Radar mounting on hardtop pics

[Fishtales]

Aft shot. The mount I selected in 2007 hosts the 24" radome, a jabsco halogen remote controlled light facing front on the front under the dome, gps receiver and anchor/running white light. I think the manufacturer is out of business today unfortunately.

 

[Sea Shift]

KY Grady, I love your setup. I have the same one. And something I learned, not that it matters, but the HS 60 has always looked backwards to me when set up per the manufacturer. Exactly like you have it, however it is possible to mount it 180 Deg. with the label forward and change the setting on your MFD. Anyway if your moving it back you might do that to, makes it "Look" better IMO

 

[Ky Grady]

KY Grady, I love your setup. I have the same one. And something I learned, not that it matters, but the HS 60 has always looked backwards to me when set up per the manufacturer. Exactly like you have it, however it is possible to mount it 180 Deg. with the label forward and change the setting on your MFD. Anyway if your moving it back you might do that to, makes it "Look" better IMO

Thanks for the tip. My plan for now is leave the HS60 inplace, install radar on pedestal and see if there are any ill effects. The 4" pedestal with 4° down tilt, will get the beam well above the HS60. The dome is plastic, so I don't see it blocking the signal from the satellites to the HS60. I can always move the HS60 back at a later time if I need to.

 

[Ky Grady]

Just got the new BattleWagon custom 4" with 4° down angle radar mount. Very impressed with the quality. Mark was great to work with. They even did more custom work and didn't put the cable pass through in on the pedestal since I was dropping into the radio box straight out of the back of the dome. Very happy with my decision to go with BattleWagon, highly recommended. Just need to get power and plug into back of NSS12. That'll be my Saturday project.

 

[Ky Grady]

It's alive!!!! Boy, do I have alot to learn.

 

[Bay Explorer 246G]

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, that's a Point-1 GPS along with the XM-Weather antenna.

I was planning on going with the 6" Scanstrut on the front of the hardtop. That should raise it high enough for the beam to be in a clear view. Unless you have a Marlin with the huge hardtop, I don't see how you could ever get anything 6' away from other equipment.

View attachment 18207

I have that same scan strut mount ( aft leaning ) that I'm getting ready to mount a Garmin18XD on my new coosa/fiberglass top on my Explorer 246G

 

[Diad]

reviving an old one here. Lots of good info! I am replacing an old furuno radar that is on a 6" scan strut mounted on the bubble. The scan strut doesn't match the pattern of the Fantom 24X so i need to make a change. My question is, why hasn't anyone mounted on top of the bubble? Even if you just do the 4 degree wedge, you'd be equal to the 4" or close to the same height as the 6" mount in front of the bubble. I have not had the boat out to test the old radar but see no reason to relocate, especially since i don't want to drill more holes. Whats the opinion of eliminating the scan strut but just using a 4degree wedge on top of the bubble of a 265? I trailered the boat home with the old radar dome on the scan-strut 60 miles and it was still there when i got home.

 

[ROBERTH]

Be careful how high you mount it. In my case, I am hitting trees with it constantly so have to choose carefully what roads I drive on. Anytime you start to get up around 13' or higher, you are high risk for losing or damaging your radar.

 

[Diad]

reviving an old one here. Lots of good info! I am replacing an old furuno radar that is on a 6" scan strut mounted on the bubble. The scan strut doesn't match the pattern of the Fantom 24X so i need to make a change. My question is, why hasn't anyone mounted on top of the bubble? Even if you just do the 4 degree wedge, you'd be equal to the 4" or close to the same height as the 6" mount in front of the bubble. I have not had the boat out to test the old radar but see no reason to relocate, especially since i don't want to drill more holes. Whats the opinion of eliminating the scan strut but just using a 4degree wedge on top of the bubble of a 265? I trailered the boat home with the old radar dome on the scan-strut 60 miles and it was still there when i got home.

Never mind. It won’t work with just a wedge. You’ll lose a lot of coverage due to the beam hitting the hardtop and bow. Either way, glad I found this thread! I’m relocating the radar to the front of the hardtop with a 6” tower. Gotta figure out how to patch the 1” hole from the old cables. Otherwise, I’ll leave the bolts from the old tower with new caulk.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Never mind. It won’t work with just a wedge. You’ll lose a lot of coverage due to the beam hitting the hardtop and bow. Either way, glad I found this thread! I’m relocating the radar to the front of the hardtop with a 6” tower. Gotta figure out how to patch the 1” hole from the old cables. Otherwise, I’ll leave the bolts from the old tower with new caulk.

On my 265 I ended up with a 4",aft rake, SeaScan that I got from KYGrady. When I redid my hardtop I glassed the old holes from the raytheon and re-drilled for the seascan. Two bolts in front of crossbar, two behind. I put a large cable clam straight back into the upper box of the hardtop. You want it big enough that you can bring cables in & out without cutting ends off.

FYI, I removed the radome for hauling because It looked pretty tight. Good thing, The empty seascan pedestal hit a tree branch one block out of my driveway. hehehe Haulers panicked when they stopped to look and there was no radome!.

You wouldn't want to mount straight to the bubble of the top because the radar would point up ...even worse when on plane. You want it pointed down (fwd) 2-4 degrees otherwise you lose close range in front of you when on plane. Its not important whats behind you.

I'll try to find pix and add them here later...

 

[Fishtales]

Don't have a pic, but I had an 18" Raymarine unit on my 2002 Sailfish. It was mounted on the front edge. I thought it was very sharp looking and worked great. As I remember, 2 screws were prior to the windshield and 2 just inside windshield. That is the best place you can put it for performance and looks without a mount.