depth finders

How hard are these to install yourself. I have a 2000 centurion. Any brands better than others. price range. thanks. tired of hitting shallow water and screwin props

Pretty easy. I just took the clock out of my dash and replaced it w/ the depth guage...and used the same wires....easy. Ran the cable down to a spot right below the engine (Direct Drive) and used silicon to "glue" it to the hull. (they do have some special epoxy kit that is recomended..but a tube of silicon worked for me) Works great. You'll have to play w/ the transducer a bit to make sure it's reading when you put it in the silicon (don't want air bubbles)...so I'd suggest actually putting the silicon down and glueing the transducer while you're on the water...and then letting it set up for a bit.

You can also do a transom mount where you'll have to drill a hole through for the wire. You could get one that would tell the water temp also if you do that.

I watched for a long time and got a hawkeye brand for around $75. But most are around the $100 range. Uniden/Eagle/Hawkeye/...I know I'm forgetting a big brand in that list?

Also do a search on here....there have been several threads on installing these. I know as I started one a couple years back!

Do not buy the hummingbird/teleflex units, they are bad. I have the Faria unit that matches the gauges in my boat. It works so much better than the other teleflex unit I had in my old boat. I installed the new unit in place of the voltmeter since the perfect pass has a built in digital voltmeter. The sounder mounts to a cup you glue to the bottom of the boat and floats in mineral oil. Not too hard to install, just keep the sending unit wires away from your power wires. Make sure it's far back enough where the hull doesn't come out of the water.

Ive got a uniden and it mounts the same way Mikeski said. A way to test the location is have the boat in the water and put the sounder in a plastic bag full of water to verify your not shooting thru a bad spot in the hull.

Be advised that the depth sounder is not likely to give you enough warning to avoid damaging your prop.

It is actually pretty rare that the bottom raises slowly, and in these cases the bottom is generally a soft mud or sand and you might actually survive running aground without damage.

When the bottom is rock you can go from "plenty deep" to "CRUNCH" pretty damn quick. Far too quick to happen to glance at the depth gauge, or even react to a depth alarm and then take proper evasive action.

oh yeah..and what Rod said! You figure that 10 feet of your boat is already in front of your sensor. But if you're just idleing into the shore it'll give you a good idea what's going on.