electric trolling motors and vexilar transducers

i heard through other sources that mounting a transducer on the end of an electric trolling motor can cause interference with the depth finder and will give you bad or no readings. now i would like to buy the electric trolling motor transducer kit for my vexilar and mount it on my bow onto my minn-kota 55pd. does anyone know if the above statements are true?

I’m no expert, but it would depend on your frequencies of your Sonar unit and Vexilar. It also depends on the depth you are fishing. Imagine a cone or triagle that at its narrowest point is at your trolling motor transducer. The deeper you go the wider the cone/triangle. Imagine the same thing for your sonar transducer on the back of your boat. At some point or depth these cones / triangles are going to overlap. If these sonars are running on the same frequency you could have intereference. This depth might not happen until 18′ or so depending on how far these transducers are apart and the degree of your cones.

What do you have for your other Sonar and what degree cone is on your Vexilar? With this information, I’m sure one of the Techie Guru’s here will be able to answer your question.

I’ve ran a Vex off the front off my boat for a few years now.It’s great when your on a vertical jig bite and want to fish in the bow of the boat.Jolly Ann Marine can get you set up with everything you need.
Ryan Hale

It sounds like you are worried about the trolling motor causing interference with the unit you are mounting on it. If that is the case, you will be fine. If you get interference it will be from wiring the unit wrong. If you wire it to the battery that is powering the trolling motor you may have trouble. Most flasher interference is created from the wiring or power source in open water use.

If you are worried about your flasher creating interference for your other units, that is a possiblity, but I can tell you I run two MarCum Flashers on my boat as well as two graphs on my boat and I can make them all work together.

I have that same trolling motor and last summer I mounted my FL-8 on it. No problems whatsoever, not a lick of interference. Both the trolling motor and the depth finder are running off the same battery too.

Rootski

Sorry guys. I read one thing and it registered as something else in the brain. Disregard my response

I never got interference from my transducer mounting location, I do get interference from my trolling motor though, I can’t figure out why, I think it’s got something to do with the location of my power cord and my LX3, my Lx3 is running of it’s own battery in a ice pack, and at certain times if I get my LX3 too close to my trolling motor or power cable I get lots of interference, even if my power cable is atleast a foot away. And somedays I don’t get any.

I think you should be fine. I know Terry Tuma has done it for years. I plan to mount mine too this year as I have the trolling motor tranducer kit.
Thanks, Bill

I run an FL-18 with the tranducer mounted to the bottom of my bow mount electric. There is some minimal interference when you give power to the electric. The interference goes away quickly and the flasher works as it should. I have my transducer mounted directly to the motor’s lower unit–I have been told you can get rid of most intereference by putting a little foam or a couple layers of tape in between the lower unit and the transducer.

thanks for all the feedback guys i think i am going to go for it.

Let us know how you like the setup.
Thanks, Bill