Lowrance HDS Thru-hull transducer on an Explorer

nerd

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Hi all...

Looking to have a Lowrance HDS-9 installed to rid myself of the nearly 7 year old Garmin and Furuno plotter/FF units I have sitting on my dash. I think I've decided on the HDS-9, but I'm stuck when it comes to transducers.

The unit comes with side imaging as well as traditional sonar. I was figuring on a thru-hull B60 for the sonar, and the typical transom mount LSS-2 transducer for the side imaging.

A couple of problems though. First, I hate transom mount-anything. My Furuno is a well respected (if older) unit, the 600L, but coupled with a poorly mounted P66 it gave me seriously frustrating results. I'm somewhat apprehensive to mount the LSS-2 on the transom, in part because I have a notched transom and an outboard and I wonder what kind of clearance it'll have to see 180 degrees.

Then there's the B60. I wrote Grady to ask where the optimal location is to mount it thru-hull, and they mentioned just aft of the gas tank. Problem is, one of the prior owners decided to mount an extended water tank, which goes a little further aft than I think I'd like. That leaves me at the last deck hatch before the transom, which might be a little too far back to get sound readings underway (and the biggest issue for me is the fact that my current sounder won't read bottom if moving more than 5-10 kts, a serious limitation).

Does anyone have a similar hull and have a thru-hull transducer mounted that far back? Anyone with a side-imaging sonar unit have a similar transom mount situation that they'd be able to comment on?

Thanks!
-John
 

BCLII

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John, I have a B-60 on my grady 205 with a Lowrance HDS Touch 12. I will use the transome mount side scan/ down scan LSS2 transducer. We have hard water here yet, so no report on well it works.
 

SmokyMtnGrady

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It seems to me mounting the through hull a bit more aft will work fine as the further to the rear of the boat, the transducer will more likely be in the water at speed most of the time and less air under the hull there?