Lund / Humminbird 998 HD SI Rigging

Well after careful negotiations with my domestic partner (wife)....she became convinced that me getting a new Humminbird 998 HD Si was a positive long term progression path for the relationship......in other words I would be gone more fishing and not bothering her :bash

I picked the 998 HD Si as I already have Humminbirds and like them and with the new iLink and 360 on the wish, hope, and pray list it was a pretty easy decision. Was able to snag another Lakemaster chip version 4 on line for $60. Also picked up a ram mount. I will have a 998 and a 858 on the console area and my other 858 on the TM. the plan is to run just SI on the 998 and use the 858 for DI and GPS. I will pair the 998 and 858 on the console to just one GPS puck. It comes with a GPS Y cable in the box. My current GPS puck I am just leaving where it is.

So I began looking for a photos, videos, and just good advice on not only rigging the new 998 but completely re-rigging the other units to hide all cables and wires as much as possible. I did not find much so I decided to take photos of how I did it and maybe someone else can get something useful out of this that wants to or needs to do it themselves instead of paying the stealership to do it. Plus they were not much help on advice as far as routes to run cables and such....they did offer to have me schedule a service appt bring it in and they would rig it...uuuu No. Tonight I was able to get most of it done in about 3 hours but still need to mount the si transducer and install inline fuses then fire them all up.....tomorrow

I will probably break this up into a couple of posts.

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I started by trying to take out the square head screws Lund used to secure the various pieces. Well what happens when Lund used square head screws zipped into wood with power tools....yep stripped quite a few and very hard to extract. But once get the back panel off and the deck loosed to where you can actually see the pathway it gets much better. You can try to use the string method to pull the cables through but it was a No Go for me as its just tight a fit in several places to pull through. There is a narrow track pathway to the far upper left that controls and cables are already running....this is the area to use.
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So I found the narrow track that cables need to go through to feed them to the front near the console. Very narrow and tie in there and blind feeding is not going to work. So you get the cable started then lightly pry open the track lip at the top to feed / pull the cable all the way through. Once through this area it fairly easy to get it rest of the way.
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Go ahead and just remove the panel the controls are mounted to as you need to get back in there to feed the cables up under the console. I zip tied things as I went and was running multiple cables as there will be 2 transducers mounted to the back. Plus this area removed lets me feed all the wires and cables to the 858c Di I repositioned.

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Does it suck....yes but do it right will pay off later....I hope. I will add the rest tomorrow.

Good luck.. sounds like my week rigging the new to me boat. It never having anything up front like a trolling motor. or sonoar. many hours pulling wires and rerigging everything else. hopefull 5 more hours tomorrow night and it will be close.

keep posting the photos as i can use the ideas.


DON

part 2

Well got all the cables coiled up and secured. I installed an inline fuse and tapped into the main power for the master power switch. Used heat shrink on all the spliced areas to seal out water and such. I put a little electrical grease on all the connections on all the units. Figured might as well...

I installed the transducer and leveled and plumed. They put everything back together and cleaned up all the mess....then flipped the power switch and turned the two units on that are now mounted at the console. "Its alive....woo hoo" Played with things and then turned on the tm 858 and every electrical items I have just to see if there is any draw issues....nope...so i shut it all down. Came in and registered the 998 with Humminbird select to get the free extended warranty.
All in all I am pretty pumped about the upgrade.......maybe if i hang around the house next week and annoy the wife she will let me get a kicker motor..:crazy:oooooor maybe she will figure a lawyer is cheaper.....maybe i'll just go fishing and not tempt fate.......

Total time ...about 5hrs to completely install the 998 and re-rig the 858. Did it myself and there is a satisfaction in that also. I can tell a significant difference with HD 998 compared right next to the non-HD 858c DI.

Got to go in for 1/2 day tomorrow then off till next thursday.......

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Now I know who to PM when I have questions on these units.....I've got the 998si (non hd, 2012 model) on the console and the 858hd DI on the trolling motor. I had them installed and they did a real clean job but only installed one puck...said it was overkill to use two antennas?? (Might have to rethink that) These are my first 21st century units so I'm in the learning curve stage :bash Nice job on installing your units...looks like your ready to get after those slabs.

Great job Dave! I always get more satisfaction when I do things myself as well. The only part about your post that I did like was "I can tell a significant difference with HD 998 compared right next to the non-HD 858c DI." Now I want to upgrade to HD :banghead

Joe, I think there is quite a bit of benefit for having two GPS pucks. They should both be located as close to their respected transducers as possible too. For example if you have a 20' boat and mark something with side imaging from the console (assuming your puck and ducer are at the back of the boat) and then try to find it at the bow you are going to be 20' off plus the accuracy of the GPS which they say is +/- 2.5 meters at best. That being said if you are using your screen to find that pile you could be upwards of 35' off.