Portability Options for Your Lowrance

We recently sent out a mailer to our subscribers letting them know about the portability solutions that we have come up with.  Within minutes we received photos and details from many of our customers about how some they have used a little ingenuity to mount their Lowrance units on unique water craft.  Below we have a photo gallery of images that could help you design your own portable setup.  Of primary importance, however, is a mount that minimizes cavitation (air bubbles) directly under the transducer (e.g., surface noise) and maintaining a correct angle on the transducer.  See recent blogs on this topic. The preferable solution is to permanently mount separate transducers following DIY guidance like shown here on each survey craft and just move the Lowrance Elite or HDS display from boat to boat.  But if the job calls for a fully portable mount, we can help!

Coastal SeaGrass  Mapping

Rick Ware, Senior Marine Biologist with Coastal Resources Management, Inc. sent us these images of his set up for portability on their Achilles inflatable.  He commented that the same system can be used on his single and double kayaks as well.

Creative Low-cost Kayak Set-ups

Or, you can buy a battery and mounting kit like shown here

A low-budget kit using a toolbox to house a 12 volt, 9 ah lead acid  (or better yet a 12 ah Lithium Ion) sealed battery which will run an Elite-Ti all day, multiple if running the LiFePO4.  Elite-7Ti is mounted onto the top of the tool box. The t-channel and strap hooks are only things screwed to the kayak and are above the water line (no need for silicone).  This kayak is used each day for watersport rentals so quick and easy on and off was important (Photos courtesy of John Paulson, City of Hutchinson MN, USA).

Florida Air Boat

Dean Jones, with the Center for Invasive and Aquatic Plants sent us these images of his portable set up on the back of an air boat.  Since the early goings of vegetation mapping with EcoSound we’ve worked hard to find and test a good mount for an airboat.  Dean has found a great solution that works every time!  He’s getting great maps

Although the Lowrance units are always easy to install sometimes our users need a little creativity to meet their unique requirements.  Necessity is the mother of invention . . .

Thru-Hull and Narrow Beam Third Party Options

Ryan Moore also with the Center for Invasive and Aquatic Plants was looking for narrow beam options for more precise mapping of aquatic plants and installed an Airmar B164 bolt-thru-hull transducer.

Navico’s full line of compatible transducers can be browsed and purchased at Lowrance.com.

Below is a gallery of photos you may find helpful for setting up your Lowrance unit and accessories

Creative set up from guts of an old trolling motor (try Craigslist.com), a $20 machined aluminum cap, and $3 in hardware. Photos courtesy of Michael Dorland.

Spring-back bracket from Transducer Shield and Bracket. Photos courtesy of Josh Bowen at Duke Energy Carolinas.

Portable Lowrance HDS7 Touch Set up on a 14-ft Carolina Skiff (Photo Courtesy of Aquatic Systems Inc)

Photo courtesy of Bruce Sabol, Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center.  In this example, high speed may cause excessive surface noise on your Sonar screen.  Slow speed or adjust transducer placement if this is an issue.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Sabol, Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center

Photo courtesy of Bruce Sabol, Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center

The NMEA2000 protocol is a great innovation to network a range of accessory devices, but adhering to installation instructions is important or your HDS or Elite Ti unit will not find the device.  In addition to the diagrams and shots above, Lowrance’s Jacob Scott provides a very instructional video. Always verify that the GPS signal is being received by the antenna before proceeding to map lakes (check System-Satellites-Configure – look for the name of the internal antenna – e.g., Point-1 – to be displayed and active).  External GPS directly over the transducer is important for creating the most precise map output.

Although it eliminates portable options. the mount that ensures consistent, strong, and correct signal is a permanent mount and ideally, installed professionally by your local marine dealer or service center.

Hydraulic tilt professionally installed.  Good for stowing.  Photo courtesy of Amy Peters; South Florida Water Management District

Another creative kayak installation; photo courtesy of Dr. Reed Green; Adjunct Professor University of Arkansas Little Rock.

StructureScan mount on a kayak.  Photo courtesy of Dr. Reed Green Adjunct Professor University of Arkansas Little Rock.

Lowrance skimmer transducer mount through a scupper hole in a kayak.  Photo courtesy of Dr. Reed Green Adjunct Professor University of Arkansas Little Rock.

UPI Michigan’s unique portable solution!

Rig up a fixed but swinging arm that carries the benefits of locking the transducer into the correct position when in use, but allowing the user to stow when needed.

From our Finnish Service Manager, Petteri Partenen: “This mount was made for a portable structure scan solution. [Simrad] NSS12 was in a pelicase with batteries, LSS HD and WIFI-1. On the pics it was on test on a Navy tender. GS15 GPS antenna was mounted on top of the mount to have an accurate position at the transducer location.” For more information about any of the solutions shown above, contact us at info.biobase@navico.com

Author: biobasemaps

BioBase is a cloud platform for the automated mapping of aquatic habitats (lakes, rivers, ponds, coasts). Standard algorithms process sonar datafiles (EcoSound) and high resolution satellite imagery (EcoSat). Depth and vegetation maps and data reports are rapidly created and stored in a private cloud account for analysis, and sharing. This blog highlights a range of internal and external research, frequently asked questions, feature descriptions and highlights, tips and tricks, and photo galleries. View all posts by biobasemaps