Just bought my first boat...preowned

You can have it either way.

Mine is on my transom


If your friend thinks that his way is the only way than he doesnt know jack

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Ronnie Hot Finger

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It was a drama filled weekend with people telling me do this do that, get this get that, fix this fix that blah blah...anyways. One thing that really concerns me b/c of how big a deal he was making it was a friend of mine (thinks he knows everything about everything with boats) was telling me was that my transducer for my GPS/depth finder shouldn't be where it is- on the back of the boat and in the water- but it should be inside the hull. The reason this came up was that sometimes when we were running the depth display would blink indicating it wasn't getting an accurate reading rather than staying still and adjusting every few seconds. Experienced boaters, what do you guys have to say about this?

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sounds like a ronnie hot mess

Me too works fine

It is working fine and can be mounted either way. You are losing bottom when running because the boat is traveling faster than the transducer can receive thensignal. Once you stop it should go back to working.

Congrats on getting a PRE-OWNED boat...the only way to go.

Hull or transom. Transom is easiest and most common. Usually works just fine. However, some hull designs simply give problems (unique curvature lines), but some sort of tweaking will usually fix it. However, occasionally it won't. I had one of those problem children about 20 years ago. Finally just had to mount inside the hull...problem solved

Military small boats have hull mounted transducers.

I would try tweaking it like the previous OBers suggested. Only if that fails would I hull mount it.

Either way is fine. Ive had both but prefer the transom. You will lose signa when running but you shouldnt be running off of it anyway, its behind you and its too late when it reads on there. My favorite set up is both. You can get a Y cable and hook both into your unit, this will allow for constant reading when running.

Sounds like the transducer is experiencing cavitation from the prop wash (being mounted to close to engine) or is at the wrong depth/angle for the hull. It should be mounted parallel to the hull running surface and at least 15" outboard of the engine cavitation plate.

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What other way is there to tell the depth then if I'm not using that?

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If your using it to check your depth while running, you will get burned soon. If your running, know the channel or dont run is what Im saying. If your reading that to feel safe running, its on the back of the boat so its not designed for that, and anything it picks up will be too late to save you. Not saying you are, but some of my most expensive SI units wouldnt read at all on plain and I couldnt move them becasue they had to have open shots to each side at 180 degrees and it didnt bother me the least because if I was running I wasnt using it for finding structure.

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Can you elaborate on this? Not following since I'm new.

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Best advice I can tell you is read your book or call the company it came from and ask them. But they make wires that have splits on them so you can have a cheap puck style in the boat to shoot throught the hull and the transom mount both hooked up at all times.

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Most likely either cavitation bubbles from the hull are passing the transducer or it's not set at the correct angle/height and is creating an air gap, itself.

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THIS! or hull placement.