Using a boat's graph in winter on an ATV or sled?

Hey Guys,
I’m thinking of getting a new graph for the boat, and finally replace my Eagle Accura 240 from many, many years ago.   I’m hoping to get a lot more boat time in the next year or two I haven’t been able to get in the last 10-15 years. Needless to say it’s going to be a great jump into today’s technology.
As much as I look forward to it in the boat, I also want to use it’s lake mapping and GPS coordinate functions during the winter.  I won’t need it for the sonar function on the lake, as I already have a Marcum for that.  My question is how do these screens work in real cold weather?  Can the mapping keep up at slow speeds?  As you approach a saved way point?  I know the Marcum supposedly has a screen heater built in to help the digital returns show on the screen at real time.  Assuming these boat sonars don’t have that feature..am I at an accuracy disadvantage that I need to be aware of?  For what it’s worth…I’m thinking of going for a home run and getting the new Humminbird Helix 10″ Mega SI G2………..

Thanks for any on the ice experiences any of you already have.

I have used my HDS units on the ice for many years and never have any issue with cold and that is with temps around -30. I never leave them outside in those temps, bring them in at night (leave in truck until arrive at location) and just hook up when ready to go.

Ditto to the HDS 3’s. Just know that if you run power off the sled/wheeler, you may run into grounding problems. That messed with the touch screen capabilities and pinch zoom didn’t function well.

I took a simple soft sided lunch pail with a hard plastic insert and store my battery below and screw the graph to 2 holes in the plastic insert near the top. Works slick. You can even buy the transducer for ice fishing and run it as a backup or primary fish finder. Now I can carry it easy, have good protection for the unit, I can connect to battery OR connect to the adapter in my truck.

I don’t have a picture of the 9inch unit in there as I have it on the boat already. The lid closes fine without the need to unscrew the knobs too.

Also, the nice thing about this technique, you can put hand warmers in the soft sided cooler to periodically warm the unit and battery if needed. Thermal coolers….not just for Hamms anymore.

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That 10″ is going to need a LOT of power to run, if you only have electric start you’re definitely going to want a backup for when that little ATV battery dies.

My Helix 5 works great with no lag issues. Only problem I have encountered was when the unit has been sitting for a while in extreme cold, then it just doesn’t want to power on until it gets warmed up.

rickwalley wrote:

As much as I look forward to it in the boat, I also want to use it’s lake mapping and GPS coordinate functions during the winter.

I use my HDS7 for just this purpose as well as use it for the sonar function once I arrive at the location I am going to fish.

I have mine set up in a cat litter bucket with a pair of 9 amp SLA batteries in the bottom of the bucket. While using the GPS function, the unit and Bucket sit inside of a milk crate which is fastened to the front rack of my ATV. I can see the screen and make any needed adjustments by reaching over the handlebars to get to the buttons.
Once at the fishing location, I just lift the HDS7 and bucket up out of the milk crate and set the HDS inside my shelter. Switch it over to sonar function and start fishing.

The unit is never drawing from the ATV battery so I don’t have to worry about that issue.

I use a Hummindbird HD597CI from my boat on the ATV just for the GPS and mapping. I’ve never had an issue with the unit not powering on even after sitting outside all day while fishing. The only issue I have is the powering, I use the 12v outlet on the ATV and I think the plug for the power cord to the HB isnt the greatest, if I hit a bump sometimes the power shuts off to the HB. Next year I will hard wire the power to the battery (just need to remember to turn off the HB when I get to my fishing spot)

I run a touch 7 on my wheeler and have never had any issues, like others bring in at night.

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I use a Lowrance Elite-4 on my 4 wheeler in the winter months for mapping and GPS spots, put it on my pontoon boat in the summer months for sonar. I use a small ram mount on the atv and the factory quick mount on the pontoon, so simple and easy! The Elite line uses very little power, so no worries eating up the battery on the ATV used for starting.

I have a spare Lowrance Elite/Mark series powercord for sale if interested in a similar setup.

Running that big of a unit will require some serious juice that your factory ATV battery will most likely not be able to supply reliably. If you are set on a unit of that size, I would recommend a full size battery mounted somewhere on the ATV. I would also not wire that battery into your machines charging system as I am sure your stater will not be able to reliably charge it. I use a Helix 5 Sonar/GPS on my ATV with no issue running off an upgraded factory sized battery. I use an Odyssey PC625 and PC925 in my ATV’s, spendy but worth it.

The unit in question draws 2.7amps, the Helix 5 Sonar/GPS only draws around 600MA. That is over 4x the power consumption. I am no electrical wiz, but I am confident any ATV sized battery will be squandered by that draw.

At 2.7 amps and say your battery has 17.5AH of capacity(like mine), that means your battery would be dead in 4.53 hours.

I run a agm battery on my wheeler and have left a touch 7 on for a couple hours on accident and had no issues.

07lotwchamp wrote:

I run a agm battery on my wheeler and have left a touch 7 on for a couple hours on accident and had no issues.

And if I run the same calculation on .9 amps of draw we get 13.6 hours of use.

Doesn’t matter the brand, there is a huge difference in power consumption between a smaller 5 and 7 inch unit compared to a larger 10 and 12 inch unit.

I have a garmin echomap 73 that i use for icefishing because of its mapping and sonar capabilities. I absolutely love it,and would not trade it for anything. If you are interested n getting one i can give you a list of part numbers so you can set it up for your atv and have it as an ice unit

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07lotwchamp wrote:

I run a agm battery on my wheeler and have left a touch 7 on for a couple hours on accident and had no issues.

I had a Lowrance HDS7 Gen 3 on my rubicon. Factory battery went dead on the middle of mille lacs when I forgot to turn it off one day after about an hour or two. I only use it for GPS. I turned it on to look at other spots and completely forgot about it. Thank god I never deleted my recoil on it!

Justin Radel wrote:

I have a garmin echomap 73 that i use for icefishing because of its mapping and sonar capabilities. I absolutely love it,and would not trade it for anything. If you are interested n getting one i can give you a list of part numbers so you can set it up for your atv and have it as an ice unit

Is that the ice pack/kit that Garmin sells? Does the 73 fit in there pretty well? I recently purchased an echomap and weighing my options for next ice season. Thanks

Dtro yes that is the ice paxk that garmin sells for the stryker 7. You have to modify the mounting holes a little bit but it works just fine. I have had zero problems with it and wish i would have made the switch sooner. Here is a pick using it right beside my lx3 with no interference issues.

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Awesome, thanks!