NorCal Kayak Anglers
Kayak Zone => Kayaks => Native Watercraft => Topic started by: bmb on January 30, 2017, 11:47:08 PM
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Hi All,
As many of you know, since I've been spamming it so heavily, my most recent kayak from Native is the Manta Ray 12 Propel. I've just finished giving the kayak the paces and am starting to put together my info on it for the community.
For rigging, I went with the Lowrance Elite 7 TI Totalscan. I picked this particular model up for a decent price, and decided to go ahead and give it an honest shot with the totalscan transducer - if it didn't work out I could easily just revert back to the 455/800hz chirp transducer that came off my boat when I added the totalscan on that as well. I rarely do things half assed so I decided to go ahead and take a shot here.
Now, new on the FX13 Propel and the Manta Ray 12 Propel is a transducer mounting location under the hull. Essentially, Native installed two inset nuts in a rectangular cutout in front of the drivewell. They added a piece of starboard and provided some stainless bolts that thread into the inset nuts Not sure exactly what thread they are but they appear to be 10-24 from my guesstimating.
Anyways, if you've ever seen the Totalscan transducer in person, you'll see its a big sucker. Its way too large to fit in any traditional transducer location. Other folks have been hanging them over the side on arms, but I prefer scupper mounting to reduce drag on the kayak. Unfortunately, the mounting locations for the inset nuts don't match the bolt pattern for the Totalscan transom mount bracket. To resolve this, I simply drilled a #10 sized hole in the transom mount bracket and then bolted it into the existing inset nuts.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20161224_155429134_zpsc35tqjiy.jpg)
The TS transducer can sit flush to the bottom of the kayak's hull, and is protected fairly well from underwater obstructions by the kayak's hull.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211936696_zpsvoftlaut.jpg)
(taken at an angle so you can see the xducer - it actually sits flush)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211958628_zpsodyfrz1q.jpg)
To route the wiring, I ran the transducer cable up through the cable guides, and into the front of the drivewell. I used a simple nylon cable clamp to guide the wire by removing and replacing the small bolt that attaches the drive retention/lockdown clip.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211925607_zpshoq1i3ir.jpg)
Then I routed into the hull interior using a Hobie threaded thru hull.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211912279_zpsmna5qrwh.jpg)
I installed a couple of nylon padeyes inside of the hull to zip tie the cables cleanly, then ran the cables back out to the FF with another Hobie thru hull.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211717281_zpsuaihz41o.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211705918_zpsfjfvy1gy.jpg)
Mounted the FF using a 1" ram ball connected to another 1" ram ball that I bolted to a piece of starboard. I mounted the FF to the starboard on the other side.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211711632_zpsh5blrejo.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211657748_zpsmsphel7u.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170107_211639280_zpsrq6jnyni.jpg)
So far the downscan works very well but the jury is still out on the sidescan capability. I haven't been able to take it out yet to any lakes with significant amount of side structure. I was able to see some trees at Bullards on the side scan but rarely fish super shallow boulder fields or tree stumps, as that's just not common in most of our motherlode lakes.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/MR12/IMG_20170106_073958986_HDR_zpsu50b0wkf.jpg)
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Very nice and clean install Ben! That thing have Netflix on it? :smt044
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Dude those Mantas were hauling ass at Doran. I was bummed I didn't get to test one.
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That things looks massive on there. Stoked on how they incorporated the Transducer area.
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Does that mean bigger fish finder = bigger fish? Nice clean install, you dust be fairly flexible because if the ff was that far away from me I wouldn't be able to reach it. :smt044
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Does that mean bigger fish finder = bigger fish? Nice clean install, you dust be fairly flexible because if the ff was that far away from me I wouldn't be able to reach it. :smt044
I can reach it fairly easily by just scooting forward. But the big benefit of the 7" FFs is that you can split screen whatever you want and leave it in "set it and forget it" mode. I split screen Sonar, Down/Sidescan and GPS all on one screen. Only time I ever really touch it is to mark a spot on the GPS.
The Elite 7 TI has taken some getting used to, but I'm starting to like it more and more. Still working on learning all the different data overlay functions though.