Hello everyone. I need help please.

New boat owner and I can't get the console Lowrance Elite 5 to give me a decent image. The unit is brand new and it works, but I keep getting horrible images, mostly what looks like air pockets or water issues from the transducer from what I've researched on the web.

The picture shows the current location of the transducer. You can also see many spots where other stuff used to be mounted, probably the last owner trying a bunch of different spots for same thing.

I've read countless articles, install instructions and watched a ton of videos. Before I go poking more holes in the boat, could you please give me an educated guess as to where I should mount the transducer to fix these issues?

Thanks! Oh, the boat is a 2000 Sprint 289 fish and ski.

Stepped transoms seem to be tough for folks to find a good spot to mount 'ducers. I'll let someone with a more similar transom give you some advice based on experience.

The one thing I will suggest you do though, is to go buy a piece of StarBoard - and mount that to your transom and not the actual transducer. That way if you need to play with the location a bit, you can drill holes into the StarBoard instead of your actual transom. You can pick it up a lot of places, I know West Marine carries it.

You might consider mounting it in the hull. If done correctly you'll get a good signal and no worries about knocking it off.

I don't believe it will ever read at anything above idle speed where it is mounted. It is probably picking up some pretty bad turbulence as far as it is below the hull too. It also looks cocked and not level. I would start by putting a level on it and get that straightened out first and see if it helps at idle speeds. I would just try to do it where the bracket is mounted now and not drill any more holes. Check YouTube there are some pretty decent videos there.

Thanks everyone. I will try those suggestions and report back what works.

definitely get that back and up, I would put it right where you would mount a secondary motor to the right of the main motor. mount it level and you should be good to go. the starboard idea is great, can be found cheap on ebay.

I would mount it IN the boat, in the bottom of the hull.

That will solve a lot of your problems.

Moved it around a little where it was to get it level. No fix.

Looked closer and it looks like it is running directly inline with a strake(I think that's the term). You can sort of see it in the above pic.

Looked up in hole mounting. Only difficult part seems to be getting air out of epoxy when mounting.

My 2 questions for that option are:

1) do I require the closed PVC pipe and water trick I see some do to cover the ducer?

2) do I mount it as low as the bilge pumps or up onto the next "step" in the engine bay?

Thanks again everyone.

PS- I ordered a piece of starboard to just in case I need it for something else. Like crafting new lids or cup holders. Neat stuff.

Don't think the si Transducer will work very well when mounted in-hull. I would call H'bird customer service and ask before doing it. Seems like your hull might interfere with the beam lobes and give you some funky response on your imaging unit.

Looking at your setup again, there is that strake right in front of your transducer. You probably have some really messy water right there.

I know a lot of people (me included) use a separate shoot-through hull transducer solely for the purpose of bottom reading while on plane. This allows you some extra freedom in mounting your si transducer - it only needs to work when you are off plane. I lose bottom on mine pretty much as soon as I plane out, which is where I rely on my in-hull just for a depth reading.

Here's a pic of mine - it has since been moved up just a tad bit and leveled out. If I move it two inches to the right the strake makes it a lot worse. This is the best spot on my hull, you have more room to work with below the bottom of your jack-plate. (You can see the Starboard mounting plate - I have a lot of flexibility if I want to move the 'ducer around.)



My in-hull transducer actually came as original equipment on the boat, and it is in the very back of the transom by the bilge. This gives it clean water underneath so it always has a good reading.