I want to buy a chart plotter with a fish finder for a sailboat in Lake Erie. Can anyone suggest a good unit under $2000? Thanks
Chart Plotter
- Thread starter rose8878
- Start date
Thanks for the info. What do you think, can you put a transom transducer on a sailboat or does it need to be thruhull?
I have a transom mount fish finder transducer on a 50 mph bassboat, it doesn't work at planning speeds, but should be ok on your boat if you keep it under 20kts.
+1 for Garmin. Any of their GPSMAPs would do. You can get a 741s for $1500 or if a 5" is good enough for you, 547xs is $750 .
Hey,
Some things to consider for you:
-Do you have any existing instruments you would like to connect to the plotter? Newer plotters that use NMEA 2000 are easy to interface with. Older instruments may be easy or may be difficult / impossible. What about an autopilot, VHF (with DSC), etc.?
-Who is going to install the new plotter? It's pretty easy to spend over $500 on mounting pods and installation. If you have to pay someone to run the transducer that will add even more money
-Do you have a tablet or phone that you would want to display the plotter information on? Many modern plotters (Garmin, Lowrance, Simrad, etc.) support wifi and allow you control / see the plotter info on your phone or tablet
-Do you want radar too or just a plotter?
$2000 will buy a very nice plotter these days.
I have used Garmin, Lowrance, and Raymarine and I like them all. I have a Garmin 740S. I have it connected to my Raymarine ST60 wind/speed/depth instrument, Evolution autopilit and my Simrad VHF/AIS unit. I can have the AP follow a route or steer to a wind heading. I can display AIS information on the plotter screen. I can display true and apparent wind information on the plotter, etc.
Barry
Some things to consider for you:
-Do you have any existing instruments you would like to connect to the plotter? Newer plotters that use NMEA 2000 are easy to interface with. Older instruments may be easy or may be difficult / impossible. What about an autopilot, VHF (with DSC), etc.?
-Who is going to install the new plotter? It's pretty easy to spend over $500 on mounting pods and installation. If you have to pay someone to run the transducer that will add even more money
-Do you have a tablet or phone that you would want to display the plotter information on? Many modern plotters (Garmin, Lowrance, Simrad, etc.) support wifi and allow you control / see the plotter info on your phone or tablet
-Do you want radar too or just a plotter?
$2000 will buy a very nice plotter these days.
I have used Garmin, Lowrance, and Raymarine and I like them all. I have a Garmin 740S. I have it connected to my Raymarine ST60 wind/speed/depth instrument, Evolution autopilit and my Simrad VHF/AIS unit. I can have the AP follow a route or steer to a wind heading. I can display AIS information on the plotter screen. I can display true and apparent wind information on the plotter, etc.
Barry
I have NOT been happy with my Lowrance Elite-5 HDI. The first unit froze up the second day I turned it on. The guy at the support desk was a bit of a smart *ss and told me to go buy another microSd card and download a fix then try to upload it to the unit. Much easier to just return it to West Marine.
The second unit has worked but the user manual seems to have a lot of errors as the buttons never seem to do what the manual says they will.
My two main disapointments; 1-I can not set up courses at home as there is no way to power up with out a special plug, 2-I would like to hook up an in the hull puck depth transducer but it seem Lowarnce only makes skimmer or expensive bronze thru hull transducers for this unit. The Garmin transducer units that would fit the bill, have a different number of pins, connectors.
It has an NMEA 0183 output but no input so not sure I can ever connect an AIS to it.
The second unit has worked but the user manual seems to have a lot of errors as the buttons never seem to do what the manual says they will.
My two main disapointments; 1-I can not set up courses at home as there is no way to power up with out a special plug, 2-I would like to hook up an in the hull puck depth transducer but it seem Lowarnce only makes skimmer or expensive bronze thru hull transducers for this unit. The Garmin transducer units that would fit the bill, have a different number of pins, connectors.
It has an NMEA 0183 output but no input so not sure I can ever connect an AIS to it.
Lowrance
I have had the Lowrance for a few years and it works great. The main reason I went with it over the Garmin is because it will take software from a variety of vendors. Garmin is only Garmin. I don't like being locked in. My understanding is that fishing hotspots software is much more accurate for depth than others and that is also an option.
Sonar: The puck that came with it can be epoxied inside the hull, however, you need to find out how much fiberglass it will shoot through. My older one will only shoot through 3/8 inch. Since it is impossible to know the exact thickness, I drilled a 1/4 inch hole through the hull, hogged out a hole a little bigger than the puck until I could tell the remaining fiberglass by sighting through the 1/4 hole was less than 3/8 thick. Then I used a countersink on the outside to the hole to make the 1/4 hole cone shaped. Use only this epoxy
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3614504
because it is thick and has no air bubbles as it sets. Air bubbles between the puck and the fiberglass and it will not work. Now force the epoxy into the hole making sure enough goes into the 1/4 hole. Put in the puck, squish it around. Go on the outside and make sure the epoxy in the cone shaped hole is flush with the hull, put on a piece of tape. Once the original epoxy is set add enough new epoxy to bring the epoxy up to flush with the original fiberglass height. Everything works great.
