Where to mount my radar?

My boat came with the radar installed. Its on a bracket that puts it maybe 8-10 inches of the top of my hardtop so that it clears the spotlight at least. It was 14' on the trailer so we had to remove it and strap it to the top for transport. A few photos are below with captions. You have to click on them to view them.

Cheers,
-Scott

Only one person on here has a radar? Where is everyone

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Hopefully people are enjoying vacations out on their boats. You might try posting on THT to see if you have any more luck. Pretty much any boat your size with a hardtop and a radar could be applicable.

My radar is mounted on the hardtop on a pedestal. It looks pretty much level with the waterline when the boat is sitting still. I've seen may folks angle their radar with a large forward tilt, I suppose so the unit is level when the boat is on plane. My setup works well, probably because if I need my radar I'm usually moving very slowly and not on plane. http://dafishing.com/Boat.html

My radar is mounted on a bracket that raises it about 8 inches. I decided not to use the $90 wedge that West Marine was trying to sell me to tilt the radar forward and am sorry I didn't. When on plane, any object in front of the boat disappears from the screen at about 1/2 mile. This makes the radar almost useless at night if I am on a plane. I am going to have the wedge installed this winter.

I have installed three different radars on our boat. First was a small, 2kw dome, then upgraded to a larger, 4kw dome, and now a Lowrance 3G.

In all cases I found lots of good info in the installation instructions that came with the radar. Guidance on beam width, beam height, clearing obstructions or the hardtop, etc.

In general, most folks lean them forward so the beam is less impeded forward by the leading edge of the hardtop, and the angle can be "down" 4*, or 6*, or whatever, so the radar is closer to level when the boat is riding bow up. But I agree with the comment about moving slow when you need to see in close to the bow.

Most radars have a vertical beam width (height) of 25*, so you really don't need to raise the radar to see forward as long as the radar is close to the front of the hardtop. You may get an improvement in contact returns on the beams of the boat by raising the radar, if the hardtop is wide. Again, very clear charts in the installation manual for the 3G radar.

Some pictures.

I did a sunset troll and cruise tonight and snapped some better photos of my radar installation - it works fine: