Hello Gang,

I've read through many post regarding rigging up fish finders to your pontoon. I found a fish finder Id like to use so I wont be wasting your time asking you to suggest one. I realize all kickboats/tubes are made a little different from each other so modification will most likely have to be made in order for it to work with my boat. I have a trolling motor rigged up and was wondering how/if I can use the same battery to power the fish finder? Also, how would it connect? I looked at the Minn Kota Power center for the battery but wasn't sure if the fish finder could hook up to it somehow. I have a Fish Cat XL-IR, not that that matters as far as electronics goes. Any help is very much appreciated!

I imagine the trolling motor uses an external power source, correct? If so you can hook up the graph directly to the trolling motor
battery. If not please post a link to what set up you are using.

The trolling motor is a minn kota 30 pound thrust. It has the standard red and black cables that are held onto the battery with a wing nut. How would I hook the graph up to the trolling motor?

What graph are you using? All graphs have a red and black wire unless it has an internal battery. You would have to run the graph power wires to the trolling motor battery and be sure to use an inline fuse.

I see I see. I haven't bought the fish finder yet, and had no idea how it connected to power. I was reading through the forums and noticed someone using a "rock crawler" battery and charger, didn't know if I need that as well as the battery for the trolling motor. Obviously I'm trying to reduce the amount of crap I have to store on the boat, the battery is too much already! I appreciate your help. Once I get the graph, I may have a few more questions. Thanks!

I put alligator clips on the ends of my fish finder power leads and just clip them to the terminals or if I have my live well pumps already clipped to the battery terminals I just clip the fisher finder clips onto the live well clips. It's not a big deal..

Buzzfish