Lowrance chartplotters

J

John T

New member
Is anyone familiar with Lowrance GPS chartplotters? My wife and I have a new TomCat on order (I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!) I spec'd it out with Lowrance radar and chartplotter, partly because the dealer recommended it, and partly because I was drawn to the new, polarized sunglasses friendly carbon display Lowrance recently came out with. However, I've only had previous experience with Furuno, Raytheon and Garmin. I tend to think of Lowrance as more commonly the choice of fishermen than cruisers. But I do more cruising, having more luck catching my fish at the store. So my question really is, "Is Lowrance a solid choice for navigating/charting/plotting features such as entering and storing waypoints and routes, taking bearings, etc.?"
Thanks,
John Thomas
 
I generally think Garmin is the most usable plotter, however in Alaska their base map accuracy is terrible. I have a gen 2 lowrance HDS unit and it never fails to put me right where I should be relative to landmarks.

I actually love the plotter side of my lowrance hds. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
 
Journey On has (most important) a 3G radar, also a 7” Lowrance Gen 2 display with a Point-1 compass for radar overlay, a Lowrance Elite-7 Ti display with a down/side scan transducer all connected as appropriate with a NMEA 2000 bus.

I really appreciate the radar because it’s low power and is good at short distances. The low power doesn’t fry anybody with its beam and I don’t need to see anything 16 miles ahead, 12 is good enough and what’s right in front of the boat is wonderful. Actually, I bought the radar first because OpenCpn running on my PC can overlay the radar on the nav scene. I got a Point-1 compass and hooked it in via the NMEA 2000 bus so I can overlay the radar on the MFD. Works great.

The MFD display is good; I used a 7” JRC display before and this is great. It has its own GPS and charts. It has charts for places you wouldn’t expect such as Lake Powell. It has all the inputs and outputs so I’ve input an AIS receiver and output location to my Std-Horiz DSC radio, both via NMEA 183. The menu is straightforward.

We had a small depth sounder in front of the captain and I upgraded that to a Elite-7 Ti MFD with the fancy transducer: down and side scan. The Eleite MDF has charting/routing/GPS built in so Judy can keep track of the depth, where we are, where we’re going and the speed all on her display. She’s happy and it works well, though they replaced the transducer under warranty, mostly for the plastic mount. Have to figure out the side scan, but the downscan is good.

I have a Raymarine autopilot which works standalone, so I can’t comment on that except to say get an autopilot. They’re awesome, saves steering so you can concentrate on navigating.

I now have 4 GPS units putting out data: 3 Lowrance, 1 something else. They must be cheap because Lowrance includes them in everything.

Simrad and B&G are the other Navico lines and I have the impression they're more for sailors, which we used to be. The Lowrance units I have provide me with all the information I need and work well. I'm reading a history of discovery by S. E. Morrison and they discuss latitude by cross-staff, I learned celestial navigation and now, as I said, I've got nav data coming out everywhere with GPS.

I'm sure you'll be happy with the Lowrance equipment on the new boat, whatever that equipment may be. They've been through 2 new cycles since I bought my units, so hopefully yours will be even better.

Boris
 
No problem. I just looked at what I wrote, and I'm glad you interpreted it correctly. I love my lowrance units. I have great respect for Garmin, and the function of their overall operating system, hardware and software, but their accuracy (not in terms of location data, but in terms of accurately placing you on a basemap, leave a lot to be desired.

Lowrance have a lot of great things going for them, and use very high quality sonar with very good quality down and side imaging. Better, I think, than others. They have a decent forward looking sounder/transducer now as well that competes with Garmin's current offering, but in a big plot twist, Lowrance forward sonar is intended to find skinny channels while navigating, Garmin's panoptix seems much happier at anchor looking for fish, than underway looking for a channel, but they are both very cool tools.

One thing to consider with your HDS carbon, is the lack of any need for multiple units. You can put a single unit at your helm, and replicate it via wifi on a tablet or smartphone. You can even control all of the functions from your device, except autopilot.
 
I have used all of the major brands in the last few years and all are good.

Lawrence is the lower end of the Navico line--a step up is the Simrad (I don't agree with Boris that it is geared for sailors) Simrad has a few more features in many of the units, but basically are the same as Lawrence. Many of the Novico units are cross platform compatible.

When I go to Boat shows, I like to compare the latest innovation from each manufacturer. I put in my own electronics--and suggest that folks wanting the "latest" to wait until the boat is delivered. With the new Tom Cat having a head liner (I believe), there is some consideration to have the electronics installed, where the cables are hidden...but that may make upgrades a little more difficult if the cables are changed...may not be an issue.

I have stuck with Garmin because of the ease of operation. In South East Alaska, I found the Garmin to be spot on. But all of that is cartography--not a function of the chart plotter.

All of the latest radars have features similar to the Lowrance 3G / Simrad 4G units now, with low power, and far better resolution. Many of the new sounders have both down scan and side scan--features which cost 10's of thousands of dollars only a few years ago.

Keep your manual handy, and you will find the Lawrence is a great MFD, with excellent charts available, good near distance radar, and sounder.
 
If you do want a real HDS unit in multiple locations, you can purchase as old as an HDS Gen2 touch and the Carbon unit will impart its functionality to the hds gen 2 touch.

That means the gen2 touch would benefit from the chirp sonar, structurescan 3D, and wifi capabilities of your carbon unit. I've never done this, but had a lowrance rep assure me of this compatibility.
 
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