Gaffrig Depth Sounder
 

Help! I bought a used Fountain with a factory installed Gaffrig depth sounder. When I start the boat up, the warning buzzer goes off indicating shallow water (even when I'm in deep water), pushing the "set" button will make the alarm turn off, but the digital readout does'nt read the depth of the lake accurately at all, even when the boat is sitting still. Is there so sort of trick to operating this thing or is someting the matter? Thanks in advance.

My transducer (sp?) broke free and I had to reset it. I used JB weld and it worked great after that.

P.S. It wasn't in the bilge in my 29'. It was under the step going into the cabin. I think it has to be before the step on later models.

Raging Bull go to http://www.livorsi.com/ and from there select Technical, then instructions , then depth sounder and you can now print off a copy on how to operate your depth sounder.

My '99 stepped 32' has it in the bilge. Only works at idle. POS!
My 27' non stepped had it in the bilge and it worked at 83 mph.

Raging Bull,

On my 29 Fever, got an indication of 0.7' or 0.8' whenever the transducer was starting to or had separated from hull. It would start out intermittent and get worse to the point where it continuously indicated 0.7'. Same as you, I would get the low depth alarm. Hope its just the low depth alarm set too deep.

I remounted the transducer in gelcoat, same as the factory, under the step into the cabin, but it didn't last. At least on the 29's, I think there is enough flex in the hull at the step that the transducer would keep cracking and then coming off.

Ended up buying a new transducer from Gaffrig and doing the same setup in the centerline engine compartment bilge except I mounted it in good quality white silicone caulking. No more problems. The trick is to aim the transducer properly. You need it aimed a little bit forward so it works at speed, but not so much that it doesn't work at idle. If you have to go this route, Gaffrig has a procedure for aiming the puck.

Good luck.
Bill

The ones I have seen have a sensitivity sdjustmet on them. check yours.

Tarheel, I located the puck just ahead of the bilge pump in the engine compartment. Mine too reads .7' all the time. I noticed that the puck has broken free and I will try to reset it with some epoxy. Thanks all