Installer costs for FF sonar

[PABASS]

Planning on making the investment into FF sonar, since my boat has Lowrance I am leaning towards HDS12 and Active target 2.0.  With that also said local dealerships are all Lowrance..

 

What is the average installer cost is for this type of system, hourly?

 

[GaryH]

If it’s not something I’m going to do myself, I usually go to the dealer that sells the boat brand. 

[WIGuide]

@PABASS I see you have a G3, which I haven't had to rig before to know how much of a headache it is. Install price is generally going to vary greatly by boat make, the ease of rigging, and if things need to be upgraded or not. Not knowing the year of your boat, I'm estimating they'll need to upgrade the wiring going up front to run the 12. They'll probably sell you a Sea Clear harness or something similar for a few hundred dollars and then I'd be guessing between 2-4 hours of labor that most dealerships charge anywhere from $100-150/hour. Doing it yourself, this could be done in an afternoon, maybe two, and even upgrading your wiring, your own cost would be roughly $60-70.

[mcipinkie]

WIGuide is pretty well on for a minimum price.  It's going to be $150 plus/minus per hour plus parts at MSRP or better.

 

If you'll drive it to KC and buy the beer and BBQ, my buddies and I will help you rig it.  We've done 3 so far this year.

 

Seriously, if you are at all good with your hands and have a couple tools, it's not that difficult.

 

 

[gulfcaptain]

Id do it myself.  Did my boat plus a friend's. Not hard,  make sure you have a dedicated power supply for the 12" and the black box. I moved all mine to a fuse panel with 6gauge  wire then split off from there with 10  and 14g depending on the needs as well as a dedicated battery switch.  But honestly it's not that hard to run.  If you do have it installed, ask them to put a toggle on/off switch to the black box. I did this ok my garmin. Don't have to worry about putting the unit on stby  every time I wanna move and I know the power is off to the transducer in the summer so it doesn't overheat.