Chartplotter advice needed

dave · Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 2:34 pm Post subject: Chartplotter advice needed

I am going to get a chartplotter for my little boat, a 16 ft Alumaweld. Yes, I know it is overkill. I want as big a unit as I can get with an internal antenna that will fit on the dash. The HDS 8 or 10 is on the list. I have a Raymarine C70 on the Cape Cruiser. How does the Lowrance compare to it. Those who have an HDS 8 or 10, how do you like them? How about Standard Horizon? Is the Garmin more user friendly? My Raymarine is not user friendly.

Suggestions and comments please.

Spike · Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 3:12 pm Post subject:

Dave
I have the Lowrance HD 7 and really like the unit. This is the third Lowrance that I have owned over the years. Never a problem with them. My only bone to pick is their instruction manuals. They are written by computer geeks for computer geeks. Not really the most understandable in the world.

thataway · Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 9:01 pm Post subject:

I have several Lowarance, several Garmin and one Standard Horizon chart plotters.

The Garmin is easiest to use. The Lowarance is probably the best value for the $$, but a bit less intuitative. The Standard Horizon is also a very good value for the $$. My SH is 5 years old, and a little slower on redraw. Some folks have had problems with factory service on the Lowrance units in the past, I believe it is better now. I have not had any problems in 5 years.

For my 18 foot boat I have a Garmin 541 GPS and a Lowrance X 4 Pro fish finder.

dave · Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 5:39 pm Post subject:

I got the Garmin 740S with the Blue Chart G2 Vision card. BIG FUN NOW.

thataway · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 11:35 am Post subject:

Very good choice and good unit. It should be preloaded with all of the US coastal and Bahama charts--but not inland or Canada.

Sarge · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:10 pm Post subject:

This is kind of an old thread, but bringing it up to talk about my Garmin 740s.

When I was looking to buy this unit, I informed the sales guy that my previous Garmin was a 4208. He said that although the 740s is smaller, it has a faster processor and updates itself faster.

Now that I have the 740s installed, I have to say that boot up is slow at about 1 minute or longer, but the unit itself is very impressive. I have it linked to a Garmin 18" HD radar and a airmar P66 transducer and so far it is flawless. I'm really impressed with it's ability to read the bottom at speed. 25+ knots and I've read 850'+.

It's also a touch screen and very intuitive. The image quality is excellent. Overall, it's my favorite GPS system yet and I've had a Raymarine c80 and Garmin 4208.

BrentB · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:23 pm Post subject:

I have a Garmin 545s with G2 US map and depth finder. Easy to use. As a side, I just found a Sea Ranger handheld VHF radio but the battery is shot. I think it can be rebuilt and updated with 2100 or higher mAH Ni metal hydride batteries

localboy · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:29 pm Post subject:

Have to agree w/ Sarge. We bought one last yr and have had nothing but good things to say so far. Meredith loves the touch screen functions, the unit is simple to use (even for a novice like me) and it is able to read depth etc, even at speeds nearing 20 knots so far. We don't have radar yet, but it's on the list for future install.

The screen does get oily etc, especially when fishing, crabbing etc but it's nothing a cleaning can't solve. We use a small cleaning piece of material used for prescription glasses, so it doesn't scratch the screen. Very SOFT.

rogerbum · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 1:01 pm Post subject:

I have a new Lowrance HDS-8 and I have to admit I'm a little disappointed in it. The sonar works great but it will take me awhile to get used to this one and the display. The GPS works but the software is a bit suspect. For example, if I switch from full screen GPS to GPS+sonar on a split screen, sometimes the software is confused and the map no longer displays with heading up - regardless of my attempts to re-set it multiple times. On more than one occasion this past weekend, it didn't load the maps from the Navionics chip (even after asking me if I wanted them loaded) and I had to re-boot to get the maps loaded. Also, even with the maps loaded (and this is probably a Navionics map issue and not a HDS-8 issue), in many places off the BC coast the depths were not even close to correct on the maps. The GPS was set to display in feet but I swear that in some locations the map depths were in meters (e.g. it would read 180 ft on the sonar but 60 ft on the map). I found this problem in the areas outside of Pender Harbor. I didn't have this problem everywhere, so I suspect that just one or more digital charts got converted incorrectly before being added to the Navionics chip. So I won't blame that on Lowrance but regardless the HDS software seems pretty buggy.

The UI on the Lowrance is better than on the Raymarine units but still not as easy as on a Garmin. If I were to do it over again, I'd get the Garmin. I may still add a Garmin GPS and then use the HDS8 only for sonar, radar and backup GPS. It's software is annoying enough (especially compared to my previous Garmin on my previous boat) that I'm not sure how long I'll go before I get annoyed enough to drop some more cash on a Garmin.

Aurelia · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 3:08 pm Post subject:

Put us in the pool of happy Garmin 740s users as well. We have the same setup as Sarge and it works without flaw all the time and makes navigation fun like it should be. The HD18 Garmin radome is a huge step up from our Raymarine 18in dome in sharpness, consistancy, and usability.

Selling our large pile of Raymarine parts paid for nearly all of the Garmin gear as well. Do it while you can........