GPS install

[Rod Mitchell]

We recently picked a new GTX. We live in an area of a lot of connected lakes and rivers so a GPS is a must if you want to find your way back home. I looked at the vast array of GPS units available and decided on the Garmin echomap plus 75 CV.
I have had Garmin units in the past and really liked their intuitive nature and the touch screen and new tech was a real bonus. I also wanted a good depth finder and a great mapping system with the bread crumb feature in order to find my way back home. The first challenge was finding a home on the hood of the ski that was visible but not in the way.

Just in front of the handlebars was just about perfect. The back of the Garmin looked like this

Here is the same unit with the new backing cover installed

 

[Rod Mitchell]

After seeing the new Seadoo Fish Pro with the built in GPS, I noted that they had made a case for the GPS to make it look OEM. Not to be out done I made up a housing for the back of the GPS out of cardboard and took it to my plastics guy and he fabricated a back housing which is what you see in the first picture.
Looking almost OEM, at 7.5 inches it is large enough to see the charts, speed, depth etc, without being an eyesore on the front of what is a pretty sleek machine.

 

[LacBlanc]

Looks like a professional installation, nice. How/where did you install the transducer? How do you power the Echomap?

 

[Rod Mitchell]

I had the guys at the shop install the unit so I cannot speak first hand. I had it powered from the ignition side so it could not be left on when the machine is shut off and kill the battery. There is a grey plastic cover on the front of the ski that they were able to remove and put a backing plate on so as to spread the connection over a wider area to make it stronger and not stress the fibreglass at the single connection point. it also allows the unit to swivel on its mount.

I did have to modify the cover to accept the protrusion as the unit snaps into a bracket and is easily removable but the bracket that holds the unit is not.


They were able to feed the transducer wire through the body of the ski and out the back just above the boarding ladder and drop the transducer down to be level with the bottom of the boat. The bracket that came with the transducer did not have to be modified to be installed. The depth reads perfectly for all but the highest speeds. The transducer unit ratchets up out of the way when trailering. Looks very OEM.