New radar questions

[Kayak fisherman]

Hey guys, I hope I'm posting in the correct section.

I just bought a new 24' fishing boat. It came with a Garmin chartplotter (GPS/sounder) that works great. I want to mount a small (2KW) radar on my boat and I have a few questions.

1. My current charplotter (498s) does not appear to be able to connect to a radar antenna. Can I get a basic color radar display (of the same brand as the radar) without paying too much for a whole new radar/gps/sounder display? I haven't been able to find one.

2. Most of what I've read says a radar must be mounted at least two feet from passengers' heads and roughly a meter from other antennae. I have a nice hardtop on my boat that already has a VHF antenna and a white running light. I know I'll have to move one or both of these further aft. Do I need to mount the radar on a stand? I see other, similar-sized hard-top boats with radars mounted directly on the hardtop. Is this ok or will it cook my brain or, worse, interfere with my VHF radio that is mounted in an overhead box (part of the hardtop).

3. My boat has stainless rails running around the front sides of the boat. Will this stuff typically interfere with radar function if I don't mount it higher than on the hardtop?

4. Any brand better than the other (between Garmin, Lowrance, Raymarine)? I've got several Garmin GPS's - handheld, car, boat - and I like this brand.

5. Am I over-thinking this whole radar buying/installation issue (is it more straightforward than I think?) I'm pretty good at fixing/mounting stuff but I don't want to install something in such a way that it won't work, cooks my brain or, worse, interferes with other electronics.

6. Any other advice for a person who has never bought/installed a radar on a boat?

Thanks,
KF

P.S.
I'm not getting rid of my kayak. I wll say this though; trailering a 5,000 lb motorboat is alot easier than transporting/dragging a fully-laden fishing kayak.

[shawn fisher]

Kf,

Don"t know about garmin, but I just recently installed A furno radar system on my boat. The model is 1623 and I mounted straight to a plate that I had welded rite over top my electronic box. The screen is not color but it was a $1000 dollars from boaters world. No interference to my vhf or my gps anntena. I would have loved to have color, but to me not worth the extra $1000+ for a colored unit.

[Kayak fisherman]

So, I continue to search for a radar for my boat. I gave up on Garmin because I don't want a whole new Garmin system (can't plug a radar into my current display).

I am narrowing it down to 2 choices.
1. I found a complete Raymarine C70 setup online for around $1,899. Any feedback on this setup?

2. I could get a Lowrance radar online and get a compatible Lowrance display at Basspro. Any feedback on this setup?

I hear 2 KW is actually a pretty useful size, but will it be able to find birds?

[Chumlord]

I have a Furuno 1623 2.2 KW, 16 NM works great has a monochrome LCD display and is interfaced with my Garmin 492. Maybe not the best for finding birds or the most powerful one out there but it is simple and shows me buoys, boats and bad weather. I rarely have it on anything greater than 3 NM. No complaints at all. Complete kit was $1100.00 @ Boater's World installation was simple.

[Kayak fisherman]

Another question.

If I put a radar on a hardtop (near the FWD end) will the rods on the rocket launchers (at aft end of hardtop) interfere with the function of the radar?

[Chumlord]

No I have heard or perhaps my instructions said to not have the radar and GPS antenna at the same level

[27 sailfish]

In a perfect world-the dome would be higher then everything on your boat.

In the real world-there will be things in the way.Human eyes can be damage from the radar.PLEASE-turn it off when people are near it-like on docks or if you have someone on the bow.They need to look at it to be hurt -that's one reason to mount it high.

Each boat install will be differant-biggest tip is try to keep the front clear so you get a good picture of what is in front of you.

Rods will give a tiny "shadow" area but nothing is perfect.On small boats-the hardtop mount is fine.Be sure to back it up with a strong plate-1/4'' aluminum works well.

Radar is a great tool-once you learn it-you'll love it.Be sure to use/learn it on nice clear days-this way you can see what the return (mark/shape/blob) is.After a few trips-you'll have it down. Skip

[Kayak fisherman]

(Ok, so I'm replying to my own post)

Well, I bought a 4-KW Lowrance radome. It will be delivered in a few days. I've already read the manual and I'm psyched. I'll let you dudes know how it works.

[Sandtiger]

No one has mentioned it and although I have installed several radars for friends, if the installation manual does not tell you to do so, install it so that the radome has a slight pitch downward in the froward section so when you are on plane the radome is level (or as level as it can be depending on sea state) with the horizon. If it is not level in that condition then your radar will be looking more skyward than you want it to.

Just thought I'd mention this.

Also, the beam has a vertical width and as mentioned, on a small boat, be careful where folks to get the radome as high as you can. I mounted one on a 24 Albemarle with all the materials the owner had purchased and we figured that if someone was at the very back of the boat fishing his upper body would be covered with signal. So as mentioned above turn it off when not using it and try to figure out if the crew will be affected and if so what part of the boat will be tha area of concern.

[Bart_Man]

Obstructions around your antenna will create blind spots however everything is relative to the position and motion of your boat so objects in your blind spot(s) ,as long as there aren't TOO many, aren't likely to be obscured for long. Bottom line, the fewer obstructions the better but a couple aren't really going to have much of an impact.

