Navman Instruments

[Tim]

Anyone have any experience with Navman instruments?I'm looking at the 3100 Series sailing instruments and 5000 Series GPS units.Thanks,Tim

 

[neil walters]

Navman Gps

I bought a tracker model 5500 chartplotter several months ago. My experience had been with Garmin gps units. I had a 176c that I did not like because of the lack of brightness in day light. The Navman is considerably brighter but still I have trouble seeing it if I don't remove my sunglasses. The screen size is fine. The instruction manual is minimum not at all as good as the manual that comes with the Garmin units. It does take considerable getting use to. But I have been able to overcome that problem. The single compelling reason I went with Navman was the price. A comparible Garmin unit 182C is about $400to $500 more. I think the 182C is brighter in the daylight. It seems to be a shade brighter on the shelf in the stores. Another one to consider is the Standard. It has a very bright screen. I bought my unit on the internet for $600. It has some features I will never use such as fuel flow. The menu on it I like better than the Garmin. It seems to be easier to logically program. Instead of the big compas rose with an arrow pointing to a destination it has a compass strip at the top of the screen to give you the heading to follow . I bought a 12 volt step down transformer at Radio Shack for $30 that I plug into at home to play around and get used to the unit with. I put a cigar lighter plug on it so I can remove it from the boat. I am an old AF navigator and it is much more than I need but I really enjoy playing with it. All I really need is a hand held unit. Don't tell my wife.

 

[Tim R.]

Garmin vs. Navman

I researched and demoed a lot of chartplotters. I narrowed it down to 2 units the Navman(5000 series) and the Garmin 182C. I was leaning toward the Navman because of price but the Garmin is far superior in the refresh rate and resolution. I know the specs on each unit indicate a similar resolution but they are night and day when you look at them side by side. The determining factor were the maps. Cmap claims a "chart like look" but the Bluecharts are much better. I finally decided on the 182c for quality and was willing to pay the extra money.After a lot more research on pricing I ended up getting a great deal. For $950 I got the 182c(ext ant), Mapsource CD with 1 unlock code, 16mb data card and a USB programmer. All new from a retailer(not ebay). I bought the software rather than the data card preprogrammed because I also have a handheld that I can load the maps into and use as a backup. Garmin lets you program 2 units with 1 unlock code.If you want to know the specifics on how I found such a great deal send me an email at treilley@syseng.com.Tim R.