www.iFourWinns.com

Looking to replace the depth sounder in the boat. The dealer installed a Hummingbird in dash unit with the transom mount transducer. Anyone know of a great depth sounder?
Or along with that, how is the Faria one? I think this would be the stock Fourwinns one that is factory installed.
Thoughts?

Thanks!

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Rob
2007 Four Winns 180 Horizon

Your 180 didn't come with the Faria unit? I thought they all did now. It's a decent unit, but IMO it's a little sensitive to "interference." If you get an air bubble or two under the transducer, or if it gets a little film on it from being slipped for a couple of days, it can make it read flaky. In the lakes around here, I depend on it a great deal. We boat in lakes where the average depth is 20' but has low spots, and in lakes that have an average depth of 200' but can have rock ledges jutting out around the shore and sand bars running hundreds of feet out into the main channel. I credit the Faria for getting us through 3 seasons with no strikes on anything except a rotten log, which it couldn't detect soon enough to do anything about. I wouldn't be without it.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Depth sounders are an option... or at least when I bought mine. Mine works great and I have no complaints at all. In addition I have an Eagle (Lowrance) Cuda 240 GPS/Fish finder which IMHO is sensational - yes, pretty basic when compared to many others but extremely functional and easy to use without the "features" you would never use!

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport

I assume most come with the depth sounder only mounted in the helm, are these better than the fish finder combos?

I have a basic fish finder/depth souder that cuts out while under way. Is this a behavior that I would have with any transom mount transducer, or do the higher end ones handle the interference of the prop (I think that's what causes the problem) better?

I'd like one that at least displays the water temp, so I know if I want to go in or not.

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-Rob.


Current boat: 2011 Yamaha AR210
Previous boat: 1998 Horizon RX 4.3GL SX

Looks like I found the replacement.

http://faria-instruments.com/cgi-bin/site/site.cgi?manage=marine&type=Depth_Sounder&id=DS0110

Can't find it on the Faria page but there is one exactly like this with the air and water temp as well. Will be ordering soon.

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Rob
2007 Four Winns 180 Horizon

There's lots of different options for transducers. Airmar is a very popular brand. That and some units can be 'networked' with other instruments. If you're going to add a chart plotter then you'd want to get a depth/speed/temp transducer (or at least depth/temp) that supported being networked too.

Personally, in-water speed measurement is a pain in the ass. If you've got GPS onboard then you can use that instead. Granted, speed over ground can be different than speed through water, but not usually enough to matter. As in, you've heading upstream against a 5 knot current. Speed over ground (SOG) by GPS will read, say, 30 knots. While Speed through water would read 35 knots because of the current. And vice-versa headed downstream. This usually isn't something most powerboaters will ever care about. Sailors, on the other hand, care a great deal about every stinking little knot of speed they can coax out of the conditions. We just throttle up and get going! I guess it might matter a little bit when doing precision water skiing but not many other times.

As for inaccuracy at speed (like up on plane) that's due to turbulence in the water (bubbles, etc). There's no way to guarantee any one spot on the boat will always provide good speed measurement. This is where GPS speed is great, it's always accurate as long as you have a GPS fix.

You don't have to install a full chartplotter to get GPS coordinates and speed. Something as simple as a Lowrance (or other brand) multifunction gauge and a GPS antenna will do it. I've got a Lowrance LMF-200 in my boat coupled with fuel flow and GPS. All by itself it provides speed over ground as calculated by it's GPS signal. It also reads the depth and temp from my other networked sensors and can show them paired with other data on screens you can page through.

So you may want to cast the net a little wider in your search for solutions.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I've got the Faria sounder on my 180 and it works quite well. It saved my bacon a couple of times, but its no replacement for good charts or a GPS/Plotter. If you've already got a Hummingbird unit, they offer some decent GPS/Sounder combos that you could probably swap right in and use the existing mount and transducer.

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2007 180 Horizon