Thru hull/shoot thru kevlacat 5.2

[U4REEL]

Gday gents,

Need to upgrade to one of the 1kw jobbies, and hoping a couple of you fine experienced gents can answer some questions for me

The Kc doesnt seem to have the room to mount a tm260 anywhere , so i am trying to decide on wether to go the m260 shootthru, or the b164 bore a big bloody hole and cry thru hull 1kw. i havent taken measurements yet so i am not even sure if the hull is to thick or not in the starboard side rear access? i was planning on putting it just forward of the rear most trailer skid, so it wont ride on a skid during towing . but it would still need to slip over a skid on launch/retrieve which apparantly is ok for this ducer

If the dimensions work and i was to go the b164, do i get 0 degree element?

It will be running on a hds10, but i am planning on "upgrading" to a furuno 587 or 295 eventually, can i simply get a joiner cable or change wiring to switch to lowrance/furuno?

how does the b164 compare to the m260/tm260? anyone got any real life experience?

Sorry for so many questions in one hit, but ive been procrastinating on this 1kw for way to long and just need to get it done!! your responses will be a great help!

Thanks guys

[thylacene]

Do not have have hands on experience, but have done some research. The Tm260/m260 has more elements for the 50khz and is supposed to be far superior to the B164.

If you want equivalent performance to the TM260 you need to look at the ss260 twinset.

The current tm260 and Tm270 come as mm designation with an mm designation, being multi model, with adapter cables for each brand.

We are tossing up between the TM260 and the TM270, as the M260 doesn't give temps and we don't have enough room to fit SS260's. we have limited bilge access.

That said, the TM transducers are HUGE, and from all reports, a bit finicky to set up, sliding brackets appear to be quite common for the install.

You can see the SS thru hull at this link http://www.airmartechnology.com/2009...d=113&manf=All

The airmar site has details of all of their units, good hunting

[dan12345]

hi mate quite a few guys have installed the m260 in hull with good results in the 5.2 kc

[U4REEL]

Cheers guys, does anyone know if you can get a multi model n m260?

[dan204]

Only one M260 in existence. You have to buy it with the right plug for your brand of sounder.
Try and mount it as aft as possible.
From what I remember the hull on a 5.2 is fairly flat at the back so it shouldn't be to hard.
When mounting the tranny you can cut the yellow box at an angle to offset the angle of the hull, if needs be so the internal transducer element is completely horizontal.
I've done 2700 and the new 3000 Kevlacat and both were M260's with the box cut.

Any Cat is a nightmare for transom mount transducer performance. The B164 and SS164 are good transducers and will perform better than an an M260. But, if you're mounting them in the keel quite often people damage them driving them onto the trailer, or running over stuff in the water.

You'll sacrifice 10% depth capability with the M260, but its the all round best for your situation.

[nathan dumschat]

Fitted a Stainless Steel 18 degree tilted 1 kw transducer to my cousins Plate pacific with good results. I have always ran transducers this way. I had a cruise craft 550 explorer many years ago which had a wide planning blank up the middle mounted the transducer through this . Could find fish at 30 knots crystal clear. Ive got a pro mate who i talked into mounting his transducer in his 8 mt Coastal Cat this way during the build process.He runs a 3 kw transducer and fishes 300 plus metres of water for bar cod etc. He is so glad he went that way, Works awesomely . I know its a bit daunting cutting a whole in the bottom( which from memory is 115 mm?) of your boat but the results are worth it. Dont lose any grunt shooting through the hull either, and get temp reading but no speed but that is not a issue as you use your plotter for this any way. I imported my cousins from the states through top transducer for half the price they wanted here in Aus with out any drama. They come in 0,12 and 18 degree tilt and are also available in brass which is a bit cheaper. I couldnt run brass as was in a plate boat and had to go stainless steel with a nylon sleeve to isolate and not cause any corrosion issues. Being a glass boat you could go brass if you wanted. Id be mounting at least 300 mm from transom depending where it sits on trailer as you dont want it rubbing on a nylon skid all the time. It ends up looking like a skin fitting and is almost flush with bottom of hull ( 5 mm approx).You will need the 0 degree and just run you trailer a bit deeper in the water if you are concerned about knocking it around as you would be already drowning your trailer to load and unload anyway. Id be going the Furuno 295 nice bit of gear especially in the deep water, great for finding snapper to.I think you can buy a box that can run different plugs out of. But if importing 295 from states they are around $ 2500 and 1kw tranny is around $600 for brass from memory

Nathan

[U4REEL]

Thanks for the help guys, got the m260 the other day..

cut the box to the right angle, little bit of a gap in some spots due to the uneven area.. but looks like the sikaflex has sealed it up nicely

Installed in the starboard rear compartment on the outside edge of the stringer

Taking it out this weekend but only fishing 40-60metres, will update this thread with the results for anyone thinking about this transducer.

[U4REEL]

Well got out for a fish with the m260 hds10 combo yesterday.

Fished 45 meters only, and played around a bit using 50khz and 200, 200 gave excellent detail and we found fish and bagged out quickly but cruising around on 50khz trying to find ground was difficult. Even at full sensitivity we were getting no screen clutter very little detail on the bottom, basically just the bottom structure no fish shows.

Still not 100 percent sold on this hds stuff.. Will percervier within, but i see myself switching to a Furuno in the future. Lucky I got the mix and match m260 so it's just a cable swap

[nathan dumschat]

I have a mate who is a commercial fisherman at 1770 his 1 kw Navman died so he bought a HDS 10 hes not very happy with it either and always comments about how he should have found a second hand Navman again. Id be looking into the 295 as you can get them from states for $2500 delivered nice bit of gear.

Nathan

[Luke G]

Anything is better then Lowrance for this sort of fishing.

[U4REEL]

we shall see Luke, just ordered a fcv 587..

i will post pics of the hds10 attached to the m260 and the fcv 587 attached to the m260 on exactly the same ground with similar gain settings, for anyone who is tossing up between these units.

I hope you furuno boys are right!! this 587 had better be the ducks nuts.. and if it is, the hds10 is now an expensive plotter only hahaha

[dan204]

Well got out for a fish with the m260 hds10 combo yesterday.

Fished 45 meters only, and played around a bit using 50khz and 200, 200 gave excellent detail and we found fish and bagged out quickly but cruising around on 50khz trying to find ground was difficult. Even at full sensitivity we were getting no screen clutter very little detail on the bottom, basically just the bottom structure no fish shows.

Still not 100 percent sold on this hds stuff.. Will percervier within, but i see myself switching to a Furuno in the future. Lucky I got the mix and match m260 so it's just a cable swap

Generally the 50khz won't show much detail(if any) until you start getting into 100m of water.
Reason is, because of the narrow beam width the sound is still very powerful in shallower water. At 1kw generally the sound will punch straight through fish and softer objects leaving the screen blank, or objects will have very faint returns.
Try it in some deeper water and see what happens.

Also re Furuno vs Lowrance. The Furuno's software will give you 10x better sound return, meaning you'll get a much more detailed return information.

The Lowrance generally is a clusterf*ck of returns that are the same strength, meaning the same colour on the screen. It's just not designed for offshore fishing.

Dan