New boat and a few questions

[evilstepdad]

Hello,

Just got a Sun Tracker 20 ft DLX fishing barge. We love this pontoon boat as my wife and I both have bad knees and this is great. I have a few questions and would appreciate any advice or input anyone has.

Going out this coming weekend and will be out 4 days. We live in Oregon and the weather is going to be all over the place and up and down lol. What product would you recommend for treating the seats on the boat? Would like to get something to help with protection from the Sun, Rain and just to help keep it up.

Will be adding a Lowrance HOOK7 Fish finder and a couple of questions about this. Does this run off a separate battery or is there a place to add this to existing stuff? There is no extra switch on the dash.

This HOOK7 is a Sonar unit and apparently you just don't put the transducer someplace and call it good so where are you putting your transducers at? The bracket for the bilge pump on the back left toon would be a great place but would this affect the units performance?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[MH Hawker]

most use a product called 303 for the seats, and the FF control head wires in the console and the transducer will have mounting instructions and on a pontoon its normally mounted on a bracket in the rear of a log

 

[evilstepdad]

Thanks for the info. Maybe I am to paranoid but after reading some of the instructions and doing some research on the forum and online it sounds like there is no good place to put it if you want it to work really good all the time lol.

 

[HotTommy]

My transducer is mounted at the back of the starboard log. But I only use it for depth readings and I want them near the motor. .... I think that is a common position because it is in the water but not in the direct stream when the boat is underway. If you can find a secure place closer to where you plan to drop your fishing lines, maybe that would be a better choice. There is no such place on my boat.

 

[Silvertip]

Transducers don't need to be close to the fishing line. Consider a paper cone shaped drinking cup. Turn it upside down and you now have a representation of what the transducers "cone" looks like. In anything more than a couple feet of water, the locator would show fish entering, within, and leaving the cone. It would also show your lure if you have things set up right.The deeper the water the wider that cone becomes.

 

[Snoots]

The only thing that you might be a consideration when installing on the back log is whether or not you have a side view sonar. You will have to take into account that the motor may block the signal if in the direct path.

 

[MH Hawker]

no worse than on any other boat

 

[BigDfromTN]

I have a 24' pontoon and just installed a Lowrance Elite 5 on my boat.
I put the transducer on the back of the left log. I had to buy and extension cord for it to make it reach from there under the boat and up to the helm where I mounted the unit. I also got a RAM brand mount that allows the head to swivel and be lowered below the windshield for storage. I mounted the transducer a little lower than my old depth sounder transducer and it gives me good reading even at top speed.
You then connect the power to what ever power source you choose. My old one would turn off with the key, but it would also fire up and show the depth of the water very quickly. This Lowrance Elite takes a while to load up when you turn it on, so I wired it to an always hot lead with a fuse. (Just got to remember to turn it off every day!)

As for the seats.... I also use the 303 aerospace protectant a couple times per year.

 

[evilstepdad]

Thanks for all the replies. getting the 303 and did mount on the rear of the toon using the bracket that has the bilge pump in it. Worked great all weekend.