Hull Thickness?

[Johnatkatys]

A Ranger Tug is a pretty stout boat. Does anyone know how thick the fiberglass hull is? Particularly starboard aft, near the depth transducer.
I'm thinking of adding an in-hull transducer, but they are degraded by hull thickness I've heard.
Do you have experience with in-hull transducers?
John
RT25-SC

 

[bob daily]

Since every boat is made separately, i would think there might be a slight difference in the thickness depending on the model, year and tolerance used at the time of manufacturing. My boat a 2009 R-21 EC has a cored hull, with the thickness that exceeded the thickness recommended for a in hull transducer. I eventually got a through hull transducer and fixed my previous problems. The easiest way to measure the thickness is to drill a hole!

 

[kelpline]

After purchasing my 2011 C28 I noticed that the depth sounder read nothing over 30 ft in depth at 8 knots cruising speed. So I traced the transducer wire to the transducer in the starboard stern, right above the prop wash. Not good. I pulled the transducer out of its oily bath, and moved it to below the floor just outside the toilet door. Just aft of the shower pump box, I created a flat surface of fiberglass resin held in place by the 6" lid of a Costco nut jar, trimmed a bit to fit on the slopping hull to facilitate the top surface to be flat to the ocean bottom. Then using a special resin available at the transducer company, the transducer was glued to this platform. Now the depth sounder records down to 800 ft at cruising speed, and 1600' at trolling speed. I noticed that Fluid Motion has now located the transducers of new builds in this area aft of the shower box. Oh yay, I had to cut away some floor material to gain access for the transducer shift.

 

[kelpline]

After purchasing my 2011 C28 I noticed that the depth sounder read nothing over 30 ft in depth at 8 knots cruising speed. So I traced the transducer wire to the transducer in the starboard stern, right above the prop wash. Not good. I pulled the transducer out of its oily bath, and moved it to below the floor just outside the toilet door. Just aft of the shower pump box, I created a flat surface of fiberglass resin held in place by the 6" lid of a Costco nut jar, trimmed a bit to fit on the slopping hull to facilitate the top surface to be flat to the ocean bottom. Then using a special resin available at the transducer company, the transducer was glued to this platform. Now the depth sounder records down to 800 ft at cruising speed, and 1600' at trolling speed. I noticed that Fluid Motion has now located the transducers of new builds in this area aft of the shower box. Oh yay, I had to cut away some floor material to gain access for the transducer shift.

When moving the transducer, I unplugged the wire from the display unit, tied a strong cord to the plug end, and pulled the wire to the stern transducer, then left the string in place for future pull thrus. I cleaned the transducer with Aceton, and PST, then water and dried it.

 

[Johnatkatys]

When moving the transducer, I unplugged the wire from the display unit, tied a strong cord to the plug end, and pulled the wire to the stern transducer, then left the string in place for future pull thrus. I cleaned the transducer with Aceton, and PST, then water and dried it.

Does this mean you converted a thru-hull to an in-hull? ("moved" sounded literally like it was the same one)
Or did you buy a different one, designed for in-hull use - indicated by the need to pull a cable. 🙂

 

[Johnatkatys]

A Ranger Tug is a pretty stout boat. Does anyone know how thick the fiberglass hull is? Particularly starboard aft, near the depth transducer.
I'm thinking of adding an in-hull transducer, but they are degraded by hull thickness I've heard.
Do you have experience with in-hull transducers?
John
RT25-SC

I've learned something interesting since posting this. The factory transducer in the RT25 and RT27 (2017 +/- inboards) is an Airmar P79 and appears to be an in-hull mounted unit. This may mean that the hull is just fine (not too thick) for an in-hull transducer. It could also mean that the boats are deliberately built with a thin spot where they intend to mount the transducer.
Further, one might be able to literally pry out the P79 and install something a bit more robust in it's place. In fact Garmin makes a GT15M-IH transducer that includes both traditional and CHIRP technology. That's an improvement over the P79, but far from a really cool fish finder. In the 2017 I have a GPSmap 7410xsv which can display CHIRP, ClearVu, and SideVu signals.

 

[LMRanger]

IMHO, if you really want a really cool fish finder, mount the transducer on the stern, outside, run the wire up, in and forward.

Ralph

 

[LMRanger]

IMHO, if you really want a really cool fish finder, mount the transducer on the stern, outside, run the wire up, in and forward.

Ralph

 

[LMRanger]

I've learned something interesting since posting this. The factory transducer in the RT25 and RT27 (2017 +/- inboards) is an Airmar P79 and appears to be an in-hull mounted unit. This may mean that the hull is just fine (not too thick) for an in-hull transducer. It could also mean that the boats are deliberately built with a thin spot where they intend to mount the transducer.
Further, one might be able to literally pry out the P79 and install something a bit more robust in it's place. In fact Garmin makes a GT15M-IH transducer that includes both traditional and CHIRP technology. That's an improvement over the P79, but far from a really cool fish finder. In the 2017 I have a GPSmap 7410xsv which can display CHIRP, ClearVu, and SideVu signals.

IMHO, if you really want a really cool fish finder, mount the transducer on the stern, outside, run the wire up, in and forward.

Ralph

 

[Johnatkatys]

IMHO, if you really want a really cool fish finder, mount the transducer on the stern, outside, run the wire up, in and forward.

Ralph

I have the inboard Volvo Penta. Have been advised that TM is likely to get too much turbulence. Not sure if that's true as I probably wont be going faster than 3 kts or so, but is it worth risking?