Need advice on installing FF to tandem kayak? - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Dave Legacy · 12-26-2015, 03:07 PM

Hey everyone,

I could use some advice for installing/mounting my new (and first) fish finder to my Malibu Kayaks Pro 2 Tandem. The fish finder to be installed is the Lowrance Mark-4 HDI and my current preference is shoot-thru-hull transducer mount. I expect that the Downscan Imaging will suffer, but my thought process is that I won't incur drag and I'll have an overall neater deck. If I understand HDI correctly I'll still have conventional sonar and that should pass through the hull well enough.

The challenge is I'd like to be able to use the fish finder in both a tandem and solo seating layout. My kayak gets used as a tandem more often than not, but it would be desirable to be able to still have the ability to use it when I'm paddling alone. For this reason I'm thinking that mounting the display on the large rectangular center hatch is my best bet, but I am open to suggestions. Here's what I'm working with:

In the tandem seating position I have the entire hatch to work with and the FF would be mounted near my feet

In the solo seating position the mount would be in between my legs and pretty damn close to the family jewels. To be fair maybe a little closer to my knees. =)

The underside of the hatch gives a better of idea of what types of mounts can be used. I'm kicking around the idea of using a ram ball, gear track + ram ball, or even just the Lowrance bracket since it does seem to rotate and a full 360 degrees and wiring can come in from beneath if I'm not mistaken.

I figure if I leave enough slack in the wiring I can still open up the hatch if I needed to. The hatch can be installed in either direction so I could potentially turn it 180 degrees to put the FF closer to me in the tandem seating position. In a worst-case scenario I could get a new hatch and start over from scratch.

Any of you experienced guys willing to put in your two cents? I don't want to over look an obvious solution or end up putting my FF in a poor location due to my own inexperience!

Best regards,

Dave

12-26-2015, 03:07 PM	#1
Dave Legacy Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Hacienda Heights, CA Posts: 427	Need advice on installing FF to tandem kayak? Hey everyone, I could use some advice for installing/mounting my new (and first) fish finder to my Malibu Kayaks Pro 2 Tandem. The fish finder to be installed is the Lowrance Mark-4 HDI and my current preference is shoot-thru-hull transducer mount. I expect that the Downscan Imaging will suffer, but my thought process is that I won't incur drag and I'll have an overall neater deck. If I understand HDI correctly I'll still have conventional sonar and that should pass through the hull well enough. The challenge is I'd like to be able to use the fish finder in both a tandem and solo seating layout. My kayak gets used as a tandem more often than not, but it would be desirable to be able to still have the ability to use it when I'm paddling alone. For this reason I'm thinking that mounting the display on the large rectangular center hatch is my best bet, but I am open to suggestions. Here's what I'm working with: In the tandem seating position I have the entire hatch to work with and the FF would be mounted near my feet In the solo seating position the mount would be in between my legs and pretty damn close to the family jewels. To be fair maybe a little closer to my knees. =) The underside of the hatch gives a better of idea of what types of mounts can be used. I'm kicking around the idea of using a ram ball, gear track + ram ball, or even just the Lowrance bracket since it does seem to rotate and a full 360 degrees and wiring can come in from beneath if I'm not mistaken. I figure if I leave enough slack in the wiring I can still open up the hatch if I needed to. The hatch can be installed in either direction so I could potentially turn it 180 degrees to put the FF closer to me in the tandem seating position. In a worst-case scenario I could get a new hatch and start over from scratch. Any of you experienced guys willing to put in your two cents? I don't want to over look an obvious solution or end up putting my FF in a poor location due to my own inexperience! Best regards, Dave