I recently purchased a lowrance x96 finder for my boat. I want to use the same finder while ice fishing this year. I have been looking for a way to convert it to a portable unit and came across this setup. It sells for about $90 and seems to come with everything I need. Wondering if anyone has used a unit like this (using D batteries) or would I be better off using a gel cell battery and purchase another transducer. I have seen some of TubeDude's rigs for ice fishing and think this would work good for me, but I wanted to get some feedback. Thanks in advance!
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[black][size 3]Hey JAB2208,[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]I converted my boat fishfinder for ice fishing, it was easy to do and it didn't cost very much to do it. [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]I just use a small 12 volt battery. I took my transducer off the boat and mounted it on a piece of PVC, put the battery in a small lunch cooler and mounted the main fishfinder head unit on the lid of the cooler. [/size][/black]
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[inline "ICE FISHFINDER.JPG"]
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[black][size 3]Total cost was probably less than $25 - most of which was for the battery that cost about $18 - the cooler was $4 at a local thrift store and a couple of bucks for a generic mounting bracket for the transducer from Home Depot. [/size][/black]
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I took the fish finder from the boat and made a portable unit for ice fishing. I took an empty square plastic laundry detergent pail and inside put the 12 volt gel cell battery in a smaller container so it doesn't fall over. I made a tee with 3/4" PVC pipe and bolted the transducer end onto it. I hook up the power supply from the battery to the fish finder and the transducer cable, stick it down the ice hole, turn it on, and Wa-la. Any fishies down there? I have a 12 volt cigarette adapter mounted on the small battery box to power the GPS, and a RAM mount bolted to the outside of the pail to mount the fishfinder to so I can watch it while ice fishing. I may not catch them, but at least I can tell if there are any there or I need to drill more holes in another area. Acey
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here are a few past threads with good info and pics
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=181099;search_string=Fishfinder;#181099"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=181099;search_string=Fishfinder;#181099[/url]
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=181365;search_string=Fishfinder;#181365"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=181365;search_string=Fishfinder;#181365[/url]
this should help
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Except, those smaller 12 volts are NOT gel, they are acid, but easy enough to do and they don't weigh that much.
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I used a bucket, a stick for the transducer and the battery from my 12volt drill it worked good.
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Thanks for all of the advice everyone. Has anyone used the item in the picture? I dont want to pull the transducer off of the boat and a new transducer is about 57-60 dollars. I was thinking another 20-25 bucks and I get this kit with the transducer. Thanks again for all of the input.
Jeff
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