New gps and sonar for 2425 Kingfisher what best to buy?

Magspec

Magspec

Member
Im looking to buy gps/sonar for west coast fishing and also great slave lake and other smaller lakes. Wondering what would be best for my application also wanting to get dual monitor so can have another monitor at rear steering consul is there anyway to link them together?
 
You could get a splitter for the transducer and switch from front to back but personally since you are going to spend the money and get a gps sonar for front and back I would run them separately with 2 transducers that way you have back up and much more efficient. dollar for dollar I would go for the Lowrance elite 5 or elite 7-they come with chips and while you can get better chips and way more expensive units either of these should fit the bill. Their are other brands-I'm not disparaging them -I just don't have any first-hand knowledge to make a comparison-I'm sure others will chime in in this regard.
 
I heard the lowrance are alittle hard to navigate through not so user friendly versus other brands???
 
I've used Garmin, Lowrance and Ray Marine units. The best user interface by far was on the Garmin. The worst is the Ray Marine and Lowrance is about 1/2 way in between the two. I have Lowrance on my current boat as their sonar is better than most and that's what's most important to me. One thing to consider is that some of the newer units from almost all manufacturers can be hooked to a (or create their own) wireless network. This allows the units to be controlled by and displayed on iPads, iPhones or, in some cases Android devices. That's another option for a second display. Otherwise, all the major manufacturers provide ways to network displays together.
 
I was looking at a hummingbird 985 or something around there. Im going to go check my buddies out today he jsut picked one up at cabela's in edmonton. But not quite set on hummingbird. Seadna thanx ill look into that might as well use ipad or phone as have them readily available and would be easy to mount and dismount.
 
Hello I have a 2901 Striper that I just installed a Garmin 4210 and love it. It interfaced very well with the Garmin radar, GHP10 autopilot as well.
 
I have a KF 2825, and was thinking about dual displays.
Instead I went to the 12 inch display at the front helm, can see it clearly from the rear helm.
 
I can tell you a bit about the Lowrance HDS units. I have an HDS-10 / 8 mounted in 2 different positions. If you get the Structure Scan unit, it comes with the Lowrance LSS box which is essentially an Ethernet switch. This unit allows you to network multiple HDS units together allowing you to share Sonar, Radar, and even GPS waypoints between units. Networking them is as simple as running the yellow Ethernet cable between the LSS and the second unit and you are done.

I have the Gen-1 HDS but understand that the Gen-2 units now have a WiFi option that allows them to send data to an iPad/phone as well.
 
Tenmile thanx ill check that gen 2 out was thinking would be cheaper to use a ipad as the wife and kids all have one except dear old dad lol ill have to talk nice to one of them to borrow lol I was thinking that would be better to mount and be wifi easier to dismount and put inside and beable to lock instead of unhooking abunch of cables and stuff and price as well

khaos what kinda price would a guy be looking at to rig all that up autopilot (would be like autosteer for a tractor as iam a farmer lol keep you going on preset heading or able to follow a previous track you made?)
 
Go dual. Redundancy is important when you're caught somewhere and your sole device crashes....
 
If you do use an iPad -- make sure you get yourself a waterproof case. I have one of these Lifeproof cases for my iPhone and swear by it. Paid for itself in the first week as a buddy spilled a full pint of beer on my phone. I like the Lifeproof case as it allows you to charge the unit without removing it from the case. You will find that if the unit is operating non-stop it will suck the battery dry in short order so you will want to have it charging.

I tried the iPad as a second unit and I found it to be lacking so purchased a refurb Lowrance HDS-8 via eBay. Any stock plotter I find is better as they are waterproof, always on when you need them and just work. But, the iPad can do so much more in terms of all the apps you can run.

http://www.lifeproof.com/en/ipad/?path=TopNav
 
ya going to price out for two units like you say that would be the best always nice to have back-up
 
I think im going to go with garmin 720s??(looks easy to use which is a good thing for my old man if he taking the boat and im not there) and link honda motor to gps to get all info on gps and also buy cheaper monitor for second monitor for rear steering consul. Thanks for all the info guys hope to see you guys out on the water one day.
 
I've got two 720's in my Grady. They are great. Garmin has a deal on right now with their SD cards (Blue Vision G2 I think is the name). It's $200 off when you buy a unit.
 
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pescador do you have the gps's linked to your motor? Also looking to get radar and autopilot in the future.
 
No, I haven't hooked up the system to monitor engine. Its there, but, I've never bought what I need to do that. Also, don't have an autopilot, but, do have the Garmin radar system hooked up and its great. When I did the math last year Garmin was good value.
 
I have the Lowrance hooked into my Mercruiser engine -- totally different setup than the Honda I imagine as I believe the Honda has a NMEA2000 connector on it directly.

That said, its a great feature. I can pull down fuel flow, MPG, engine hours, oil/fuel pressures, temperature etc. If the engine throws a code, it sends it in plain english. Had an IAC sensor fail a couple of years ago and the system sent me that in readable plain text -- part cost $20 vs. having a local shop extract a "boat unit" from my wallet. Without that capability, there would have been no way to know what the issue was.
 
ya i think that is a must always nice to see everything we have all that kinda stuff in our tractors and combines nice to see what errors to start trouble shooting and mpg and helps a guy find the sweet spot for mpg, etc
been talking with gpscity.ca tech and he been steering me to the right stuff to do this
 
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