[Kayak fisherman]

So, 27 Sailfish:

You said to use an aluminum plate. Would this be on the underside of the hardtop, or on the top side in contact with the radar base? I just received my radar. The mechanic at the company that sent it to me said just to mount the radar directly to the hardtop.

This particular hardtop I have looks like it's pretty thick and of high quality. I am going to mount it directly over the (overhead) electronics box, so the fasteners are hidden in the box. It comes with fasteners and big (wide dia) washers. Enough?

[Cap't Steve]

I have a 4kw Raytheon unit mounted on my 24' Wellcraft. I did the install myself & mounted the dome directly to the hardtop using 2" diameter SS washers, one on either side of the hardtop. I might mention here that my hardtop is fiberglass/foam sandwich design. Mount the dome at least 3/4" above the hardtop surface using standoffs ( I used nylon sleeves with the bolts running through them froom home depot hardware section) & as someone else said, mount the dome on a slight angle so it is as close to level as possible at cruising speeds.

One thing I might suggest. After you have it going & everything is working as it should, do yourself a favor & get an appointment with the local dealer for an alignment. It might not make a lot of difference but if he is worth a hoot he will go through the operation of it with you and you will get a lot more funcional use out of it then if you just try & figure it out by yourself.

One last thing. a 4kw radar dome is NOT going to show you birds 3 miles away I don't care what they told you. It will show you birds, but if you look out the isenglas you can see the same birds with your naked eye! What it will do for you is show you buoys, boats & channel markers, nets & the like on those foggy mornings & moonless nights. Enjoy your purchase, it was a wise one.

[Kayak fisherman]

So.......I installed my radar and display. I put the radar directly on the hardtop (it's thick) the way the instructions said to. I also put a few beads of silicone under it; mainly it would hold the thing in place and not vibrate (I don't know why I did this; I just felt better doing it). I did not tilt it forward because it looks pretty level. If I need to I'll just shim up the back (after I fight the silicone).

I installed a Lowrance system (LCX 28c multidisplay and LRA-2000 radome with a RIM 200, 4-branch wiring harness). I wired it all together EXACTLY as in the installation diagrams. It didn't work. Ouch !!!!!

I re-checked all the wires, fuses and switches. The display actually worked fine but it would not 'sense' the radar. After another half day of messing with it I called Lowrance and they emailed me the newest software version (2.1) and I installed it. Then I did a hard resest. Bam!!!!! It started working.

Now it will warm up and I think it goes into standby mode, but then I get an error message.

This is frustrating. Oh well, I'll call Lowrance again tomorrow.

[Kayak fisherman]

I got tired of messing with my radar, so I just took my neighbor out for a boat ride yesterday. While we were out there he suggested we try the radar again to see if it would work. I said what the heck! So we parked and anchored like the manual said to do and we tried turning on the radar.....it wouldn't work.

So, out there in the middle of the bay, I called Lowrance tech support again (I have them on speed dial). The lady on the phone said:

"Did you follow the instructions?" I said "yes".

She said "are you anchored?". I said "yes".

Then she said "Do you have the engine running in idle so as to produce at least 13-14 volts of electricity when you first power-up the radar?" I said "huh?"

Seriously. If it's that important a step, why didn't they say something in the manual?

Anyway, I cranked up to get 14 volts of juice and.........THE RADAR TURNED ON!!!!!!! I set it up and now it works well with the engine on or off.:))

Advice: The last page of the lowrance manual is the most helpful page; it has their phone number. They have been incredibly helpful on the phone and, so far, have solved all my problems. Their manual sucks in that it leaves out key details.

[tydog]

Kayak

Not sure if you can connect a radar to the 498 but if you are interested in selling your 498, I may be interested in buying it. Shoot me an e-mail.

Thank you
Alberto

[Cap't Steve]

hmmmm, Maybe I shoulda recommended having the local tech set it up for you. Wouldn't save you any money but it woulda saved you a ton of frustation, & trust me the diff in the way you can get it to work on your own & the way it will work ofter a proper tune ...... priceless.

[Kayak fisherman]

tydog:
I hooked up my Lowrance radar to a Lowrance LCX-28c HD multidisplay. I got it working fine now. (My Garmin 498 is actually hooked up to a GPS/sonar). When I bought the Lowrance setup, I got a $ discount because I didn't need the Lowrance GPS/sonar.

Cap't Steve:
My setup works fine now. I'm just learning to fine-tune the radar and I'm going back to shim up the radar base 4-5 degrees. It was very frustrating working on this thing, but I learned a few things.

The last step in this puzzle is re-wiring my overhead (white) navigation light. I had to relocate it further aft on my T-top. My T-top has "veins" but in it to run the wiring but, for the life of me, I have been unable to feed the wires through these veins/channels. Oh well.

[Cap't Steve]

Two suggestions. 1st, when you move the nav lite, take the time to mount it higher then the Radome. Otherwise, boats bearing down on you may not see it.

Second, Electricians use a snake to route wires in houses, I used one to route the wires in mine. Couldn't make the corners though so the wiring comes out one pipe & into the next. Pain in the arse but made for a cleaner install.

I'm glad everything is working for you now. Lets hope it continues for a long time.