I decided on to go with Phoenix today

After a lot of research I decided to go with Phoenix over Triton today. The deciding factor was the better fit and finish on the three Phoenix boats I was able to see in person relative to the five Tritons.

I've got my options all picked out except for a couple details and the color scheme of the boat is something I need to sort out yet.

I've decided to go with Lowrance HDS8 front and back on the boat. Do any of you have pics to share with how you've mounted the HDS8 on the bow of your boat? I'd love to see that.

Also I've read to mount the external GPS antenna in close proximity to the structure scan transducer. Is this really important? I am going with a SHO motor, so I'm thinking about mounting it where the remote oil fill normally is. Any thoughts? If being near the transducer isn't important then what do people think of the default Phoenix location behind and just to the side of the drivers seat?

I'll dig around on here for sample pics of boats to get ideas. They really give you an amazing amount of possible variations to work with. Does anyone know how well the midnight blue matches the SHO motor?

Great choice! I almost bought the Triton too, then I found the bird. Phoenix is definitely taking market share from the big boys. Congrats on your order. Let me know if I can help.

Marlin,
Congratulation on a great choice in bassboats! You'll find that alot of us went thru the same scenerio you went thru in researching and narrowing our choices down.
As far as where to mount the lgc-4000, at the transom would be a good choice. However, I really don't think the several feet difference will make that much difference in pinpointing your location. GPS technology still has a +/- 6-10ft offset so it is never exact. I feel comfortable with their standard behind the diver seat mount. Besides I would just hate to put another hole in that beautiful gelcoat http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/roll.gif

Congrats and welcome to the family!!

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by marlin &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

I've decided to go with Lowrance HDS8 front and back on the boat. Do any of you have pics to share with how you've mounted the HDS8 on the bow of your boat? I'd love to see that.</td></tr></table>

Marlin welcome to the family and glad to see you finally making the correct choice http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

WARNING; the mounting of the HDS8 @ bow was done by myself NOT the factory.
HDS8 was originally @ the helm.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Phoenix004.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...install006.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...install010.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Phoenix001.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Phoenix002.jpg

Has for the the GPS antenna goes, put it behind the drivers seat http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

Ed,

Thanks a bunch for the pics. This is roughly what I asked Phoenix to do, but they don't seem willing to mount them this way. They appear to be concerned about too much pressure on the bow panel. Do you feel this is a concern?

Also it seems that with the extra height the cable for the TM will always lay between the graph and TM and not over the screen without adjusting it. Is that true?

Finally, what are all your bow controls? I can see on the Starboard side you have deck lights, trim, and something I can't read. I have no idea what is on the port side. I've only ever seen on switch on each side.

Marlin,

My HDS8 is on a ram mount on the front right of the bow. I thought it would be in the way but it works out great.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1...D550/ry%3D400/

im sent... you made a great decision!

http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/boardstuff2/beers.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/newyear1.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/newyear1.gif http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/newyear1.gif

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by marlin &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Ed,

Thanks a bunch for the pics. This is roughly what I asked Phoenix to do, but they don't seem willing to mount them this way. They appear to be concerned about too much pressure on the bow panel. Do you feel this is a concern?

Also it seems that with the extra height the cable for the TM will always lay between the graph and TM and not over the screen without adjusting it. Is that true?

Finally, what are all your bow controls? I can see on the Starboard side you have deck lights, trim, and something I can't read. I have no idea what is on the port side. I've only ever seen on switch on each side.</td></tr></table>

Marlin; One I had no concern about the unit or stress as there is an aluminum plate behind the bow panel that the unit bolts to, also the unit is sitting on a 1/4" thick Plexiglass plate....if I remember right there were eight bolts.
If you can see them I anchored my trolling motor cable so it would not move in front my unit, nor stress the mounting. I or any other person could grab that HDS8 and shake the whole boat.
All the extra switches where for my rub rail black light system, another non factory add on

Funny they told you that when the rig I now have on order is having a HB1100 unit ram mounted in the trolling motor foot pedal well...and yes Phoenix is doing it. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/wink.gif

Ed,

I'm not a fan of RAM mounts because they always seem to fail with big graphs on the bow. There is just too much pounding that wears them out. I do like how you rigged yours. I've re-read the Phoenix response and I think they may have been under the impression I was asking for the RAM mount base to be attached to the blank in the bow shroud. i would agree that would result in too much stress. I'll point Jeff to this thread and see what he says. If the boat is half as good as Jeff, I'll be in great shape!

In the past I've had a local fabricator build me a custom bracket just like the one that comes with the unit except it was taller and swept back. The back sweep allowed me to mount the custom graph base to the deck, but it was positioned over the bow shroud. I like to stand at the very nose of the boat for some of the fishing I do, so I want to keep the deck space as clean as possible up there. When trying to make my decision I actually spent time on the bows of both boats testing the casting angles and measuring everything. Yep, I'm that kind of person. If the fabricator were still in business I'd just do this again.

Ed

I forgot. I do see that you anchored your TM cable. This is something else I've started working on a plan for. It looks like you have screwed something down to the deck of the boat. Is that correct or is it attached under the bow shroud somehow?

I have always used steer by wire trolling motors in the past, but I'm pretty much forced to go to cable steer now days. This is one of the main reasons I don't like cable steer. That and the fact the cable sits up high and gets in the way of casting angles. I wish Minn Kota would buy the Pin Point servo technology from Motor Guide. Then I could have the perfect trolling motor if they merged it with iPilot.

Marlin;
The new 2.5" ram mounts (which was made for the new bigger HDS 8 &10) are monsters and I had no movement at all with my 10 that was ram mounted at the helm. I could be wrong but I was going to ram mount the 8 before I came up with the one I have pictured and did not have a second thought about stability on the bow.

You made the right choice for sure, as a former owner of a tr-20 and a 21x, i picked my 619 up friday and spent all weekend in it and could not be happier. The rough water ride and handling is no comparison, on a windy day at guntersville i was blown away by how well this boat rode, there is no hull vibration or ratttle at all when you hit a big wave from any angle.

http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

Congrats. I too owned a Triton TR21X HP w/250 ProXS on it (very good boat but it's not as good overall) and this boat the Phoenix 721 is great.

I hope you will be as happy as the rest of us who own these boats are. Many congratulations. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by marlin &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Ed

I forgot. I do see that you anchored your TM cable. This is something else I've started working on a plan for. It looks like you have screwed something down to the deck of the boat. Is that correct or is it attached under the bow shroud somehow?
</td></tr></table>

I just anchored the TM cable by screwing rubber edged aluminum cable tie downs. I used two where really only one would have been required (nearest one to the foot pedal)and painted them black. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

Welcome to the Phamily and of course we want pics http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/newyear1.gif

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by Redtom &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Welcome to the Phamily and of course we want pics http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/newyear1.gif </td></tr></table>

Hell don't even think the poor guy as even ordered his rig yet and you want pics http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/roll.gif

Congrats on the boat! You'll love it no doubt. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

Does anyone have a pic of the gps puck location from the factory? I just bought a puck and am going to install it this week.

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by Cowoty &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Congrats on the boat! You'll love it no doubt. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/thumbsup2.gif

Does anyone have a pic of the gps puck location from the factory? I just bought a puck and am going to install it this week.</td></tr></table>

Look at Navin-R-Johnson's post on his new 721 with SHO. He has a picture of where they mount them standard. Navin also have a Sirius satellite antenna.

I just saw that Marlin, thanks. Not to crazy about using up any deck space, beings my boat is only an 18'r. Hummm.......