Need help with Depth Finder

[rpoteau]

My wife and I own a 1995 Four Winns 200 Horizon bowrider with the 5.0L OMC.

I would like everyone's advice/expertise on getting the factory depth gauge working. I thought I read previously about getting the part on ebay.

four winns depth finder | eBay

Is this all that is needed? Or are there more parts involved? Should I just say the heck with it and install something aftermarket? I've looked at a few fishing/depth gauges, but I don't fish in this boat. Do people recommend through hull or transom mounts?

 

[4now04]

Re: Need help with Depth Finder

If you are talking about the digital in-dash depth finder, I would recommend not spending much time on it. We bought a 1995 190 horizon new and ran it for 18 seasons and over 2000 hours. Our digital depth finder was usually only reliable over a hard bottom at idle. Weeds would confuse it and cause inaccurate readings. It would loose its ability to maintain bottom contact on plane or over soft bottoms. The thru hull transducer is susceptible to water flow disturbances that cause a loss of signal. The installation on a hull with approximately 18 degrees of deadrise does not work too well when the transducer "cone angle" is approximately 20 degrees. The transducer signal strength is also significantly less than other sonar graph type units. This means that receiving a signal on the edge of the "cone" will be weaker than the already weak signal in the center of the cone.

I would recommend getting a separate sonar or gps/sonar unit. We installed a gps/sonar (Lowrance m68c) several years ago. The ability to distinguish a hard or soft bottom and weeds can be very helpful. I installed a transducer mounting board (some call it "Starboard") on the transom and attached the transducer on the back of the transom.