In a pickle - Combo Options
Having purchased a new boat recently, I made a small 'to do' list of things I wanted to personalise the boat with. One item was replacing the old garmin sounder with a furuno 587, keeping the old lowrance gps for navigation until it dies and replacing with a nice combo unit (mainly for the downscan/structurescan option when shallow which furuno don't do).
Unfortunately my gps decided to call it quits a couple of weeks ago so I now I've had to switch my plans and get the combo unit first but before I do I have a couple of burning questions.
- Are the combo units that bad? I don't see myself heading deeper than 80m while I get used to fishing offshore which may take a good amout of time
- It seems that with these combo units that it's all down to personal preference, I've nailed my choices down to either an HDS gen 2 (non touch) or the Garmin GPSMap. Can anyone offer experience/faults with these units?
My preferred budget is around $2k - I do realise I could buy a 5inch gps and 5 inch furuno sounder for this but my orignal plan was to get something larger and I want to stick to this. I think the smaller screens will end up frustrating me.
I'm looking at; Garmin GPSMap 820/1020 ($1800/$2200), HDS10 Gen 2 ($1750 plus tranny's - I'll use my old card), HDS8 Gen 2 ($1399 plus tranny's). Not really interested in what I've seen from the simrad/hummingbird gear.
The gear is going in a 6m c'console.
aka Nick
D_d_001
Posts: 1522
Date Joined: 09/03/13
I have a combo unit...(with a
I have a combo unit...(with a spare separate small boat powered gps)
I have the nss8 and if you are not interested in the simrad NP but hope my imput helps in some way.
combo unit 8" or better is great. I personally find having a combo better in some ways.
travelling have big screen of nav/chart.
when really checking out lumps for fish have full screen for sounder.....cant get big enough IMO to see detail.
(also when fishing down the back of the boat on drifts have the sounder on full screen and can see no probs....you will use this more than you think !)
8" screen I can run 3 displays at once if I need to.
As for non touch ??????
would be like buying a non touch mobile phone IMO. once you use one you will not want to go back.
Edit: one other thing to think about is if you can run a 1KW tranny off of it ....you will prob want to upgrade in the future.
Deleted
Posts: 6265
Date Joined: 26/04/14
I wish I could have fit the
I wish I could have fit the hds 10 but had to go with the 8 just not enough room. If you have the room go big
mrwinta
Posts: 457
Date Joined: 14/01/10
HDS 9 Touch
I have the HDS 9 Touch and I love it... easy to use and most of the time in shallow water I just use it for the sounder too and only use the FCV 587 when in 40+m.
with the touch the side scan is built into the unit where as the older HDS's you have to instal a seperate module. I also have the ipod dock and all the entertainment is provided bythe HDS...
so far no issues with the HDS so they get my vote....
NEVER PUSH YOUR GRANNY WHEN SHE'S SHAVING
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
Thanks for the replies gents
Mrwinta, you raise a very good point about the lowrance units. If I choose get the non-touch and get a furuno after, I'll end up with 3 transducers hanging off the end of my boat.
I initially wanted stay away from the touch units to keep the price down but I see All Boats and Caravans has the HDS9 touch for $1700 plus transducer which seems like a good buy (I can run my current maps in the meantime). That's seems quite decent to me considering the 8 inch Garmin unit will come to the same price in non-touch. I had myu heart set on a 10 inch unit but stepping down to a 9 inch I think won't be a problem, especially having a center console.
I'm hoping by the time I want to run a 1kW transducer, it'll be furuno time.
EDIT: the above cost is chart plotter only!!! So around $2700 will get me a HDS9 with tranny. To be honest I think its worth the extra few hundred bucks to get a Furuno 587 and drangonfly7 - then all my needs are met; Furuno, structure scan for shallow and gps (with free gold card at whitworths).
aka Nick
z00m
Posts: 1086
Date Joined: 10/05/14
The garmin is a 1kw unit
The garmin is a 1kw unit though so make sure you are comparing apples with apples. It also comes with the tranny.
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
From what I've read
It's compatible with a 1kW but comes with a 500W tranny?
