Hello all, I was just wondering if any of you have ever had a depth finder actually work above 20 m.p.h? I have had a eagle,hummingbird, and a garmin and none of them have worked above 10 to 20 m.p.h. range. The ads say they do

my hummingbird 535 works at high speeds. the transducer is mounted inside the hull at the back.

You must install the transducers incorrectly. I've seen functioning units up to 92MPH for shoot thru installations and 64MPH for transom mounts. Thats for Lowrance, Humminbird, Bottom Line, and Garmin units.

Mine reads depth in 30 - 50' of water pretty good up to about 70. Bottom countour and detail pretty much goes away past 40 or so  

Mine are Lowrance's

I have a alum. boat with 45 h.p. mercury.Top speed 30 m.p.h. The transducer is transom mounted in between the strengthing ribs just like the book says. Its a eagle fishmark 320. Im not too concerned with bottom detail, but I am with depth readings that Im not getting. Do I need to change the ping speed,noise reduction or the sensitivty?

Wheres a good place to start?

A couple of possible problems come to mind.

One, If the boat has rivets or a weld ridge across the back, that can cause a turbulance and interfers with the signal.

When you say it's transome mounted, on a lot of aluminum boats like Trackers, the bottom of the transome is not the bottom of the hull.  The hull is several inches below the bottom edge where the transducer is mounted.  What happens it once the boat gets on plane and the speed up, it's actually lifting the transducer out of the water so it can't work.

If the transducer is mounted so skimmer surface is slightly below the bottom of the boat, you may not have the anle right.  It should have a slight angle (only a degree or two) so the it's sending the signal at a slight forward angle.

Next make sure you're not running the unit in automatic.  Run it in manual so you can adjust the gain as needed.  Automatic causes all kinds of problems, like 600' depth reading  in three feet of water, won't read at speed and a lot of the other settings work better in manual.

I rarely ever watch a graph at higher speeds. I will watch my flasher though.

A couple of possible problems come to mind.

One, If the boat has rivets or a weld ridge across the back, that can cause a turbulance and interfers with the signal.

When you say it's transome mounted, on a lot of aluminum boats like Trackers, the bottom of the transome is not the bottom of the hull. The hull is several inches below the bottom edge where the transducer is mounted. What happens it once the boat gets on plane and the speed up, it's actually lifting the transducer out of the water so it can't work.

If the transducer is mounted so skimmer surface is slightly below the bottom of the boat, you may not have the anle right. It should have a slight angle (only a degree or two) so the it's sending the signal at a slight forward angle.

Next make sure you're not running the unit in automatic. Run it in manual so you can adjust the gain as needed. Automatic causes all kinds of problems, like 600' depth reading in three feet of water, won't read at speed and a lot of the other settings work better in manual.

Yes its a riveted bass tracker. The transducer is mounted below the centerline of the hull. I have never changed the angle nor even thought about it . Does the slight forward angle alow it to reicieve

the echos or pings better? When you refer to gain is that the same as sensitivity?  

Both the forward angle and the rivet turbulence considerations are to keep the face of the transducer in undisturbed water.  Any air bubbles in the water below the transducer or on the face of the transducer will affect it.  If a rivet, spline, repair or anything that is not smooth is on the hull in front of the transducer then move the transducer to a clean spot. The slight tilt is so that the leading edge is not lower than the back edge.  If the leading edge is lower than it will push water out of the way of the rest of the face of the transducer.

I installed mine lower than the instructions recommend.  I have Side imaging up to about 20 mph but am at risk of having the transducer ripped of if I hit some trash in the water.

good luck.

Thank you ,Ill try the angle next.

my depth starts flashing whenever I get out of water or the signal is disrupted from turbulence too. I moved mine down a bit so the bottom of the transducer is a 1/4" under the bottom of the boat and it seemed to help a little, but I broke the bracket bottoming out during a wind change at the beach. I'm seriously considering a thru-haul as it sounds like they are more reliable.

Through hull won't work with standard Xducer in an aluminum boat.  I've heard they make an Xducer for aluminum boats but have never had a need to see if that is so or how well they work.  If they do make one and it works as good as the ones through a glass hull works, then that would be the best way to go.  I would not consider one you have to bore a hole through the hull to mount the Xducer, those are not really intended for boats that might get into shallow water where they can drag bottom or this objects in the water.

I rarely ever watch a graph at higher speeds. I will watch my flasher though.

thats old school there. i fish with an older man on LOZ and all he had was a flasher and he put us on fish all day. course i assume it helps if you live there.

I guess I'm old school also.  Graphs are basically useless if you are looking for detail at anything more than idle speed.  Yea, they will show bottom contour and may show some stuff but if you want real detail, you will need a good flasher.   I have both flasher and LCDs in the bow and on the console and I still use the flasher more than LCD's.  The biggest advantage of and LCD is it records a history of what you've past over so you only have to glance at it from time to time.  With a flasher, if you're not looking at it, you miss it.  So, if I'm fishing, I usually use the LCD, if I'm moving and looking I'm using the flasher.  

I guess it helps that I bought my first flasher in 1965 and have a little more than a casual knowledge of how to use and read one.   1965! yep, that's pretty old school.