I am going to install a bow mounted new Humminbird Helix 7 on the deck on my 2002 Pro175 and the instructions strongly recommend running the power line all the way back to the battery and avoid the cockpit wiring block. How the heck do I get access to a channel at the bow to run the power wire through? Right now I assume I have to pull the front deck panel to find something. That will be fun finding all the screws and trying to remove the seat plate. Anyone here done this?
If you look you might have power there already. My Sportsman 17 has spare power at the bow BUT I have NOT confirmed where it actually runs to.
The only power there now is the TM plug. Humminbird is pretty adamant about a dedicated power line to the battery.
I've had all of the panels off of my Eagle 170; a little challenging but certainly not impossible. If the construction 170 is the same on the 175, a combination of wooden decks and aluminum lids, then I would suggest a combination of a small magnet (suspended like a pendulum) and an awl to find all of screws needed to be removed that are hidden in the carpet pile. The good news is that most of them are installed in a straight line along a brace at some even interval and offset from the gunnel. The only real tricky ones were the couple that were located around the front pedestal seat area.
If it is built like my HP 170 with aluminum decks (or if you really don't want to remove any panels) then you will have to send a cable snake up the channel located on the port side from the cockpit to the bow and down the channel from the cockpit to the transom. Easiest way to do this is to unscrew the fiberglass console and move it to the side to gain access. Both options will also involve the removal of a portion of the throttle panel or at least unscrewing the throttle assembly and moving it out of the way. Honestly, this option was just as hard or even harder than the Eagle.
2008 G3 Eagle 170
Yamaha 90 2 Stroke (TX Boat)
2007 G3 HP 170
Yamaha 115 2 Stroke (MN Boat)
To find the power in the bow, disconnect your trolling battery/batteries leaving only your starting battery connected. Then with a test light or multimeter you will be able to find the 12 volt power.
G3 HP180
Yamaha 115 4 Stroke
Can you just temporarily tie the FF into the present wiring and go fishing first?
It may be that you do not get the interference.
I'll bet that there are thousands who are running the same unit without being able to add a new wire. Richg99
Humminbird is not so concerned with interference as they are doubting the wire size in a boat this old carrying power to the wiring block under the cockpit, in which my trolling motor, bow lights and cockpit sonar are now connected. That is why they strongly recommend that in a boat this old and the uncertainty of the power wire size to the cockpit, that I use a dedicated 14AWG line to the battery with a 3 AMP spade fuze at the battery for the Helix 7. By the way, if any of you are sonar shopping, go here for the best pricing, free shipping and no tax. They are a BBC sponsor. I got my Helix 7 for $360.
universalmania.com
Im getting ready to do the same thing. Im hoping I can run a small fish tape from the front of the boat to the console without taking half the boat apart.
I just opened the front of my sportsman 17 up and discovered a hot and ground already ran to the bow by the factory. Sure makes my life easier.
I just opened the front of my sportsman 17 up and discovered a hot and ground already ran to the bow by the factory. Sure makes my life easier.
Finally got a day to put on the new Helix 7 and really lucked out. I had a Humminbird wide portrait on the bow for the last 16 years, so I taped the 14 AWG to the end of the old transducer cable to the stern and pulled it through to the stern. I cannot believe it did not get hung up at the throttle control box. I had 3 ft above deck in front of the starboard hatch and just tucked it in the carpet edge. It went below deck at the front edge of the starboard hatch when I pulled the piece of deck, found the cable tube from the bow to the cockpit and the opening in the tube the dealer had cut when he put the old sonar on the bow. All that fret for nothing.
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