Since there's been a lot of Xi5 talk in this forum as of late, I figured someone might be able to offer some advise. I am STRONGLY looking at purchasing a Tracker Targa V18 in the near future and when I stopped into BPS and spoke with a salesman about having it come with the Xi5, he indicated that I would not be able to run a bow unit with DI because of the way the mounting bracket is designed and that the transducer cable for the DI would get caught up in it when deploying/stowing the TM. He said that they have seen it time and time again and that the best option would be to put an SI/DI/GPS (an Elite 7-Ti in fact) unit at the helm, and put the sonar unit the boat comes with at the bow. Does anyone know of a way around this? A better set up?

Also, if anyone knows anything about the Targa18's performance/reliability...I'd love to hear opinions on that as well. My heart really wants a Crestliner Fishhawk 1950....but don't know if there's 15k (I'm assuming) worth of difference between the 2.

Thanks in advance guys. I've been following the forum for a few years and am a crappie fisherman FIRST when it comes to chasing fins and have always enjoyed the great information and camaraderie in this section. I used to have a login (CMFish) but forgot my password and the recovery email is no longer valid so....

I don't know anything about the Targa. I run DI on my xi5, and I run the cable down the shaft. Many on here have posted pictures how they do it. I'm not saying it's a clean looking set up, but he's wrong.

Get the boat w/out the motor then come see me for the savings. I also provide installation and can run the DI transducer on the motor and up the shaft. Works well...

I no nothing about the Targa to give you any advise....