Gday, I've got a 4.5mtr runabout ,mainly fish up to 50mtr around Dunsborough/Yals and down Blackwood for bream  etc. My Lowrance 5200c gps recently died, I've got a furuno 620 sounder with p66 tran. My question is am I better of getting a smallish combo like Lowrance elite 5 to use as just a gps or get a larger better combo and replace the lot. Will the newer combos give better or as good as detail as much older 620 . Any advice appreciated 

 I'm looking at buying a furuno fcv628 with a 600w transducer or I am open to other suggestions around the same price.

interested to hear feedback from anyone that is using a fcv628 or 627.

cheers

 I'm purchasing a hds9 gen3 in the very near future  (tomorrow) and I was wondering what you have paid for the same system, Unit with structure scan combo? And if you have seen any sales anywhere? 

Best I've seen is Whitworth marine

Hds7 gen3 with 83/200 & lss-2 $1599

Hds9 gen3 with 83/200 & lss-2 $2699

Is the hds9 worth the extra $1,100? have you found the 7"screen big enough? Or are you glad you spent the extra $$$... will be used as a plotter down the road.

CheersCheers in advance.

 I'm thinking of going to a Simrad S2009 as a dedicated sounder and just wondering if anyone has used or seen one in action? The price looks pretty decent but the details are a bit scarce. Seen a few replies over at thehulltruth but just wondering if any fishwreckers have the info?

www.chsmith.com.au/Products/Simrad-S2009-Fishfinder.html

 hi guys just trying to make myself more familiar with what im looking at on the ray marine , here are some pics i took yesterday , sorry there not the best qaulity , is someone able to tell me what im looking at? from the first pic managed a dhu and a red snapper.

 

 time to decide on electronics for he new 18ft glass boat I'm turning into a diving rig, currently running Garmin gear in my 23ft trophy and am quite happy, however I am after the best pound for pound sounder setup (non commercial) 1kw will do as I won't be getting out past about 60m 

thanks in advance 

 Anyone got one of the above fish finders?

Just want to see how people found it. Looking for something about 250max so many new sounders out there now. Just want something user friendly.

Tia

 Hey  i have just purchased a new hds 9 gen 2  and im looking to see if anyone  does some sort of training for these units  would be nice to learn how to use it properly 

Hi all,

I'm putting a new sounder in the boat, It has a Lowrance elite 5 which will now be the plotter. I've decided to go with the Furuno fcv628.

It's a small tub (4.3m) and I usually fish 10-50 meters, rarely any deeper, just after some advice on transducer options?

I've looked at the Airmar p66 T/M Biducer, any other suggestions?

Also who should I see in Perth for a good deal the unit and transducer? I could go online but would rather keep the money in local buisness.

Cheers for any input!

Hey guys have been given access to a mates waypoints that are stored on a Garmin handheld. Many years of diving and fishing. there are several hundred and I would like/ prefer to transfer them to a format that the Lowrance in my boat can deal with rather than spending countless hours entering them in one by one.

I have looked through the many posts that cover conversions but cant find anything that will confidently work. Has anyone on here done similar or had success with the various aftermarket programmes. Seems plenty of reccomendations on what may work and I am happy to consider these but would prefer if someone has first hand experience doing the garmin to lowrance conversions.

Appreciate any help !

 Intersted to know if others have 600W transducers, I have the Garmin GT21-TM (yet to be installed and tested)

What depths in particular are you getting a good reading from? What weather conditions is it handling? What speeds does it work to?

Do you run the DownVu: Chirp at the 500W and to what depth

Any info would be great

 Chasing a transom mount airmar tm 260 1kw where's the cheapest to buy . PS its for a furuno 587

Cheers Carry

Bloody bad weather means too much free time to do stuff on the boat. Added a 16 inch screen for heads up whilst driving standing up.

 I now this has been a topic for a while now but I would like to no what transducers other are running in small boats on there 295  other than the r399/299 as they are getting hard to get hold of these days though would be my first option. Was thinking 38 3 kW but not sure which one is better in a 6 m boat and has to be able to shoot though the hull. Other option is the 82b but don't no if the 2 kW be powerful enough to hit 500+ at trolling speeds any info will be much appreciated as I don't want to spend the $ and not be able to look for ground while chasing billfish otherwise I'd just stick with my 585 cheers

After many months of research, then several long days and nights of modifcations and install, the Whaler electronics upgrade is complete. Its been a labour of love over the past few weeks, not to mention a heap of bucks. Worth it.........shit yeah!

