Just bought my humminbird SI today. Need help deciding where to mount the transducer on my hull. I have a jack plate and a stepped hull design and was thinking of mounting it directly in the center of the hull under the jack plate....

It says if you are going to go over 65 to make sure it isnt in the water. well Im going to be going faster than that so if I mount it on the upper step of the hull under the jack plate should it be out of the water at speed? I was also planning on using my original standard depth finder to use while at speed and use the si/humminbird when looking for structure at idle....but I was wanting to use the Humminbird for speed since my speedometer is broke....I know it is done by gps but should I be able to do this or will the screen be flashing with the transducer being out of the water?

I have an si unit also, i mounted my transducer in the opposite place as my original, in other word same place on the other side of the engine, if you contact humminbird they will tell you to get them as far apart as possible to reduce feedback between the two units,, also the speed will work either in the water or not.

and the screen will not flash anything, yo can control which screen is displayed/ viewed or not .

great units

SI feature works well at slower speeds.

I dont get over 65 (to hard to keep my baits in the water at that speed.).so i cant comment on high speed pick up ... but it works very well at 40 and under... what fish are you chasing at 65+ ??? just wondering ??

I just installed the 997 after installing and removing the 798ci I had the transducer in a bad spot was only imaging to the left I relocated mine to center as possible. You have a jack plate so you have more options my motor was interfering with my left imaging.
I am taking my boat back to the lake in the morning so should know right off if the relocation point was the right move

You are thinking right. Mount in the center. It will be out of the water on pad. The speedo comes from GPS not the puck so you will get the speed reading on the unit on Sonar. It sounds like a great setup.

lol no Im not shark fishing or anything at 65 but I wanted to make sure the gps function and speedo would work so I know where Im going. Ill be using my old unit for depth readings while at speed. I know the SI will only work at slower speeds like idle so I would only be using that once I got to the hump or brush pile or whatever it maybe. But I wantd to make sure I could use the other functions like gps and speed while at speed. Thanks for the response

cool let me know what you find out how did you like the 798 other than that?

cool I was thinking I had read other had read somewhere to put it under the jackplate but wasnt sure....do you think I will get interference from my other unit?

Anyone know if the older transducer on the hull being slightly lower than the SI transducing is going to cause some interference on the right side view on the SI?

Im still needing some advice on this.....just sitting here waiting dont want to drill until I know where to put it....

I liked the 798 but it has the small screen i wanted a larger screen. I went to the lake and center mounting was the ticket

http://s926.photobucket.com/albums/ad101/gunlocators/?action=view&current=S00024.jpg

that looks awesome man I cant wait to get mine in the water.

I called humminbird today ang talked to a customer service rep and they told me ill need to remove the older transducer because it would cause a blockage in the SI. So tommorow ill be taking the old transducer off and getting the SI one mounted up.

Good customer service like others have said!

They seem to have great customer service I am please good luck i know you will like it when you get it installed

Skip the drilling and build yourself a bracket out of aluminum. Mount it to one of your lower motor bolts.

Here is mine.

lol thats pretty close to how Im going to do mine. I am going to drill through a thin steel plate that is part of my jack plate more than likely so I dont have to drill into the hull...thanks for the photo!

I mounted mine thru-the-hull....drilled a hole in the step and fitted the SI transducer. I like it better than the transom mount and it's as protected as can be. Takes some balls to drill it.