suzuki wrote:

Two interesting facts about toppers. Especially fiberglass.
1. Your gas mileage will decrease.
2. The weight helps with traction on the rear wheels significantly in the
winter.

I can confirm both of these.. 2500HD 6.0L gas w/ARE topper; definitely weighs more and affected MPG by 1/2 to 3/4 MPG. Had to take topper off at one point & send in for repairs and confirmed the difference.

I have an ARE topper with crank out side “wing” windows. While I don’t have a center slider, I wish I did for a little better ventilation in the summer; temps under my topper, with both wing windows open run about 10 degrees higher than ambient (I think a lot of it is radiated from exhaust through the bed) when running down the highway pulling our 35′ bumper pull camper.

Anyone remember the old DNR outdoor forums hosted by the MN DNR? I think I got started there, migrated to Fishing Minnesota, then here.

marine_man

mojo wrote:

Also, I would like to clarify that while the cost is important, I would much rather spend more initially, than to spend less and be disappointed – especially if there are some Black Friday deals to be found.

My 0.02.. LVS34 as mentioned a couple of times & if you can swing it a bigger screen. the 9″ screen works great (it’s what I have) but if you can swing a 10″ screen, the upside is better picture / resolution (and a bit more weight to lug around).

Do ensure you get a lithium battery for optimum run time.

I think it really depends on what you want out of the bundle.

I was not a fan of the Garmin bundle primarily due to the pole.

I bought a bundle from Reeds (that they put together with a lithium battery, aluminum shuttle & a Summit pole system) that was cheaper than me buying it separately … no regrets at all.

I appreciate the feedback! Some very good points made, especially the soft bottom part… makes sense.

I appreciate the feedback Biggill & Grouse…

What I ended up doing is purchasing two Shelly 1 plus devices, wiring them in & syncing them through “webhooks” which is working out really well.

The switch at the front door still works as intended, with the added bonus of being able to turn it on via my phone / schedule it as needed.

I’ve had this one for a couple of years now & very happy with it:

Ambient Weather 2902C

I had a different repair needed (Water behind the screen) but got my same head unit back.

No issues at all with the repair from Humminbird.

dirtywater wrote:

Untaped it, added a terminal ring and connected to my starting battery, my new cig plug started working.

I’d strongly recommend an inline fuse as close to the battery as you can

Any chance it’s a weak power supply to the 5 port hub? It might be interesting to monitor voltage at the power feed to the 5 port hub when you turn everything on and see if it drops significantly?

I don’t know that there is anything that would prohibit you from installing them overall, but I think the bigger question is what are you hoping to gain by adding them / what issue are you try to address? There may be better ways to address the issue than adding trim tabs.

Arnesens just posted they have an open cabin this weekend

The guidance offered here is spot on… both units need to be networkable (generally indicated by the “N” designation in the model). You can share side / down to other units that are not side / down units on their own via the ethernet connection (or hub if you have more than one unit / networked device).

I have the external puck with the heading sensor that I like, especially for slow speed navigation to a critical piece of structure / the “spot on the spot”. Because of the built in heading sensor the boat direction on the screen is always pointing the correct direction

Spent three days in a 6×8 fish house with two helix 7’s (both chirp versions) and one LX7 and everyone was able to tune everyone else out with IR adjustments in the menu.

Agreed.. I still love my LX-7 Marcum, but find myself going with my Helix 7 far more now & mounted it to a Marcum shuttle for the lithium battery run time.

I had a 2007 Suburban with AFM that needed a new engine at 105k miles… regular oil changes didn’t make a difference; I put a AFM block on it as soon as I bought it at 65k and it was too late; damage was already done.

How shallow are we talking, and what type of imaging? 2D, DI, SI?

Can you see the other Solix unit on the networking menu? It would be good to validate if just the I Pilot is dropping out or if the entire network connection is between that Solix unit and the Network Hub.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one… anywhere.

You wouldn’t need a transducer if you’re going to run it as a dedicated mapping unit; just turn the sonar off.

One thing that I did as a trolling walleye guy is run my universal sonar line from the trolling motor to my nav unit at the console. When I troll I have a 18′ notification that things are getting deeper / more shallow than waiting to pick it up with the stern unit which has really helped minimize the big swings in depths with trolling.

You only need a network switch for more than two connections. So, locator to locator, no issues; two ethernet dongles + a cable.

