Updating and installing a sounder

Sound advice

If your sounder is sluggish and last century, it may be time to upgrade. If this sounds like you, then the latest sounders may make a world of difference - you are out on the water, trying to see what's on the bottom at a new found hotspot just marked. Only, when you look at the GPS combo to see if you are on the mark, it's clear you just flew over it. Worse, you can't see the bottom because the screen takes too long to rotate to the right view.

Sounds familiar? Well the only option is to invest in a good sounder. Obviously if you have a combo already, then the ultimate is adding a separate sounder, utilising the current one for GPS alone. The problem is there are just so many to choose from, so it's a hard choice. They all have advantages, but the main criteria it comes down to is, value for money and how the unit performs.

GO COLOUR
Having just gone through this process and with a little help from people in the know, I found a really competitive option and price. I decided to get as good a colour sounder as possible for the best price I could find. After doing some homework, colour is the only option. It just displays so much more bang for your buck.

After checking around with a few marine shops, it was off to my local marine electronics dealer. I think that supporting small businesses is a great idea and they are generally more informative and supportive than the bigger places. My choice was the Furuno 620 Colour Sounder, as it fitted all the requirements on my checklist. Kyle at Trymax Marine was very helpful, demonstrating how to use it on a demo unit and offered plenty of fitting advice.

He gave me hints and mounting position advice where needed, confirming it was pretty straightforward, especially as I installed my current one and it would not be any great difference. Plus the instructions that came with unit would help if I got into trouble and I could also call on Kyle if I needed. If you are experienced in installing boat equipment, then doing it yourself is fine, though, if you are not up to speed with electronics, then there are marine electronics installers who can do it for you. Also check if the warranty is altered by self-installation (Clarion marine audio offer a longer warranty for their gear if installed by an agent, as about 70 per cent of their warranty work comes from self-installations.)

First step was removing the old transducer, and then fitting the new transducer onto the bracket. This wasn't too hard, but the right position is vital, it will work at speed. The transducer needs to be level and have the side closest to the engine 3mm below the transom. So with that done, it was onto the tedious task of routing the cabling.

CABLE LAYING
Opening the conduit that is spliced onto the running gear was first and then pushing the cable through the hole in the transom. With that done, it was fed up the boat under the gunwale to the point where the conduit drops down under the floor to feed up into the centre console.

Once the cable was at this point, I released the old transducer cable out of the Humminbird and fed it down to the opening in the console. The easiest way to get the new cable under and through this difficult course is to tape a piece of flexible wire or rope to the old transducer cable and pull it through.

Use plenty of good tape like gaffer tape, as there's nothing worse than reaching about halfway along its tight course and the tape lets go! Also, strong tape avoids making many layers of tape to hold the cable securely, averting the cause of another huge frustration, where the cable will catch and stubbornly refuse to come out.

Once the old transducer cable with the 'pull wire' or 'pull rope' is out at the conduit end where all the cabling enters the floor, it's a matter of untaping the old cable, then taping the new transducer cable to the rope. Then, hopefully, it will be a simple matter of pulling on the rope from the console end and the new one will feed through to the hole in the console.

Things got a bit tough and I needed to unscrew the floor on the other side of the console, as the rope and plug got jammed. Pulling the foam out, then reaching under the console is how I had to get through. Then success when the cable was through and hanging out the console.

With new transducer cable in the console where it was needed, it was now a case of pulling the old one back out. This wasn't too hard once all the cabling was loose and out it came. The next thing to do was remove the speedo and hour-meter that were positioned where the new sounder would sit.

These were successfully removed with not much fuss, being sure to put the wires that came off the back of the gauges back where they came from. With two holes left over, I had a plate made up to cover them. Fortunately my mate is great with metal and cut me a piece of stainless plate. Mounting the plate in place wasn't too hard and by using stainless it looks great and will last forever. With the holes covered, it was time to set where the sounder needed to be positioned, then drill the hole and screw it into place. It didn't take too long and being firmly in place and secure it looked really neat on the stainless steel plate.

POWERING UP
The last step was plumbing the power cable into place. As there are terminal blocks mounted inside the console, it was a matter of feeding the cable in through the throttle-box cable hole and down to the blocks. Once the wires were in place, zip ties held the cable in place, as it wound its way up the top to the unit. With that done all I had to do was to plug in the transducer and power cable to the unit and the Furuno project was nearly done.

All that was left was tidying up the cabling coming up from the floor, under the gunwales and out the back of the transom. With cable ties in one hand and electrical tape in the other, I progressively made my way to the back of the boat.

It really doesn't take much to install a sounder yourself. All you need is confidence and the ability to follow instructions and you can save yourself a few dollars. It didn't take long to complete the installation, all up about two to three hours. I had to wait for the plate to be made overnight, but that didn't stop me getting everything else ready for that point.

On testing the unit, it demonstrated excellent performance. Actually it's awesome technology. Being able to finally discern fish from other inanimate items is fantastic. Coming up to a mark is a simple matter of checking to see that I am on the right course and then looking at the new unit to see what is happening. No flicking through screens just looking at what is there and seeing it in colour, how good is that?

Using the black and white one just doesn't compare to what this unit displays. If you are thinking of buying a new sounder the only way to go is colour full stop. It just allows you to really see what is going on down below with so much detail.

Furuno have really produced the goods here and it's a fantastic unit that lives up to all the expectations. Competitively priced, you won't go wrong if you grab one for your boat. Whether you fish in the bay or offshore this is the unit for you.

For further information, phone Furuno on (07) 3399 8733 or visit www.furuno.com.au