Radar Mount.

[3f8]

I will be mounting a 3g radar on the top. Looking for suggestions. To use a wedge or not, pedestal or not, to the front or the back? Any pics of your install are appreciated.

[goatram]

Are you going to make it or plan on buying it?
Mine came from seeing the one that Duckworth Boats uses on theirs. I installed the Oval Black Horn in the front to give it the Cyclops Eye. A piece of 4" aluminum pipe cut at any angle will work. One idea is to match the angle of your front windshield. Cap it top and bottom with plate to mount the radar. 1" pipe can be bent to make your light and GPS antenna rise above your Radar Dome. Look what Seaview offers for their mounts and add ons. Theirs are powder coated as well instead of painted up. the sandblasting costs about $45 to $85 depending on Min. Charge. and about $50 to get it powder coated. or let it go Natural.

I hope you like the Ideas.

[3f8]

WOW very nice! I don't have a welder for aluminum. That keeps me from getting too dangerous. Right now the idea is two 6063 aluminum channels with their ends cut an angle ie. \_____\. The 4°down angle is the question now. 3g is shorter range radar. Using it at channel speeds, and the harbor in low viability are the main uses. What would be best? Would there be much of a loss at cursing speeds if it were mounted flat?

[Chaps]

I believe the 3G units perform well at close range without the need to tilt them

[kmorin]

3F8, last winter a skipper approached me to help with his radar, lights and antennas because he top loads his cabin with kayaks or gear. He wanted a very specific radar mount so the dome would clear the top load, the kayaks would not interfere when loaded and he'd also have a place for radio antennas and some flood lights.

In order to fit all these space requirements we came up with a mast that mounted to the forward brow of his Hewes.

here is the boat with the top load and the mast in place, instead of kayaks his rubber raft is stowed on top.



this particular cabin allows a fairly wide space forward of the windscreen aft the brow line so he could bolt to the cabin top outside (forward) of the windscreen line and not penetrate the main cabin seal.


the mast itself is just sheet (1/8" and 0.100") cut to some simple curves to give a bit of shape and make a hollow structure for the wiring to run inside while still giving good structure to the mast.



each wing or arm ends in a piece of angle extrusion that is cut on an angle to give it a bit of line and that shape is the same size as the antenna whip bases so they bolt on to these pieces of angle. On one of his trips to the Sound of Prince William, his GPS retired (new out of the box) so he insisted on two GPS base mounts so he has a back up set if that happens again, these antennas fit on the pipe and flange arrangements shown here.


We had a little communication problem to begin our project and I rotated the radar bolt pattern 90 degrees so the long measurement was fore and aft! That didn't happen to be the bolt pattern so I added a couple of wing plates to allow the dome base bolt pattern to orient the antenna fore and aft! (Old guys have lots of trouble with fore and aft, side to side that sort of thing.)



the base is hinged so the mast can be folded forward to allow it into his shop and to ease removal for rewiring and bolt access. The hinge is the weld on type sold a LWS and metal suppliers.

I know you may not need a 3' high mast and may not want to mount forward, but I figured you could get ideas from what my skipper designed here to use in your own project. Remember that you don't have to weld aluminum to build in that metal. 90-95% of the work is layout, cut, fit, prep and then tacking and welding is pretty rapid. So you can design and layout your own mount, cut it with a wood working band saw (6 to 10 TPI blades work fine) sand the edges a bit and make some wood blocks to clamp to while tacking up. Then find a welder, hold for the tack up and let them weld it out, the main work is in the time to draw, layout, cut fit and fair the edges for the welds. Welding is pretty fast, and while it may be critical to 'gluing' aluminum together its not the big cost in a mount like this.

cheers,
Kevin Morin

[peterbo3]

Hi 3f8,
When you say "channel speeds" do you mean four/six knots or are you up on the plane? The problem with a flat, low mount is loss of return on small, closer targets when planing. A higher mount such as KM has fitted may rectify this to a degree but it will put a lot a stress onto your hardtop & may still need a wedge.
I would mount a unit low down at the front of the cab, possibly on a low targa bar & see how it works in good daylight visibility. If you are not getting close targets then you will need to wedge. Going a few feet higher will not increase your range by any significant amount but may increase your mount costs by a not insignificant amount.

[goatram]

Keven's design is cool and it has a hinge to flip it down if need be. with a jigsaw you can make it pretty much any thing you can dream up. A chop saw, compound miter saw, and or table saw will cut your tube. at channel speeds it just needs to be flat to see. Mine is set around 4* and at 6 or 7 MPH in the channel I can see the other boats around around me.

How nice and useful is up to you. now you have some ideas to work with

[3f8]

Thank you for the advice and ideas. I am reluctant to say I wussed out and bought one. 4in. with the 4°angle.

220888393715_1.jpg (1.87 KiB) Viewed 5176 times

Thanks again.

[goatram]

Sometimes the simple things work well. Congrats. Now look at the Options for that to mount your light and GPS Ant above the radome. It will swing down while tailering if you need that option. That was on my first one that I bought used off of CL