Bow mounted fish finder

[Rich D]

All,



A little advice, if you please. I will be installing a bow mounted fishfinder (BottomLine 1100 - cheapo unit to keep me on ledges and weed edges) on my Pro Angler 16. I looked at the Eagle post in the grab bag, and it gave me some help, but here is the problem. The only electrical sources I have in the bow are the trolling motor, and the light socket. I don't want to connect power to the trolling motor because of extra drain on the battery and possible interference, and if I connect to the light socket, I have to have the console light switch on. Would it be best to run the wires all the way back to the battery for a direct connect, or to the console and hook up to the junction?



Thanks in advance,



Rich D

 

[JEFF WHITE]

i ran the exira wires for the finder.run at least 14 ga wire and fuse it at the fuse panel under the console.

 

[John Foster]

If your bow light doesn't have the extra hot wire. then I would run a new wire from the battery to the unit. but just the hot wire. Use the ground from the light socket.



John

 

[TrepMan]

No need to run both back, just the hot wire and use the ground with the light. I see from your boat specs you don't have the Tilt switch I used.



I understand not wanting to run to the Trolling Motor for interference and/or trolling battery drain. I ran my old boat to the Trolling motor and if I put the motor on more than low speed I lost the screen on the fish finder.



Take some Pic's if you can so we've got another Grab Bag to cover this angle too.



TrepMan

 

[Russ Charles]

Most depthfinders use less that 1/2 amp and #18 wire is more than adequate. It is best to use twisted pair to reduce the possibility of interference.



Russ

 

[Gary Cooke]

Not being much of an electrician I wired my bow mounted sonar to the bow courtesy light. It's the type of light that tilts to activate. I would accidentally bump it sometimes and leave it on so I decided to disconnect it and use the existing wires for the sonar. I've used it this way for 2 years and has worked well for me. I also have another sanar at the helm and both units are wired to the cranking battery. I have not had any low battery situations even after all day fishing outings. Just my 2 cents, Good luck!

 

[Brian Feist]

When I went looking at the bundle of wires under the trolling motor plug/mini console area in my Pro Team 175 to mount my fishfinder, I found an extra hot wire. The only thing that I could think that it was for was the power tilt switch (an option that I don't have) I just used that wire.