New Bayliner Element 16 Owner/ Transom Fish Finder Mount Location / Trim Tabs-gctid817965

[BuffaloElement]

Hey Everyone,

I just recently purchased an Element 16 with the 60HP engine. Love the boat, however I have some problems with getting it to plane out. Im taking it back to the dealer to get re propped, and I ordered some trim tabs for the rear. Just wondering what my options are for mounting the transducer for the depth/fish finder. Since the trim tabs are going to be going on the outer edges of the boat, can I mount the transducer in front of the engine by the drain plug or will that be too deep or turbulent for it?

Looking forward to some good discussions on the forums.

Thanks

[Pcpete]

Welcome to the BOC! The trim tabs will help get the boat out of the water. What I did was full down until the boat started to feel bow heavy as speed increased then raised the tabs to let the bow come up. Care must be taken to raise them evenly or you will be healing like a sailboat. It takes practice. It may be as simple as tilting the motor down a bit more or changing how you load your boat. To much weight in the stern and you will never get it up on the step.

As to mounting the transducer, I mounted mine at the bottom of the bilge ahead of the engine. First, get some water in there and move the transducer around until you find a sweet spot that gives you good returns on a low power setting. Then clean the area with acetone, it doesn't take much, and the same to the bottom of the transducer real well. Take a glob of bondo, mix it up and butter the bottom of the hull location kind of like a hill, then do the same to the transducer. You want the two areas to squeeze out to the sides without trapping any air in the bondo. Align the transducer so it is as perpendicular to the water as you can considering the keel gets deeper in the water the further back in the boat you go. When the bondo is about half kicked you can trim the edges so water can flow around the now stuck to the boat transducer. You will loose a slight amount of definition, but it will read while you are up and moving. Transom mounted units very seldom maintain the air free contact needed to send and receive the signals.

That's how I did mine prior to my current boat that has through hull mounted units.