If you don't want a hole, friends with the same (newer) unit just attached the puck to the transom using the supplied mount. It works for him.
I have had the Lowrance for a few years and it works great. The main reason I went with it over the Garmin is because it will take software from a variety of vendors. Garmin is only Garmin. I don't like being locked in. My understanding is that fishing hotspots software is much more accurate for depth than others and that is also an option.
Sonar: The puck that came with it can be epoxied inside the hull, however, you need to find out how much fiberglass it will shoot through. My older one will only shoot through 3/8 inch. Since it is impossible to know the exact thickness, I drilled a 1/4 inch hole through the hull, hogged out a hole a little bigger than the puck until I could tell the remaining fiberglass by sighting through the 1/4 hole was less than 3/8 thick. Then I used a countersink on the outside to the hole to make the 1/4 hole cone shaped. Use only this epoxy
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3614504
because it is thick and has no air bubbles as it sets. Air bubbles between the puck and the fiberglass and it will not work. Now force the epoxy into the hole making sure enough goes into the 1/4 hole. Put in the puck, squish it around. Go on the outside and make sure the epoxy in the cone shaped hole is flush with the hull, put on a piece of tape. Once the original epoxy is set add enough new epoxy to bring the epoxy up to flush with the original fiberglass height. Everything works great.
If you don't want a hole, friends with the same (newer) unit just attached the puck to the transom using the supplied mount. It works for him.
Glad to hear yours came with a transducer. Although my unit is packaged as a GPS/Fishfinder it did not come with any sort of transducer. Understand different applications would call for different transducers but a simple puck would have been nice and I can't find one on WM or the Lowrance site.
Been using a Humminbird 587i for 4 or 5 years. Through hull transducer. Good plotter with depth and fish finder options. You can buy a chip for the Great Lakes.
It was about $500 new I think. Very happy with it. I bought the quick release mounting kit for it so I can put down below when I'm not on boat.
It was about $500 new I think. Very happy with it. I bought the quick release mounting kit for it so I can put down below when I'm not on boat.
Yikes!
I appreciate your thoughts. I will figure this out ..... I think!
Thanks
Great questions! Most of which I have not given much thought to. Looks like I have a bunch more research to do.
I appreciate your thoughts. I will figure this out ..... I think!
Thanks
I just installed the Lowrance Elite 5hdi last fall and have been very happy. I just used a blob of pc7 epoxy to glue the transom transducer to the inside of my hull. It is installed on the centerline just ahead of my keel on my C30. All the functions work, water temp may be a bit off.
For the price, especially now with the spring sales, I think it is the best bang for the buck. I purchased an extension cable. The run from the transducer to the binnacle used all the wire!
For the price, especially now with the spring sales, I think it is the best bang for the buck. I purchased an extension cable. The run from the transducer to the binnacle used all the wire!
Thanks. Which transducer did you use? I wasn't sure if you could still get good readings thru the hull like you did.
Re: Yikes!
it all depends on your budget and what you want to do with it. I have a Garmin GPSMAP 420s (that s is important, because it lets you connect a depth transducer) and it works perfectly well for me. And it was just $350.
But i installed it myself. Running the wires for the transducer and the power caused a few choice words to be used.
it all depends on your budget and what you want to do with it. I have a Garmin GPSMAP 420s (that s is important, because it lets you connect a depth transducer) and it works perfectly well for me. And it was just $350.
But i installed it myself. Running the wires for the transducer and the power caused a few choice words to be used.
I used the transom mount transducer that came with the unit. I just roughed up the surface with some 80 grit sand paper, did the same to the fiberglass. Cleaned both with acetone. Made up a big glob of pc7 epoxy and stuck it on. On a previous boat I used toilet seal wax to test fit the transducer, it worked and I never went back with epoxy.
Earlier this month I installed the Garmin 741xs for under $1000 with rebate. Dabbled with all the brands at the Annapolis boat show and thought the Garmin was the most intuitive to use. It was important that my family could learn to use its features as well. The CHIRPs transponder used one of my existing thruhulls.
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Not sure how much the Lowrance units cost, but for the money I think that the Garmin 440s is hard to beat. It has a 4" screen, works as a chartplotter, GPS & sounder unit all in one. You have to pay extra for the sounding unit which just glues in place inside the hull as described above. The description of what John went through to get his transducer to work is way too much work, when you can buy many units that use through the hull transducers, such as Garmin. I thought that everyone pretty much gave upon cutting a hole for a hull surface mounted transducer a decade ago. If you are on a lake, then paying more then the $400. to buy a Garmin 440s GPS unit sounds like over kill.