First off, had to pull out the old Airmar 1 kW SS264 transducers and Furuno FCV587 that have served me so well and caught plenty of fish. Good gear always sells easily, this has been excellent stuff and will no doubt serve others well for many years. But the itch to try new stuff had to be scratched.

With a few dirty great big holes in the hull, out with the grinder and fibreglass. Ended up routing out inside the hull to create an hourglass effect as well as fully feathering the inside and outside.

Then filled the holes building up layers of chopped glass matt, glass matt weave and glass dust reinforced epoxy to fill the hole. Well over 15 layers of layup and this is a repair that will never fail! First time I have used fibreglass, a bit daunting to start and apart from a bit of an overheat when I did a layup too thick, it is pretty easy and quite rewarding.




Then onto the new transducer. Almost everyone who I spoke to here and overseas said the transducer with performance fairing is way too big for a 23 ft boat and would adversely affect the boats handling etc......I wanted the best transducer performance....period.....so I ignored the lot of em. When this beast arrived, I almost fainted. This thing is huge!

Measured about 50 times, made up dummy foam copies and finally cut the fairing on my mates band saw.

Installed along with the 2 other thru hulls in my arsenal......a total of 3.7 kW of transducer power covering High/Lo CHIPR, sidescan, downview, medium chirp and hi/low tone burst with all 3 transducers able to be electronically switched via the head units to display any combination. Happy to report no noticeable effect on the boats performance despite this beast hanging down well below the Whalers keel.

Onto the head units.....time to make space for a second 10 inch screen. Had to move the radio to the overhead hardtop to make enough room.

Had to do a lot of cutting, shutting and more fibreglassing of the dash to get these bad boys to fit....just.

First trial was straight out for a deep drop. Performance was better than I had hoped.

The result, my daughters boyfriend Ross with a nice Blue Eye.

Very satisfying doing everything yourself and it actually working better than you expected.

Some mongrels thieved the GPS and Sounder off my boat Wednesday night. It was locked in the seat box but that didn't stop them forcing the lock.

If anyone sees a Lowrance HDS 10 or a Furuno 620 for sale let me know.

 Hi everyone

chasing some input from anyone on here who has either a Garmin 75sv or lowrance hds 7 or 9 gen III.

about to bite the bullet and upgrade from an elite 5 chirp and wanting to get some feedback either good or bad of either of the proposed units. 

I hear the the garmins have good mapping features and are pretty user friendly, however the lowrance has built in wifi to connect to iPad ect, as well as touch screen and the ability to upgrade maps easier.

I will be using it as more of a fish finder / sounder than anything and maximum depths would be 80m or so and prodominately saltwater fishing. Both units have side scan and down scan chirp function, however the lowrance uses 2 seperate transducers instead of garmin's 1. 

Final question is, if I end up going the Garmin, can I leave my elite 5 chirp transducer in place and run 2 transducers side by side? Or will that just send back the wrong signal to the wrong transducer and throw the whole lot into chaos? 

Any feedback or or hands on experience / thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

scano

 I have a furuno 620 and after learning how to use it properly loved it. I've just dragged the boat out of the shed first time in 12 months went to turns he furuno on and nothing. I get a blank screen. If you look side on you can see some faint lines but that's it. I thought maybe battery but both other units I run  aswell work. Any idea what it may be? 

 Gday Crew. 

Myself and a buddy are looking at our options for to install auto pilot into each of our boats. both of us running a single outboard on boats around the 7.5meter size. Im running a NSS12 evo2 and a HDS10 gen2, whilst he is running a HDS10 gen2 and something else again.

Using  trusty old Ch smith as a ballpark figure for $$ wise, there is $600 difference for what looks to be only due to a difference is which "compass" is used.  

The more expensive one is using a "RC42 rate compass", where as the other one is using a "point 1 GPS Antenna". 

Is there anyone out there with a bit of knowledge on each of these devices and can share a bit of insight as to what you think would be the best option for running out wide of the Abrolhos and everywhere in between PLEASE?

Attempt to add pic of screen for Adding data overlay to HDS.