That said the Lowrance first tranny option is a 300W one and upgrade is 600W
aka Nick
on the Drift
Posts: 31
Date Joined: 09/10/14
I have a HDS10 Gen 1, its
I have a HDS10 Gen 1, its got the add-on structure scan module. . . havent mucked around with the structure scan much tho
IMO I cant see a touch screen being much chop for fishing, hard to keep the screen clean as it is for good viewing, without touching it with wet or dirty hands, my phone doesnt work well with wet hands either would a HDS be different?
I'm not saying you should get a HDS either, I think the true Bottom Lock of a Furuno would be worth the investment. . .
t bone
Posts: 351
Date Joined: 20/04/14
food for thought
I have got a HDS10 (gen 2) paired with a simrad NSS12 (evo2)
i see ya not interested in simrad, but lowrance and simrad are basically in bed with each other anyhow.
The lowrance unit i got is one i removed from the old boat. It's the one with the buttons, and i used to have to run the down/structurescan via the externial box. i have had a few little hicups with the buttons sticking in (when zooming in/out) but thats just a case of playing with the button a bit to free it up from the faceplate. I run the HDS 10 most of the time just as the maps, and the NSS as the fishfinder. In saying that, i have the navonics gold card in the HDS, and via the netwrok systems can use the same maps on the NSS if required. Going the other way too, i can use the data from the transducers (via networking) that are hooked to the NSS and use the lowrance unit as another fishfinder. Both are combos thou.
When i was looking into everything, i remember something along the lines of being able to use a (lowrance) chart plotter as a fishfinder screen, if you can network it up with another fishfinder unit? hopefully someone else can let me know if this is true or if im telling lies thou...
I was rather worried also about the need to "fiddle" with the touchscreen with dirty fingers (yet to move over 100% to jigs) but im rather surprised at how well it handles. no where near as bad as a phone screen.
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
Argh!
These decisions are killing me! So far the Garmin fits my price range and requirements the best, however I still need to check out what the bluecharts are like (seen a few comments about them being a lot poorer detailed to the navionics). The fact they have a number of buttons down the side of the unit will elimate the need to be continually pressing keys to scroll through the options, something which I quite like.
As said if I go for something else (HDS/Simrad), I might as well spend the coin and get a furuno 587 with a Dragonfly 7 to use as a gps.
aka Nick
z00m
Posts: 1086
Date Joined: 10/05/14
I looked at the Garmin as
I looked at the Garmin as well and should probably have pulled the trigger when they were on special at BCF (the 8inch was $1499).
Recently I bought bluecharts g2 online as my boat had a small garmin fitted when I got it. They are fine and show all the relevant info of the navionics gold card. What it doesn't have is the navionics+ style 'Freshest data' which has all the community sonar logs and spots on it. I'm not sure what the g2 vision card includes but it is quite the step up in price.
I went with a Raymarine a78 so it had the downvision etc. I won't be fishing in 100m+ very much if at all so I don't really need the extra juice of a 1kw sounder. The Raymarine has been awesome from the get go and I also bought a smaller a65 to network it so I can have the sounder on one and the map on the other instead of sharing the screen. Even though the a65 is a standalone GPS, when networked with the a78 it can share to navionics card and all the sounder screens as well. If you go the dragonfly you only get the dragonfly and no networking.
Now how much is that a128 - I could change my whole entire dash to touchscreen! ha ha. Hope the missus isn't reading this.
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
Another spanner in the works
The A98 looks like a great little unit which matches my budget pretty well. Funnily enough a lot of comparisons are made with the 820xs garmin unit and the general analysis is the charts are better on the raymarine and the sonar options are better on the garmin. If I keep to my plan of buying the furuno unit then my choice now should be predominantly charts based aka the raymarine unit - I didn't realise they'd fit the budget so well.
aka Nick
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Decissions decissions
Who said fishing was a nice relaxing sport decisions and more decisions what am I going to get.
Have fun looking at all the wiz bang stuff and the magic black boxes that are out in the market place now.
Look at all the knowledge you will be gain about various units, enjoy.