I was just wondering if anyone has had any issues mounting a fish finder transducer to the bottom on their trolling motor? I bought a new Minn Kota bow mount trolling motor for my boat this year and I mounted a second transducer for Garmin Striker fish finder to the bottom of the trolling motor. I followed the instructions exactly like Minn Kota recommended to mount it. However, last night (my second trip with this motor and fish finder I put the motor on a spot lock (where the motor uses GPS to keep you in the same position, like anchoring) and after a few minutes the motor had spun in circles causing the cable to wrap around the motor mount and it cut the transducer cable (about $100 to replace, luckily a friend of mine can repair it).
Has this ever happened to anyone else? Any suggestions? I’m thinking about a separate mounting plate and rod or something to mount the transducer to so I can drop it down the other side of the bow, not by the motor. Maybe they sell something like this?
Any advice for a 1 year boat owner would be appreciated.
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What model trollingmotor?
Search on youtube there are a couple different options you will find
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I have the Minn Kota Power Drive 70 with iPilot
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Interesting question. Won't you have the same problem no matter how you mount the transducer, with the spot lock? In doing its job, the spot lock will keep steering and running the motor to keep the boat locked, and you have no control of it turning multiple times and possibly wrapping the cable.
I have been thinking of getting a new trolling motor with the spot lock, etc. but wondered about this problem with the cable. One solution is to get the models with the transducer built into the motor unit. Only problem is that you may want to use a different transducer than they provide.
I have looked at mounting the transducer for my helix 7 (bow mounted) on a Brocraft BC-BP110M type arm. I have not purchased or mounted this type arm yet, so can't give pros and cons. But it is a way of deploying a transducer of your choice, separate from your trolling motor. Just a thought.
I will be interested to see what ideas others have.
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Thanks for the YouTube links they are giving me some ideas. I found a couple more that might be helpful if anyone else is interested.
I think this one is pretty interesting and might protect the cable very well.
https://youtu.be/_dBPDzZKT-w
Here is another interesting way to just mount it separate from the motor. Looks simple but I would prefer something more like the first link since it won’t mount something that is always attached to the boat.
https://youtu.be/0DD4RrwQqUk
There is a nice product called Cable Guard from Precision Sonar that seems to be exactly what I’m looking for but I’m not too thrilled about the $139 price tag (almost the price of my Garmin Striker fish finder). Not sure if I want to go that route or not. Looks very well made though.
https://www.facebook.com/precisionsonar/...34?sfns=mo
Hope this helps someone else prevent getting the cable cut when the motor spins in circles.
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I guess wrapping up the cable and breaking them is fairly common with Minn Kota spot lock. However, spot lock is supposed to know when it is wrapped up and unwrap itself. I’m not sure if that really is the case or not. At least last night when it broke my transducer cable it was still wrapped up with the motor cables and I manually controlled the motor to unwrap itself.
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That would be great if the spot lock computer knows the motor position and does not wrap the cable. That would put aside some of my concerns with getting an ultrex with spot lock and other control features. I really like the features and am thinking of buying one this year. Thanks.
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Other than the fact that spot lock broke my external transducer cable last night, I love it so far. It is very handy!
I just ordered one of those cable savers for my motor. It should protect my cable now.
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I just run a side scan transducer on my riptide, same as most minkota, took the head off, slide the shaft out, zip tie the wire in the cut out in the shaft, silicone/glue the wire in, let dry, cut zip ties, reassemble.
they sell a mount to secure your your transducer to the motor.
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That is definitely an issue using spot lock if you don't have some wind for the boat to hold into. Whenever I'm using spot lock with not much wind I am constantly keeping an eye on it and quick to grab the remote hanging at my side to disengage it when I see the motor starting to spin around too far.
I don't think there's any way to prevent this you just have to watch it .
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Good to know. I didn’t know and paid the price. I’ll be more careful now.
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I believe that your power drive Unit has an internal transducer. Minn Kota has cable adapter pigtails that allow you to hook the internal transducer to your unit. Check the Minn Kota website and you should be able to find the part number for the proper pigtail. My guess is that the Lowrance pigtail will work because Garmin owns Lowrance now. I should not affect the I-=Pilot feature as that runs off the internal GPS of the motor.