How to Install a Fish & Depth Finder on a Pontoon Boat
Fish finders are used to track fish and debris below and around the boat. They are great for fishermen, because they can locate the fish easier than sitting in a specific spot all day and never catching anything. Fish finders can also tell you how deep the water is below. They can save a boat owner quite a bit of damage. Every boat should come from the manufacturer with a fish finder.
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Things You'll Need
- Fish finder
- Pencil
- Drill
- 1/8-inch drill bit
- Pliers
- Phillips screwdriver
Instructions
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1
Remove the bracket from the fish finder.
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2
Place the bracket on the boat where you want it. Trace the holes in the bracket onto the surface below, with a pencil.
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3
Drill out the holes that you traced with an appropriately sized drill bit.
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4
Install the bracket to the surface with the nuts and bolts that came with the fish finder.
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5
Install the fish finder back onto the bracket.
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6
Plug the provided wire into the fish finder. There should be two wires coming from the plug. One will go to the power supply. The other wire will be connected to the bottom of the boat.
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7
Run the wires to the appropriate location. The transducer must be mounted to the bottom outside of the boat. Hide the wires in the carpet or behind the seats as best you can.
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8
Drill pilot holes through the mounting bracket into the accessories tab, using a 1/8-inch drill bit. The accessories tab will be located on one or both of the pontoons on the bottom of the boat.
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9
Attach the mounting bracket to the accessories tab using the screws provided.
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10
Attach the transducer to the mounting bracket. This should snap into place.
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11
Connect the wires to the battery. Be sure to check that you are matching them up appropriately. Positive to positive and negative to negative.
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12
Turn the fish finder on. If it powers up and works properly then you have installed it correctly. If it does not turn on then check the wires to the battery, as you may have them backwards.
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Tips & Warnings
You may want to install a separate battery for the fish finder. It does take a lot of power to run one of these, and you wouldn’t want to be left stranded because of a dead battery.
