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SIMRAD Loses Depth readout after I reach 15 to 18mph

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Kenai

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I lose my depth readout after I reach 15mph. I have played around with the angle of the transducer but still goes out. I have read where it has to do with where it is mounted and inability of having it in "clean water". Has anyone heard of a fix? Is there away to maybe lowering it? Would that help? I know lowering heightens the risk of it getting damaged either in the water or trailering. Any thoughts let me know.

Thanks.
 
First thing to try is just adjusting the angle of the transducer. If that doesn’t work then try moving it
 
My garmin transducer mount has "vertical" slots so it can be moved up and down a bit. I had to put it down in the lowest position and played with the angles when boat was new. It reads at all speeds unless we're in heavy seas as it will go out now and then but refreshes quickly

worst case is you could mount a transducer mounting plate and then mount the transducer in the plate at a lower height. Had to do that on our Lund but it was because we had multiple transducers.

 

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Thanks. I played with adjusting the angle but it still was dropping the depth readout. I think I will look into the bracket idea and lowering it to see if that helps.
 
Kenai said:
Thanks. I played with adjusting the angle but it still was dropping the depth readout. I think I will look into the bracket idea and lowering it to see if that helps.
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Welcome! Mine does the same thing . If you go to low there is a chance you might knock it off. If I'm curious about depth I just back off the throttle.
 
I lowered mine (reused the self-tapping screws) about 1" and it works great. It's been four years and so far no problems with damage.
 
ILLINOIS AVE said:
Welcome! Mine does the same thing . If you go to low there is a chance you might knock it off. If I'm curious about depth I just back off the throttle.
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Thanks Illinois Ave. We are on a pan shape lake so the depth is varies quite a bit so we would be on and off the throttle quite a bit. I have been using the chart feature on my Simrad which surprisingly is very accurate.
 
Michiman said:
I lowered mine (reused the self-tapping screws) about 1" and it works great. It's been four years and so far no problems with damage.
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Thanks Michiman. I am going to try lowering it. We are on Lake Mitchell, Cadillac area. Not sure if you are familiar with the lake but it is a pan lake. Very shallow as you get close to shore. Drop offs are about 150 feet from the shoreline. Also there are some real shallow spots(like 3 feet or less) in various sections of the lake. So really need to have an accurate depth reading, especially when I am pulling a skier or tuber.
 
Kenai said:
Thanks Michiman. I am going to try lowering it. We are on Lake Mitchell, Cadillac area. Not sure if you are familiar with the lake but it is a pan lake. Very shallow as you get close to shore. Drop offs are about 150 feet from the shoreline. Also there are some real shallow spots(like 3 feet or less) in various sections of the lake. So really need to have an accurate depth reading, especially when I am pulling a skier or tuber.
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Yes, I'm familiar with Lake Mitchell (beautiful lake and area!). I'm up on Houghton Lake which is very shallow so having an operational depth finder is very important to me. I'd rather risk damaging the transponder than risk running without knowing the depth! My skeg looks brand new and I'm intent on keeping it that way.
 
Kenai said:
Thanks Michiman. I am going to try lowering it. We are on Lake Mitchell, Cadillac area. Not sure if you are familiar with the lake but it is a pan lake. Very shallow as you get close to shore. Drop offs are about 150 feet from the shoreline. Also there are some real shallow spots(like 3 feet or less) in various sections of the lake. So really need to have an accurate depth reading, especially when I am pulling a skier or tuber.
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I was at Lake Mitchell last weekend buying a couple of jet ski lifts and had a great dinner (and beer) at Clam Lake Beer. Love the city of Cadillac!!
 
Kenai said:
I think I will look into the bracket idea and lowering it to see if that helps.
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Looks like you are on top of the fix. Should be pretty simple. As Michiman said, he did it and it both works great for him, and he hasn’t had an issue with damage to his yet. I still need to do this fix myself!

FYI…we are another nearby Bennington boater. Like Michiman, we are on Houghton Lake, so just less than an hour from you. You are on a nice lake and in a great area over there. Enjoy!
 
Last season was our first with our current boat. I noticed the Simrad right away losing the depth signal about 18mph or so. I tried changing the angle of the transducer with no luck and even moved the transducer to different locations with no luck. In other words no matter what I did it still lost the signal around that speed. I've just about given up but I'm going to give it one more shot. My previous boats depth finder read depths no matter how fast we went!
 
BigKahuna said:
Last season was our first with our current boat. I noticed the Simrad right away losing the depth signal about 18mph or so. I tried changing the angle of the transducer with no luck and even moved the transducer to different locations with no luck. In other words no matter what I did it still lost the signal around that speed. I've just about given up but I'm going to give it one more shot. My previous boats depth finder read depths no matter how fast we went!
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Did you reverse or remove the anode on your mount yet? Don't think I've forgotten!! ;)

If this goes on much longer I'm just going to drive down to your lake and do it myself!
 
On my 2014 SSX it did same thing, However on my 2020 model it worked at any speed.
 
Potomacbassin’ said:
Did you reverse or remove the anode on your mount yet? Don't think I've forgotten!! ;)

If this goes on much longer I'm just going to drive down to your lake and do it myself!
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Yup had the dealer take it off when it was in last year having our Bimini fixed. No difference! You got a great memory!!!
 
Tried lowering it about an 3/4 of an inch. Still blanks out when you get at about 15 to 18mph. Also tried playing with the angle and that didn't work either. I talked to the dealer that services my boat and he said you will never get it fixed. That is the nature of these pontoons with a transducer mounted off the back of the toon. Very frustrating!
 
I think your service guy is misinformed - plenty pontoons are able to read bottom at speeds in excess of what you are reading. Perhaps pontoons make things like placement a little trickier, but many of us have good results up to 30+mph. He may just not want to go on a wild goose chase that he doesn't get paid for.

Try something easy - if your Simrad has multiple sonar frequencies try each. If there is a Chirp option toggle that on and off. Some frequencies work better than others at speed, and Chirp sends out multiple mixed frequencies that may hinder the tranducer's ability to keep bottom.

As to actual mounting, the enemy of a transducer is air - turbulent, air-entrained water obviously disrupts the sound being received so one of the keys is to get "clean" water. There may be something about your toon or mount or accessory that is introducing air into the water stream above 15mph, which maybe not coincidentally is probably when your toons get on plane. If you had some magical underwater camera I would bet something is happening at that speed to the water stream, challenge of course is to find out what.

Cool video below that helps illustrate the point.

 
Kenai said:
Tried lowering it about an 3/4 of an inch. Still blanks out when you get at about 15 to 18mph. Also tried playing with the angle and that didn't work either. I talked to the dealer that services my boat and he said you will never get it fixed. That is the nature of these pontoons with a transducer mounted off the back of the toon. Very frustrating!
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I agree that the dealer is misinformed or just not wanting to deal with something non-essential.

When you lowered it 3/4”, did you get it lower than the bottom of the pontoon? If so, by how much?

Often that is what is necessary - lower than the pontoon by 1-2”. Often needs to be lowered 2” or more depending on where it was mounted previously. Just lowering the transducer 3/4“ likely isn’t enough to clear the turbulent water that is interfering with the signal.

Don’t give up yet. Just go lower. ;)
 
Watch Potomacbassin's video. You may need to move your transducer UP in stead of down. Mine was losing the bottom after about 12 MPH and I just kept adjusting the angle until I found the sweet spot. The sweet spot was higher than I expected.
 
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