Vexilar Transducers

[Homer Is King]

On my last trip out this winter the transducer on my Vexilar FL20 crapped out. There is a loose wire in the transducer head itself. It was intermittent for a bit but it is now dead.

 

I am now researching which transducer to replace it with. The old one was a 19 degree transducer and it served me well. I understand the effect of cone angle.

 

I normally fish in 30 FOW or less however I do make the odd deep water trip.

 

I have narrowed it down to 3 options:

 

1) Most expensive - Get a 9 degree for deep water and a 19 degree for shallow

2) Lease expensive - Get a 12 degree to cover most depths

3) Get the 8, 12, 20 degree Tri-ducer.

 

Does anyone have any experience with the tri-ducer? There has to be some compromise when you put 3 frequencies into 1 transducer? Does the 12 degree Tri-ducer have the same signal strength / resolution as the 12 degree transducer?

 

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Homer Is King

[DRIFTER_016]

On my last trip out this winter the transducer on my Vexilar FL20 crapped out. There is a loose wire in the transducer head itself. It was intermittent for a bit but it is now dead.

 

I am now researching which transducer to replace it with. The old one was a 19 degree transducer and it served me well. I understand the effect of cone angle.

 

I normally fish in 30 FOW or less however I do make the odd deep water trip.

 

I have narrowed it down to 3 options:

 

1) Most expensive - Get a 9 degree for deep water and a 19 degree for shallow

2) Lease expensive - Get a 12 degree to cover most depths

3) Get the 8, 12, 20 degree Tri-ducer.

 

Does anyone have any experience with the tri-ducer? There has to be some compromise when you put 3 frequencies into 1 transducer? Does the 12 degree Tri-ducer have the same signal strength / resolution as the 12 degree transducer?

 

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

 

Can't tell you about the Tri-ducer but my Marcum ice finder has a dual freq. ducer and works fine as well as the Lowrance LMS-350 on my boat that also has a dual freq. ducer.

[mike rousseau]

I'd personally get the triducer... Nothing to back it up... But from what I've read it's perfect for the all around angler

[SylvanOwner]

Great question!!

 

I've had an FL8 with a 19 for a number of years and have found it to be terrific for water less than 30'. A few years ago I started fishing lakers from 60'-120' and have had mixed results with being able to mark fish and/or baits. This doesn't seem to be entirely related to being on steep drop-offs where you would expect some shadowing as I've had the same problem on relatively flat areas.

 

Last year I bought the tri-ducer and really didn't experience much difference, needless to say I was pretty disappointed. I tried toggling back and forth through all three cone settings, multiple times in multiple spots and just couldn't really see that much difference. The cost wasn't that much more but I was really hoping to improve the performance of the unit and it just didn't happen.

 

Anyway, I now have an extra 'ducer, just can't decide which one is the "extra". Let me know when you decide what you are going to replace with and I may be convinced to sell one although I kind of like having a back-up in case ones goes bad (which would inevitably happen the day after I sell the "extra".....lol).

 

I'm really looking forward to hearing what other peoples experiences are....great thread.

 

Dan

[ld17]

Get the dual beam if you fish shallow to deep applications. The tri beam would be gravy on top. If the cost is negligible then get the tri if not get the dual. I've been using the dual for years and would not got with anything but dual.

[phatpelkey]

i picked up a fl22 wiht the tri and i was wondeing how much difference it would make form my fl18, sounds like it will be a upgrade but not by much, oh well

[Homer Is King]

Thanks for all the post. I know the ice is a long way off but I've already started gearing up!!

 

I've been reading a lot of mixed reviews about the triducer. There seams to be a lot of noise issues but I think that's more of a manufacturing issue. This will be the second season for them and I hope a lot of those issues have been addressed. I've read lots of positive feedback about Vexilar's costumer service when getting people with defective triducers new ones.

 

I use industrial ultrasound for a living. I understand what happens in the transducer and the factors that affect cone size, sensitivity, signal to noise, etc. I just can't help shake the gut feeling that packing 3 frequencies into one probe will compromise on the performance.

 

Still thinking....