Marine electronics installation that holds up on the water.
Graphs, trolling motors, batteries, stereos, and lighting: the gear is only as good as the wiring under it. Arkansas River Marine Electric installs electronics at your dock or driveway, to manufacturer spec, off a published menu.
What we install
- Fish finders and graphs: console and bow units, transducer mounting and rigging, network cables between units, dedicated fused power. $150 to $400 labor per unit.
- Forward-facing sonar setups: dedicated battery, correct feed gauge, pole-mount cable management that survives actual fishing. The crappie fleet’s favorite call.
- Trolling motors: 12, 24, and 36 volt circuits with manufacturer-spec wire gauge, breakers, and plugs. $200 to $500 labor.
- Battery systems: dual-battery switches, onboard chargers, isolators, and storage maintainers, arranged so starting power survives a day of electronics.
- Stereos and lighting: amplified audio with real power runs, LED strips, light bars on relays, and navigation light upgrades.
The install rules that prevent callbacks
- Dedicated power for electronics. Graphs get their own fused feed, never a tap off whatever wire was close.
- Wire gauge by the chart, not by the bin. Run length and current decide the conductor, per the manufacturer table and ABYC practice.
- Every circuit fused at the source. Protection sized to the wire, mounted where water is not.
- Sealed connections only. Adhesive heat shrink on every splice and terminal, because boats vibrate and breathe humidity.
- Prove it under load. Everything runs together at full draw before the truck leaves, motor down, graphs on, livewell running.
Where the install work comes from
Tournament boats in Cabot stacking electronics for river and Greers Ferry schedules, the crappie fleet around Mayflower and Conwayrigging for Lake Conway’s return, and family boats in Maumelle adding graphs and stereos. Winter is the smart season: the install done in January fishes the first warm Saturday.
Price an install
Say what gear and what boat. Photos of the helm and battery compartment to (501) 214-5882 get an itemized quote off the menu.
Install questions, answered straight
What does fish finder installation cost?
Install labor runs $150 to $400 per unit off our published menu, covering mounting, transducer placement, dedicated power with correct fusing, and network cabling where units share data. Forward-facing sonar setups with a dedicated battery and pole mount run the top of that range. Hardware prices separately.
Why does my new graph reboot when I turn the key or hit the trolling motor?
Voltage sag. The graph shares a supply with something hungry, or its feed wire is too thin for the run. Modern units want clean dedicated power, and the fix is a properly sized feed straight from the battery with its own fuse, sometimes a dedicated electronics battery. This is the most common install defect we correct.
Can you wire a 24V or 36V trolling motor system?
Yes: batteries arranged and secured, series wiring done correctly, conductor gauge matched to the motor manufacturer chart for the run length, a breaker at the batteries, and a proper plug. Labor runs $200 to $500 published. Undersized wire is the number one defect in existing installs and the first thing we check.
Do you install stereos and LED lighting too?
Yes. Stereos with amplifiers get real power runs and grounds instead of tapped wires, and LED strips and light bars get fused circuits with relays where the switch cannot carry the load. Accessory circuits added properly run $125 to $300 off the menu.
Install labor lives on the published menu next to the repair work. Faults and symptoms live on the troubleshooting page, the truck’s range on the mobile service page, and it all starts at the homepage.