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Depth finder not working right?????


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What speeds does your depth finder work/not work? I have a new 07 V-ride and it seems that anything over 23mph the depth finder stops working. It will just display the depth of the last reading. For example…if im sitting in 10 feet of water and speed up the depth finder reads 10feet the whole time..once I slow below 23mph it starts to recalculate. In my mind I think that it should work at any speed.

The dealer said that it could be because it is a in hull depth finder. Has anyone had this type of problem? If so any suggestions on fixing it?

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I have the depth finder in my 06 VLX and it was installed by the factory. So I am assuming we have the same kind. Mine will flash the last depth detected depending on speed and depth of lake. The problem is when you are going fast there is not enough time for the signal to be sent and returned.

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I have the depth finder in my 06 VLX and it was installed by the factory. So I am assuming we have the same kind. Mine will flash the last depth detected depending on speed and depth of lake. The problem is when you are going fast there is not enough time for the signal to be sent and returned.

Thanks for the response...It is a deep lake...does that mean that most likely if i were to go over a shallow area it would then read? I guess i don’t understand whey it does not recalculate until i stop..

O yeah, and yes it is the factory install.

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Plus1.gif

what he said. I have found that the depth finders/sounders in these boats aren't all that good (at least the ones in both BUs that I have had anyway). The model in my boat can be had on the internet for under 100 bucks. Now if you were to install a dual freq fish finder/depth sounder like whats on my fishing boat, these are WAAAY more accurate, and at speed too. I have been on offshore boats at greater than 40+ MPH and their sounders are dead on. These units are priced anywhere from 500 - 3000 dollars though. Some of the transducers alone cost a few hundred bucks...

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I have the depth finder in my 06 VLX and it was installed by the factory. So I am assuming we have the same kind. Mine will flash the last depth detected depending on speed and depth of lake. The problem is when you are going fast there is not enough time for the signal to be sent and returned.

I have a new 07 VRide myself and only notice it having issues when doing a really hard "demo" power turn. It will blink a bit until I straighten the boat out. Other than that, it's worked pretty dang well, at least every time I've looked at it.

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Depth gages are worthless at any speed because before it will pickup and display it on your dash you've already ran over that area and hopefully you're not relying on it for shallow water at a high rate of speed.

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Depth gages are worthless at any speed because before it will pickup and display it on your dash you've already ran over that area and hopefully you're not relying on it for shallow water at a high rate of speed.

Nope, im not relying on it at all at this moment...but i would like to have something that is somewhat accurate. I just thought for something this new they would have better accuracy

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My depth finder was giving me some similiar issues. I checked the other day because it was reading 400ft for the first 20min of rinding, turned out the transducer had come loose from the hull. This time I sanded the epoxy off and put on a dab of silicone...then I borrowed my kids hair dryer pointed it at the transducer and let it run for 5 min. before we left for the morning ride. Needless to say, the depth finder worked perfectly all day.

FYI-I usually cruise a new area to get an idea of where the shallow areas are, to stay away from those spots, and mine has read down to 200ft not sure if it was accurate.

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Nope, im not relying on it at all at this moment...but i would like to have something that is somewhat accurate. I just thought for something this new they would have better accuracy

You sure would think so but unfortunately thats how it is.

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i have only had a problem with mine one time. and that was when i was going WOT in about 20ft of water and it started blinking. otherwise it is the best dept finder i have ever had. i have had 4 boat and like the dept finder on the malibu the most. my our other boat has a $500 dept finder on it and the malibu dept finder works better

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My depth finder was giving me some similiar issues. I checked the other day because it was reading 400ft for the first 20min of rinding, turned out the transducer had come loose from the hull. This time I sanded the epoxy off and put on a dab of silicone...then I borrowed my kids hair dryer pointed it at the transducer and let it run for 5 min. before we left for the morning ride. Needless to say, the depth finder worked perfectly all day.

FYI-I usually cruise a new area to get an idea of where the shallow areas are, to stay away from those spots, and mine has read down to 200ft not sure if it was accurate.

Where is the transducer on your hull? I think we may have a similar problem but I want to be able to check.

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My depth finder was giving me some similiar issues. I checked the other day because it was reading 400ft for the first 20min of rinding, turned out the transducer had come loose from the hull. This time I sanded the epoxy off and put on a dab of silicone...then I borrowed my kids hair dryer pointed it at the transducer and let it run for 5 min. before we left for the morning ride. Needless to say, the depth finder worked perfectly all day.

FYI-I usually cruise a new area to get an idea of where the shallow areas are, to stay away from those spots, and mine has read down to 200ft not sure if it was accurate.

Where is the transducer on your hull? I think we may have a similar problem but I want to be able to check.

Im not sure...what do they look like? also, where are they normally located?

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Mine is in the area by the drive shaft packing. It doesn't work all that well. I put mine on a switch so I can turn it off when it beeps. The factory DG isn't nearly as nice as an aftermarket gauge. Chris

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