Just purchased a new Lowrance Gen3 12 from Brian. I have a Skeeter ZX225 and have never put a cover on the bottom of the jack plate to help with the turbulence problem.

Is it worth while to install one in you guys opinion. Will it improve the graph picture very much?

Thanks for your input.

If your sonar is SI, you should mount it on a jack plate cover, otherwise, the SI beam will hit anything that is directly out to the side of it. Call Transducer Shield and Saver and they can tell you which mount and wedge you need. If you mount it on the side of the jack plate, you'll get an echo off the opposite side of the JP.

Thanks Bob, I have a Transducer shield bracket and L bracket which was recommended by the Transducer Saver folks, installed on my jack plate that I purchased about 5 years ago when I added side scan to the boat. I do not have a jack plate cover. I guess I could just install a jack plate cover and leave the SS bracket where it is. Any thoughts?

Update, just talked to folks at Transducer Saver and they told me they do not recommend mounting on jack plate cover, they said it needs to be mounted on starboard side of jack plate bracket. They did recommend a 2" extenstion for the bracket which they did not make when I originally purchased my saver from them 5 or 6 years ago.
Guess I will give that a try.

Wayne P. has a screen shot of a SI unit picking up a reflection from the side of a jack plate. I don't know why they are against it. The only drawback is that depth doesn't work above around 6-7 MPH, but unless I'm looking for fish on the SI, I'm using the map chip to keep me in the channel and out of trouble. I'e been running mine on a hole shot plate for a year with no issues.
Maybe Wayne will post that screen shot here.

Although I have an HB, SI is SI???? Unique Boat Products make a special mount on a bottom hole-shot plate that many say works just fine. That guy wouldn't sell them if it didn't!! Problem is, this is his part-time gig and is very hard to get a hold of him.

http://uniqueboatproducts.org/top_plates.htm (It's a Bottom plate but in the top-plate link)

And his website is about as close as you can get to not having one.

Been that way for years now. Sometimes he does a run on certain products but then stops for a while. I can attest that he does make a quality product but as I said before he's a hard man to track down to make an order.

Got the extension from Transducer Saver and got it installed. Gonna try it out Monday, if we don't blow away this weekend. Thanks for the input fellows.