FCV 585 performance

[Smithy]

Pity JRC don't do a 1kw unit. The Kodens are pretty dissappointing to look at and not real good bang for your buck like the 585 is at the moment. It certainly has the punch. A mate is reading 450m with his 585 with a shoot through hull 600W wetbox transducer. Not going to help you with the descrimination you are going to want Snelly for deep dropping. 1kW is going to be your only option till you can afford 2 or 3kW. Still like the ease of use and menu functions of the JRC over the 585, once again, pity they don't do a 1kw unit. The 585 of the one mate is flush mounted in his dash. It is impossible to look at in any other colour than the white background with red bottom. Pity JRC don't do a 1kw unit! Love the white bottom of the JRC on a black or blue background!

On the 1kW Airmar transom mount transducer, it is easy enough to live with. I may go that way myself in the future. The Seafarer I used at Port Stephens on the shelf had one. Yes I did forget to pull it up at the end of the day and took off on the plane with it down for a bit till I remembered a couple of times. No damage done. It has a breakaway quick release. The 1kW was being fed by a Navnet unit. The tranny plugged into the black box computer. It was dissapointing that backing just in gear in reverse to keep on the bait the turbulance from the prop would still interfere with the tranny even though it is a foot or more below the hull in the down position. I don't know how you bottom fish there. Do you back up slowly or use a parachute/drift anchor?

Maybe Snelly with some fancy marine technition you can change the plugs on your Lowrance 1kW transom skimmer mount transducer. Ymer the 34' Black Watch I am fishing on a bit is using a 1kW wet box Airmar transducer and I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't been respliced or new plugs put on it at some stage to be fed by a Lowrance X-16C. We were pinging 600m the other week and marked bottom fish (Hapuka/Blue Eye etc.) on a 225m lump 20-30m off the bottom. That is pretty good as Ian (Finding Time) said Black Watch's are renowned for being crappy with wet boxes due to their construction methods.

As for making your own wetbox for a plate boat, it works extremely well. A mate had one on his Try Gullwing. It was reasonable size plate but the clincher was they are extremely deep Ved on the middle part of the hull. All you need is a bit of 6" PVC with a screw cap attached cut to the angle of your hull at the bottom. Screw in one of the bronze trannys to the end cap, fill the siliconed in place bit of PVC with distilled water and Condy's crystals, screw the cap back on and you are away. Another mate did it to the alloy pod on his cat which was possibly greater than 5mm. It did take a bit of sting out of it and the 300W Furuno was only good out to 100m but it does the job. 300W will only get you to 170-180m at the best of times anyway.

As for your Raymarine losing it at 3knots or so, my 600W JRC did much the same with the Airmar transom mounted triducer out on the shelf of Cooktown before Christmas. At 4-5knots or so trolling I could only get to 170m or so no matter what I did, 50 or 200kHz (200 ended up being better). One day to check it out I tried idling in one of the reef openings and pinged 450m. That was the limit. It was only just hitting the bottom on 100% gain on 50Hz. Think it is a turbulance issue. That is why those Furuno transom mounts drop down. That same tranny on ours will read perfectly at 38knots so it is plenty deep enough for day to day use. The shelf will sort any sounder out!

[snelly1971]

I got quoted $2320 for complete kit including a new 1 kw transducer..Mine is still working fine but as i have been told they do get tired after awhile..so i will replace everything...

I recently read on another site..( i am trying to BLOODY find it) information about the new JRC FF 50 Mark 2....Wouldnt it be great to see a comparison between the Furuno 585 and the new JRC...Nut i cant wait until Oct when they are released..Is there and option of hooking up a 600 w and a 1 kw transom mount transducer to the same unit without having to unplug each other....As the only time i use the 1kw is out on the shelf...which is probably 1 in 5 trips...it is just a pain in the arse lowering and raising the bigger unit all the time...

Cheers Mick

[finding_time]

..Is there and option of hooking up a 600 w and a 1 kw transom mount transducer to the same unit without having to unplug each other....
Cheers Mick

In the set up menu of the 585 there is an option you can select 600w or 1kw transducer, if you had both transducers connected( i think this is possible) all you would do is is go into set up and select which transducer you wanted to use. I cant confirm if this is possible just theroy atm. I'll read the book over the weekend.

ian

[snelly1971]

Thanks Ian...It would be most helpful if i can....cheers Mick

[peterbo3]

Airmar has a new 1KW unit - SS164. Designed for plate & FG boats, it is mounted through the hull with appropriate insulation to avoid issues with SS & alloy. Tilted heads to cater for both deep V & medium V hulls. Protrudes less than 5mm & can be used on trailer boats.Plugs straight into a 585. Go to the airmar site for details.

http://www.airmartechnology.com/airm...in.asp?LinkID=

[snelly1971]

Thanks Peter...I have already investigated that one...it is an option...but one that i dont really want to do..
If i was planning on keeping the boat then i would not hesitate in doing it...but i have to think about resale ....and other future buyers might not like the idea of a thru hull on a plate boat...

Also i would have to check with Marine Surveyor to see if this would cause any problems...

I think my best option...if it is workable is to have a 600w transom trannie and a 1 kw transom trannie....

Cheers Mick

[snelly1971]

So did you find out any info over the weekend Ian....about running 2 trannies...

cheers Mick

[peterbo3]

Snelly,
There is no problems with Survey & through hull skin fittings. Boats in Survey often have raw water intakes & waste water discharge ports through alloy hulls. The opening for a transducer could be isolated in its' own watertight compartment.

[Kerry]

Pete, As per your comments the thru-hull as opposed to the shoot thru-hull is really the only way to guarantee good consistent performance with an alloy hull as even 3mm alloy will degrade signal and there's not a lot of so called "plate" boats with a 3mm bottom.

Regards, Kerry.

[Smithy]

Have a look at these two similar links if they work.

http://pakula.com/marlin/showthread.php?t=1298

http://www.fishnwaves.com.au/waves/s...ead.php?t=1298

In the Airmar specs I don't think that tilted element transducer is as sensative as the B260 or whatever it is.

[peterbo3]

Hi Smithy,
Links work but i don't have a password. On the Airmar site, the 164 is the base model. There are two more 1KW models above it. The price will probably be absolutely terrifying.

[finding_time]

So did you find out any info over the weekend Ian....about running 2 trannies...

cheers Mick

Dont think it can be done . So you would have to change cable and change setting mate. still if you had both cables routed and colour coded it would only take 30 secondsof so.

Ian

[Cheech]

Smithy, I just installed a shoot through hull transducer for my new 620. Just need to add liquid. I notice you said to use distilled water. Airmar say mineral oil or glys___ something or another. Pretty sure it is antifreeze. Do you think distilled water is a better option than these? What are the chrystals for.

Cheech

[Smithy]

Condys crystals are glycerine. I think it is more to do with stopping algae or bacteria growing in the water.

[finding_time]

Distilled water is supposed to be fine as long as the unit was very clean in the first place( nothing to start growing) but what ever you do dont use sea water to top it up.....yukky