X-Wing, Garmin 420s and retractable transducer mount

I've had a few inquiries on my transducer mount setup and have been lazy about the write-up.  Here it is.

I knew I wanted a mount for my tranducer that put it in the water to utilize the temp function accurately.  However, I did not want the expensive transducer being exposed to beach/rock landings or when loading or unloading, getting hit.  Also, I wanted my x-wing to be removable without having a ton of wires on the deck or in the hull.  I first looked at some connectors that would allow me to leave a pigtail for the transducer coming off the X-Wing and a female flush mount on the deck of the kayak.  Here they are….( CLICK Hirose Connectors )



But this still left me with where to mount the actual transducer now that I solved the connector issue.  I decided to scrub the whole idea of wiring the transducer in to my hull or through the hull.  I still use the kayak for some recreation outside of fishing.  I wanted something that would allow me to remove my x-wing, battery, FF/GPS, and transducer with relative ease.  This meant mounting the transducer to the x-wing package but making it movable so when I come into shore I don’t have to worry about knocking it off.  What a better way than to use the company that makes a ton of mounts, RAM systems.  I don’t have the exact part numbers but here are the components I used

 1” molded ball with flat 4 hole mount(I would suggest using the aluminum one instead, I have a bit of play with the ball)
Standard 1” double ball adapter
1” ball to pipe connector
A 12” section of RAM tubing (this is a different size than standard PVC pipe) that slips into the ball/pipe connector

The pictures below do a better round of explanation.

X-Wing


Ball mounted on side


Pipe, heated, pinched, drilled and shaved to clear the wire






Mounted to pipe




Ball and connector that allows loosening and moving the transducer up and out of the way.


All on




Finally in the water!!!






Final thoughts:  I love the setup so far.  Since the transducer is so close to my paddle strokes I do get from time to time some surface feedback on my sounder screen from my paddle entering the water.  This is not a big and it stops when I stop paddling.  It also does not affect the FF from working properly.  My compass also is off because of the magnetic field generated by the Garmin unit.  This isn’t that big of an issue though because if I ever loose my battery power GPS, I can disconnect it and my compass will read correctly then.

Nice set up you got there RubiconAg. Very clean job.

Jedmo