Thread: Re-Rigging the 184DC ChampioN

The epoxy was cured enough to start the rigging of my equipment onto and into the new ChampioN.



A trolling motor installer's best friend. Positioning a trolling motor is hard enough to get perfect but then keeping it in place to drill the holes is terrible unless you have a long 1/4in drill bit like this one.



After moving the trolling motor all around to keep the control head inside the rub rail, cover all the epoxy repairs, and move the trolling motor back as far as possible so it doesn't catch the winch post when launching the boat. Once I'm happy I start drilling. As I drill I install a screw to keep the TM from moving. After I had 5 holes in the deck I was good.



This is the panel that came off where a trolling motor plug was at one time. The unit I removed was hard wired. I will have to make a new one.



Before removing the trolling motor to put marine below the waterline approved silicone down to seal the mounting holes I ran two tape lines to guide me back to the right place on the deck. This allows me to lower the trolling motor straight down without any adjustment before installing the bolts to hold it in place. You want the silicone to seal everything up.



Those hard to reach bolts are a chinch using a little creative thinking. I tape a wrench to something to extend it, using butyl tape I hold the nut & washer to the wrench while I reach up to the bow screw. After threading & tightening the screw the butyl turns loose and you're done.



To deal with the excess length of the Transducer mounting clamps I first tighten both clamps in the proper location then using a Sharpie I mark back from the screw far enough to allow removing and installing the clamp. A pair of Tin Snips is used to cut off the excess clamp band then the clamps are reinstalled.



The next thing was to install the Humminbird Mega Live transducer. Well what do you know, Humminbird used a shielded pair of power wires to prevent inductive interference. Smart. I routed all the wires up the TM shaft before quitting this evening.