Depth Sounder Replacement

[drb9]

I have a Horizon DS1 that is giving strange readings. It is mounted in a 4" hole. Most depth sounders today call for a 2" hole. As you can imagine, you can't make a hole smaller. Are there simple collars or fillers that can reduce the hole to 2"?

[S/VSkylark]

You could try this Digital Depth Sounder

Worked well for me as I had a 4 inch hole to deal also.

[Captin_Kirk]

I just bought my boat and most of my gauges were broken and of course 4 inches. When I asked the guy at the marina if they had any, he looked at me like I had 2 heads. I ended up fiber-glassing the holes, re-painting and now am drilling out the 2 inch hole. It was a pain, but really did not take to long

[S/V_Surya]

The nice thing about plastic boats is you can make a 4 inch hole 2 inches. I also had this problem. I took my makita 6 inch sander and and smooth edges and then fiber glassed it over using card board as backing. Sanded again and faired with epoxy and silica. Then coated with gel coat and drilled new 2 inch hole. Looks perfect.

[Mi2ndWind]

I just did the same thing, how i did it was to use the rear retaining ring that was on the back of the guage as a mold, covered it with wax and layed it on a cookie sheet with wax paper underneath. Use a very thick layer of wax to seal the bottom of the ring to the wax paper. Precut 6oz cloth to fit inside the ring, mix the epoxy, and start layering until the thickness is where you need it. Once cured, sand the outer edge to fit with about a 1/32 gap all around, then mix epoxy with colloidal silica to peanut butter consistency. Have some round toothpicks handy, too. Put the thickened epoxy around the edge of the plug and around the inside of the hole, let it just start to kick, and place the plug in the hole. use the toothpicks like wedges front and back to hold it in place. Smear some around the back edge with your finger, and smooth the front the same way. After it sets good (next day) sand flush to the bulkhead and fair, sand again, finish out. Mine came out really nice (did 3 next to the companionway) and strong, tested them with a deadblow hammer, no issues. My bulkhead there is about 1/4" thick and does not flex, if yours is thinner some glass mat behind it for support would be a good idea. Good luck!

[drb9]

Thanks for the replies. I know that when my knot meter goes, I will have good advice.

As for the depth sounder, I found a 4" model on eBay--the seller says it is brand new--so I'm just going to swap it out.

I had also considered putting a round 4" piece of teak over the hole and drilling a 2" hole into it, but decided that the eBay solution was simpler.

I love eBay.

[San Juan Sailor]

I had the same problem. I bought a Standard Horizon depth sounder about eight years ago that was 5" diam.(fit in a 4" hole). After about five years it died. I called the company and of course they stopped making instruments and said it was questionable whether they could repair it. So, in shopping for a new one I discovered that 5" instuments are pretty much non existant now. So there must be a lot of people out there with 4" holes in their boats and nothing to fill them when their instruments die. Pretty annoying. I bought a Humminbird 2" depth and made a 5" plastic plate to cover the hole and hold the new gauge. So it started to get wacky after a year or so giving weird readings and the alarm going off all the time. Last week I bought a Humminbird fish finder and fabricated a new plate to cover the hole and house the fish finder which is not really made to mount in a bulkhead. It worked out pretty good and I am amazed at what it does. You can see every fish and it tells you the size and depth of them and you see the contour of the bottom and it displays the depth and temp. It also has a shallow alarm. It adds a whole new dimension to the sailing experience being able to see what you're sailing over.
and it was only $90.
Dan

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by San Juan Sailor

I bought a Humminbird fish finder and fabricated a new plate to cover the hole and house the fish finder which is not really made to mount in a bulkhead. It worked out pretty good and I am amazed at what it does...

Glad to see your post… I was thinking about doing something similar… not sure I need to see the fish, but a similar one worked good on my Admiral’s center-console, so figure – what the heck…

[barnakiel]

Oh yes you can!

Laminate in/out with a 4'' filler (also GRP). Drill and - hoopsa ! - here comes my new 2'' hole!

b.