Add in a third component (ilink trolling motor / etc) then you’ll need a switch.

On this:

mojogunter wrote:

It won’t show mega on the other screen if it isn’t a mega unit. It will still show SI and DI but in standard. That is what I was told by humminbird when I asked.

I believe this is only going from Mega to non-Helix units. I am about 90% certain that I can see Mega on my Helix 7 G2 (non mega) from my Helix 9 SI Mega, but if you’re linking to a 899 / past series you cannot see Mega.

You can network a SI / DI unit to a non SI / DI unit and get the image from the SI / DI transducer connected to the SI / DI unit displayed on the non SI / DI unit via ethernet networking.

You will be able to see different transducer feeds on different screens (IE – bow could be running SI from the transom transducer & helm unit could see the 2D from the trolling motor transducer; you just have to make the appropriate selections in the networking menu.

While I don’t have a mega SI / DI trolling motor, and I don’t have a bow mounted head unit, I did run the transducer cable for my terrova back to the console where I have two head units (one primarily for sonar & one for mapping) and when I’m exploring a map that’s not well mapped / want to see the depth changes so I can adjust trolling motor direction sooner than the back transducer I’ll plug that cable into the mapping unit & run it split screen. Just a consideration.

You can do what you’re proposing. It does not “mirror” the screen though.

So, your 10 G2N DI could view the SI image from the 9 while the 9 is on a map view; it’s 100% independent of what each head unit is viewing.

And yes, you’ll need a hub, cables & dongles to accomplish this.

Jason wrote:

Curious if anyone uses a Minnkota heading sensor AND/OR a Hummingbird AS GPS HS – External GPS Receiver with Heading Sensor or anything else simular to them in the same boat? There’s times where I think that a GPS puck up in the bow of the boat would make the trolling motors job easier to hold and maintain its position.

I guess I’m not sure what benefits you’re thinking you’d get from it? The Heading Sensor that links to a Minnkota trolling motor via bluetooth is used exclusively for the jog functionality on equipped models and only provides a heading, no GPS position. That’s all it does for the trolling motor. If you have a Ilink equipped Minnkota & it’s networked to one of your locators you can leverage the heading sensor capability of it through networking.

The ASGPS HS is a heading sensor + GPS puck that connects directly to your locator & doesn’t do anything for the trolling motor. As Wingman99 commented above, I have one, located as near my transducer (in a console boat) as possible to improve the accuracy of my waypoints. I really like the heading sensor capability for slow speed navigation that you don’t get from the internal GPS sensor in the unit when navigating to the “spot on the spot”.

A lot of it depends on where you fish most often. If you fish bodies of water that have high resolution maps available via Lakemaster or Navionics, then maybe you won’t benefit as much from it.

I fish in ND where maps are “good” but don’t do a great job with detail / covering the “spot on the spot” and have found the $100 worth it. It’s priceless in Ontario / other remote lakes with no maps / no good maps & works really good in situations like that when paired with IPilot Link.

You’ll need an ethernet dongle for each unit + an ethernet cable to connect the two.

And, no, you’ll be able to share the Mega signal from the G3N to the G2N via this setup, so no impacts.

The high thrust version has the lower unit geared differently and is really targeted at the pontoon market.

The “biggest” impact I can think of would be your trolling speed with the motor & the fact that the motor will turn a little faster than the non high thrust version driving your trolling speed up, or you’d have to put a really flat propeller on to get your speed back down.

So, my though.. no, on a boat, a T60 may not be the best bet

I have an ARE on my 2015 2500HD and I’ve been happy with it. It has the roof rack on it w/Thule hardware.

I’m certain my experience is in the minority, but I had a horrendous experience with ARE customer service; the frameless rear door wasn’t aligned at the factory & chewed into the fiberglass. Dealer worked with ARE to ship it back; 6 week turnaround time. 2.5 months later the topper showed up back at the dealer with damage to the top of the topper. ARE claimed it wasn’t their issue despite me having pictures of the top of the topper prior to shipment. Dealer worked with ARE for several months before the dealer decided to make it right out of their own pocket.

I was thankful for the dealer (LineX in Fargo), but ARE was far from great to work with.

The “17P” stamped on the hub indicates it’s a 17″ pitch prop; the diameter appears to be 11 based on the stamping on the side which would be about right diameter wise for your prop, so a “11 X 17”. Any chance you have a tach on your boat? If not, what is it on? A 17 may be a bit much.