I have a Humminbird LCR 8000 unit that has a very large screen display. It's an older unit but still works great. I had it sent into Humminbird once and they fixed it and shipped it back to me really quick. I was impressed with how well they took care of me. Now I have had this unit since 1985/86. I still use it for finding brush piles and drop offs and can hover right over a submerged tree using this thing.
I use to have to look back at the drivers console to see the thing while fishing off the front of the boat. And I had the transducer mounted at the back of the boat, 16 ft away from the front of the boat where I was sitting.
My neck use to get sore after a few hours looking back wards all day long.
That's when I saw how other's were mounting their unit up on the front of the boat. I didn't have the money to spend on a new unit so I had to make do with what I had. I was lucky that my electric power cable and the transducer cable was long enough to reach the front of the boat and drivers console. So I could move my unit around to both spots. All I had to do was figure out a way to mount the unit. Since it was an older model I could not buy another mounting system. I modified my mounting unit by putting Industrial Strength Velcro on the bottom of the mounting bracket. I added a stained, varnished 5/8" thick oak board to the front of my boat and to the center steering wheel console. I glued and stapled Velcro to both boards. Now I can easily move the display head to the front of the boat or to the steering console. Since my transducer is mounted permanently to the rear of my boat I had to buy another transducer. I chose the transducer for the trolling motor and use that one when I am up front fishing and using the trolling motor. I have to remove the plug for the back transducer and then plug in the front transducer but it's not that hard to do. I coil the transducer wires around my front navigation light and secure it in place with a Velcro tie. I just unplug the end of the cable for the front transducer and then plug in the transducer plug for the rear mounted transducer and then move the control head to the steering console and I am ready to speed across the lake.
They do make a control box where you can plug into the box both transducer plugs and then run only one cable from the box to the control head. This way all you have to do is move a toggle switch to switch from the front transducer to the read transducer. But they don't carry that box anymore so I am out of luck
But I ended up fishing in a small 90 acre to 200 acre lake(s) that were trolling motor only lakes for the last few years. So I kept the display unit mounted at the very front of the boat all the time and hooked up to the trolling motor transducer all the time. The only time I had to switch the location was when I went down to KY lake or up to Patoka Lake.
Now that my strip pit lakes have been opened to gas motors at idle speed I can use the rear transducer as I am driving the boat from the steering console while using the gas motor and then switch to the front transducer when I am fishing from the front of the boat.
All this is using a 2 D type transducer that only sees the area of the lake bottom directly under the trolling motor's transducer. That's only about a 4 ft diameter area of the lake bottom.
With a side scanning unit I'll be able to cover a swath of 240 ft of the lake as I motor around in a straight line at 4 mph. I would be able to map each of the lakes I fish easily. Since they vary in size from 90 acres to 210 acres it won't take very long to map them all. There are only three lakes that have good launch ramps. I can only launch my boat at the Concrete Launch ramps.
Originally Posted by stratos179
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