Which Sonar/GPS Unit?

[roadking]

Hi All,

I’m in the market for a new sonar/gps unit. I thought I’d appeal to the collected wisdom here for some opinions before I start my research. Our boat is a 20 Ft NW Jet aluminum, 351 Redline with an American Turbine Jet. Use it primarily in big lakes, some ocean, and some big river use (Skeena/Fraser). Chart plotter options aren’t really super important ad we run the Navionics app for that. Looking to keep it under $1000. Any opinions on where to start?

 

[macro]

Bird/rance/gar - Anyone with side scan. I lean towards the lowrance hds units because of their expandability/flexibility. Birds are easy to use, but feel limited to me 2019 and the base units are still not touch screen.... No experience with the garmins but never heard anything bad about them. I've personally got a lowrance gen3 and a bird G2.

Good luck.

 

[Trophy]

Boats and sounders both seem to be affected by the two footits syndrome. Best to buy the biggest screen you can afford and want now than wish it was bigger next year. Dont forget that its mounting should fit comfortably in the cabin yet be easily viewed from the stern. Thats where the bigger screen shines if you only want to run one unit. Bells and whistles, Chirp is a must in the ocean, SideScan and DownScan Imaging are better for lakes and rivers, newer options are evolving every month that others with experience can add in. Also, the transducer Is almost as important as the sounder. Some transducers can actually make a sounder work pretty good....airmar.P 66 on a lowrance elite sounder. Hope this helps.

 

[wildthing]

ditto as trophy states 9" and an p66 maybe an LSS-2 if your doing the rivers thats side scan

 

[nez_fer]

Good timing. I was just looking at prices on Harbour Chandler. I am biased to Lowrance as that is all I've used. For under $1000 I would probably go with the Lowrance 7 Hook or Elite series. Keep in mind, I believe these are stand alone units. You won't be able to network them with other devices.

I've been using a Lowrance Elite 4 DSI (for chart and downscan imaging) and HDS-7 Gen1 (for broadband). This setup has been working great, but I want to upgrade to better single display with ability to connect to Radar and other displays.

For me, I'm thinking Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon (no transducer) or for a little more get the latest HDS-7 Live. Going to wait till boat show time as there are usually good sales at that time.

Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon (no transducer) $1099.99
Lowrance HDS-7 Live (no transducer) $1299.99
Lowrance HDS-7 Live (with Active Imaging transducer) $1349.99

One thing I've heard is I should also get a second transducer with 50 khz for deeper water. Can anyone verify this?

 

[Barman]

Good timing. I was just looking at prices on Harbour Chandler. I am biased to Lowrance as that is all I've used. For under $1000 I would probably go with the Lowrance 7 Hook or Elite series. Keep in mind, I believe these are stand alone units. You won't be able to network them with other devices.

I've been using a Lowrance Elite 4 DSI (for chart and downscan imaging) and HDS-7 Gen1 (for broadband). This setup has been working great, but I want to upgrade to better single display with ability to connect to Radar and other displays.

For me, I'm thinking Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon (no transducer) or for a little more get the latest HDS-7 Live. Going to wait till boat show time as there are usually good sales at that time.

Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon (no transducer) $1099.99
Lowrance HDS-7 Live (no transducer) $1299.99
Lowrance HDS-7 Live (with Active Imaging transducer) $1349.99

One thing I've heard is I should also get a second transducer with 50 khz for deeper water. Can anyone verify this?

Harbour Chandler have just put out a boat show special price of $849.00 on that Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon! Powerful Unit.

 

[nez_fer]

Harbour Chandler have just put out a boat show special price of $849.00 on that Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon! Powerful Unit.

Thanks for the Alert! I guess that made my mind up quick. I just ordered one. Also ordered Navionics Regions Canada.

 

[Robert Gray]

+1 on Lowrance carbon, here's the one I've got:
https://www.boatid.com/images/lowrance/items/pdf/hds-carbon-manual-noindex.pdf
Mine has got 9 in screen (yet damn, now I want a bigger one) and mine has got that structure scan 3d transducer. I was thinking whether that transducer was worth $350 on top of the price, but I ended up getting one with the transducer. And I must say, it's a great purchase, that's worth each penny I paid for it.

 

[Robert Gray]

So, if you are looking for a recommendation, here is mine: think of the screen size haha