Electronic upgrade

[Busterbrown]

I am going to upgrade my plotter/ fish finder this winter and get more confused every time I research what I need. With a budget of 4K what would you put in. I want good sonar detail to 300ft and of course an updated chart plotter with complete coastal coverage.Any ideas ? Any one done an upgrade recently?

 

[Sharphooks]

That budget for just a GPS chartplotter and a fish finder could get you a very nice system



If it were me with a $ 4,000 budget I'd go for this package:


Furuno GP1870F w /Airmar TM260....$1885.

Charts $175..

With the remaining $ 1,940 left over from my budget I'd buy my wife a dozen roses every week for the next 10 months---can you imagine the stack of white cards you'd build up, the white cards that allow you to go fishing?

There's a guy over on The Hull Truth with a long list of electronics he's selling---check out the Marine Electronics Forum

You'll see that Furuno with a lot of Garmin and Sitex

 

[MonkeyWrench]

that is a very reasonable budget to work with to upgrade your system. Everyone knows the big brand names in GPS/Fishfinder stuff today: Raymarine, Lowrance, Furuno, Garmin, and to a lesser extent Hummingbird and Standard Horizon. In my opinion, Garmin and Lowrance are the two best for being able to simply pick up the unit and figure out how to work it without reading all the manuals. The interface is very simple and clear on both units. Furuno and Raymarine are both a little more difficult to navigate between screens and menus (again this is just my own opinion)

For that kind of budget I would expect that you have a larger boat, 25-35 feet? and would you be looking to flush mount it on your dash? Lowrance's HDS Series displays equipped with Structure Scan and a Platinum+ navionics chart are extremely easy to use and highly detailed displays. If you have the dash space a 10" HDS display would be my personal choice.

http://www.lowrance.com/en-CA/Products/Fishfinder-Chartplotter/HDS10-en-ca.aspx

 

[Rum Buddies]

that's an insane amount of money to spend, unless you just like spending money. $2000 grand will get you top of the line equipment but in reality its not going to catch you anymore fish then a $600 combo unit. But if you're going to spend make sure you get a separate GPS and Separate plotter, no point spending the money if you're going to split your screen in half.

 

[burnsy22]

Unless you buy a big enough screeen that it doesnt matter if you split it. My HDS 10 is great, even when split it is fantastic. I upgraded to an airmar p66 transom mount transducer from the stock lowrance transducer and I love it.

 

[casper5280]

Unless you buy a big enough screeen that it doesnt matter if you split it. My HDS 10 is great, even when split it is fantastic. I upgraded to an airmar p66 transom mount transducer from the stock lowrance transducer and I love it.

Same here, Can see it anywhere in the boat. Even when spilt 2 nice screens that are easy to read. It would be better if it was 2 units, but for me it was cheaper to go this route then get the two smaller screens.

 

[Sculpin]

I don't think 4 grand is an insane amount of money to get set up with a nice marine electronics package. I don't think 2 grand will even get you close to top of the line equipment. That is just the admission fee with products like Furuno lol.

With 4 grand as a budget you could have a nice set up with Lowrance products. Lowrance makes good products for their price. You can always get killer deals on this years Lowrance products early next spring if you can hold off till then.

I like sharphooks suggestion but would stick to the budget (I like helping people spend money lol) and add a Furuno FCV-587 stand alone fish finder and go with the GP1870 for your plotter. That Airmar transducer would complete the package nicely.

When I have to do it all over again I will be looking hard at Furuno products.

 

[Hookin'up]

Im with Sculps here, I just did an HDS9 Touchscreen with an Airmar ducer and structure scan and navionics charts for less then that.
call Mike at harbor chandler and he'll set you up, heck he'll even do the install if your so inclined,
best support I've ever seen you can call Mike after hours and on weekends if needed
you may even have enough left for a GX2150AIS+ to tie into it as an nice bonus
Tim

 

[casper5280]

Mike is the man if you want the best price and hands down the best support there is(better then Lowrance even. A hell of a lot easier to get a hold of anyway) For there price I went with the Lowrance HDS10 and the Airmar transducer, Lowrance Radar and Standard Horizon GX2150AIS+. That said if I had more money the Furuno is top of the line gear as far as I'm concerned and what it will buy when it's time to upgrade. But I'm very happy with my gear and consider it a very complete electronic package.

 

[Azorian]

I with Sculpin & Hookin'Up. I just did a complete electronics upgrade which cost me $4k...Lowrance HDS 9 Gen2 Touch, Airma P66 transducer, Structure Scan, WiFi, Point 1 compass, 3G Radar, Network Kit, Platinum Card for Vancouver Island, 10' extension cable for the transducer, 12' extension cable for the structure scan. I am still in the process of hooking it all up & making myself a radar arch. I can't wait to try it out on the water. Mike at Harbour Chandler is awesome.

 

[profisher]

Pick what you like and don't worry about ease of use...you will learn to use what you buy so long as you fish more than a couple times a year. The important things are reliability, power, definition, and warranty. I made a personal choice to have a stand alone sounder and then a chart plotter with sounder as my backup. I'm not a fan of relying on a combo unit alone. If it fails it is all gone and you are in the dark.

 

[Busterbrown]

Well after doing a pile of research this winter I pulled the trigger on my new system.I went with a Garmin 1040xs, Airmar B175 , Garmin GCV 10 sounder module and the Blue Vision 2 chart. I priced many systems here and no one could come close to the price out of the USA on any of the units I was looking at. None were interested in trying to match. I am a little leary about drilling a 3 1/2 inch hole in the bottom of my boat for the through hull transducer!! I will be doing the install this week-end . Thanks for all the suggestions earlier.. I also found it was not hard to approach my 4k budget . I did save $850 buying this out of the US. I will have some good used equipment for sale later

 

[SteelyDan]

Your going to like the g2 vision charts