and pull cable over to the port side (all the way through and out the starboard side). Should have about maybe 2' hanging out. THEN, untape, take the "snake" under the console, push it down through the hole where all the wires come up through the floor. You'll have to keep playing with it to get it to "snake" out the starboard side where the end of the cable is. When you get that done, tape the end of the cable to the "snake", pull it up through the floor and wha-la. Probably be a couple feet short to make it to the depth finder! I had to purchase another 10' (minimum they sell) to fill the gap (at a cost of $50!).
Definitely a two person job with a lot of cussing! I originally thought I could just tape the new cable to the old and pull it through. Nope. There's a nylon tie somewhere inbetween, under, somewhere that won't let you do it. I had to cut the wire at the old transducer to pull it as far as I could for both ends.
Bennington builds the best boats out there, but the depth finder replacement, in my opinion, wasn't thought through at the factory. Would of been great to have a simple conduit from aft to under the console for something like this.
Hope this isn't too confusing, but you can do it!
 
JohnL said:
This is a question for anyone that replaced their Garmin95, that was mounted on the lower right part of the console, with another unit that has gps and/or mapping, and put it in the same spot the 95 was. Or anyone that wants to chime in with good advice. Could you properly read the unit while you were underway? Was it difficult to look down to where it is mounted and see it? Would you do it again or would you get a different/bigger unit and put it elsewhere? And where was that?
The transducer on my 95 broke this past year and I have been thinking about upgrading. I don’t want a hole in my console but I don’t want a non functioning piece of electronics there either. So I have been debating the replacement. If a 53 will fit there I would be happy with that as long as I could see it and be able to read it. I’m looking for opinions and/or pics of other installs. Thanks for all the great discussion on all the topics, I have certainly learned a lot just lurking on here. John
Click to expand...

I have 22SSX with the Sink Console. My Garmin G05 was originally placed on the Lower Right side of the Steering Wheel. This location has been problematic as I had difficulty reading the display as the Steering Wheel always seemed to be in the way. I’ve been considering several options that included swapping the Stereo and Garmin locations. But that meant I needed to find a much larger Stereo to cover the Garmin G05’s hole. Never found a good option. Then I mentioned this to my dealer. We happen to have a retired Fiberglass expert near us and he agreed to fill in the Garmin’s hole and respray the console, saying “it will be perfect!” So we are swapping the Garmin and Stereo locations. Having the Garmin on the left will make it much more visible and accessible. This will also open up the possibility of upgrading the display to the G07, being larger AND has an output for an External Alarm. The G05 Alarm is not loud enough to be heard when running above idle. Project should be done in a couple of weeks. I will post pics.
 
Finally decided on a Garmin 54cv to replace the Garmin 95. Thanks for the input and pictures. Other than a chunk out of the panel and a scratch because I got distracted while running a power tool, it was an easy conversion. Of course the 20 foot transducer cable that came with it was 6 inches short so I had to get the 10 foot extension.
 

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Tripb said:
Looking for information on what to do to replace my in dash Garmin Fish Finder 85. The dash was cut to fit the Garmin but I lost my transducer. Garmin doesn't make the 85 anymore or one in the same size. Any ideas from someone who has experienced something similar?
Thank you
Ben
Click to expand...

Just curious if you had any luck replacing the 85. If you still have one, I may take it off your hands
 
Back in 2012 when I boiught my boat it has the fish finder from the factory. My dealer was able to replace and flush mount a 5” chart plotter
 
dannyleininger said:
I have 22SSX with the Sink Console. My Garmin G05 was originally placed on the Lower Right side of the Steering Wheel. This location has been problematic as I had difficulty reading the display as the Steering Wheel always seemed to be in the way. I’ve been considering several options that included swapping the Stereo and Garmin locations. But that meant I needed to find a much larger Stereo to cover the Garmin G05’s hole. Never found a good option. Then I mentioned this to my dealer. We happen to have a retired Fiberglass expert near us and he agreed to fill in the Garmin’s hole and respray the console, saying “it will be perfect!” So we are swapping the Garmin and Stereo locations. Having the Garmin on the left will make it much more visible and accessible. This will also open up the possibility of upgrading the display to the G07, being larger AND has an output for an External Alarm. The G05 Alarm is not loud enough to be heard when running above idle. Project should be done in a couple of weeks. I will post pics.
Click to expand...
I also have 22ssx (2015) and the GPS is very hard to see through the steering wheel. How did this work out for you? We've been trying to think of a way to remedy this.
 
Charlie G said:
I also have 22ssx (2015) and the GPS is very hard to see through the steering wheel. How did this work out for you? We've been trying to think of a way to remedy this.
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Charlie I did the swap of the GPS and the stereo system. I also later upgraded to a larger GPS, the Simrad G07. The larger display was very helpful. The difficulty in the swap was filling in the hole left by the original GPS. My choices were to find a larger stereo that would fit in the original GPS location or find a way to fill in the hole which is what we ended up doing. I was fortunate we had a very good fiberglass shop near us.

One of the compelling reason to upgrade to the Simrad G07 model was the additional features available. One important feature was the ability to add an external alarm. We often run in shallow waters and the internal alarm on the G05 was so faint I could not hear it when the engine was running. The G07 has a wire in the wire bundle that allows you to attach an external alarm which is very easy to hear.

B82E1308-5C25-4E31-B341-D1666097B237.jpeg
Click to expand...
 
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