Here's the Menu you need. To get here press MENU twice

Bit of a long shot but looking for someone running a Lowrance HDS unit running a SD card that I can plug my card (Platinum +) in and fire up/ test.

Lowrance have talked me through a series of options however to no avail. All I need is 5 mins to check whether my card is dead or not.

Live in the hills and happy to travel but the closer the better... Can you help?

Cheers in advance.

 Hi lady's and gents,

I am looking to upgrade my sounder/plotter on my boat I have always had lowrance and do currently but I feel it's not giving me the best look at what's going on below, I mostly fish 20ms and deeper and have a budget of around $3000, what would you choose? 

Came across this photo on facebook and the heading says " black market perth ". I tried finding the group but couldn't and is probably a closed group.
Is this where stolen goods are sold between people in perth ?
Has anyone else seen this ?

Looking to upgrade to a Furuno 588 with 600W transducer, mainly bottom bashing up to 100M, whats the latest advice on GPS/Plotters to link to the 588, I'm not overly concerned about having a back up sonar but would like to run Navionics so it seems Lowrance is the best option, if so what model and whats the benefits?

Hey guys chasing some info or pointers in the right direction...

Have a Lowrance HDS8 that was at time of purchase fitted with a platinum card and due to a trip south needed to buy another to suit... Given the occasional use in the south I opted for a gold card or should I say my deckie when he went shopping.

Now the gold card works fine however the platinum card when put back in does not want to play the game and the lowrance does not seem to be able to source the data. As soon as the gold card goes back in all good.

Don't particularly want to have to buy a new Platinum card just to test out the possible problem so has anyone experienced this and was there a fix??

Cheers in advance guys!

 Hey guys, 

Iv got a new Lowrance sounder that i cant get working. It runs fine straight off the battery but it wont run off the terminals under the dash that the old sounder was running off. To through a spanner in the works the old sounder stopped powering up which i put down to corrosion in the power plug as there is a lot of green and bits missing on the female end of the pins.

So any idea where i should start? There is an inline fuse in the positive line which looks fine. The wiring of the new sounder looks designed to hook onto terninals in close range of the front dash rather then run all the way down to the battery.

 Hey guys, 

Iv got a new Lowrance sounder that i cant get working. It runs fine straight off the battery but it wont run off the terminals under the dash that the old sounder was running off. To through a spanner in the works the old sounder stopped powering up which i put down to corrosion in the power plug as there is a lot of green and bits missing on the female end of the pins.

So any idea where i should start? There is an inline fuse in the positive line which looks fine. The wiring of the new sounder looks designed to hook onto terninals in close range of the front dash rather then run all the way down to the battery.

 Hey guys, I'm looking to replace the stereo in my little CC and am chasing any input from others who have, or have used a lowrance sonichub. I'll be connecting it to a gen 1 HDS 5 which is a dedicated GPS. The unit is already a little slow so I'm after info regarding if it will slow the GPS down even more, what the sound quality is like compaired with the Fusion gear and also if it detracts from using the GPS given it isn't a huge screen. 

Thanks in advance 

Miles

Has anyone got any experience with these Garmin GPSMAP 7412xsv 12inch sounders with 1kw tranducer and chirp for fishing beyond 300m. I heard they might be a decent alternative to the Furuno 295 with 2kw tranducer for the money at around $5,000. Cant seem to find any reviews online at all from any fisho's. Only standard Garmin blurb. Any feedback would be great. cheers

 Im fitting out my mates 620 barcrusher with his new furuno that will be running a TM260. Im stuck on the transducer angle due to the transom being vertical.

Im running the same tranny on my trailcraft and was going to set it up like mine  using 1 wedge that has the trailing edge slightly lower and l get a great reading at speed. The difference between the boats is the transon on the trailcraft is slight forward of vertical so l dont need alot of wedge angle.

Now with the Barcrusher and the vertical transom lve used the 3 wedges and l still cant get the trailing edge lower. Best l can come up is flat with the transom using  2 wedges and a 10mm packer in at the top. For me to get what l want l still need to pack it out at top another 5 mm. 

Can you get shims for these trannys that give a better angle or is it a case of packing it out like lm doing.

Is anyone running the same tranny and how did you over come this. If your got pics even better l would love to see them.

Heres some pics of what lve had to do. Tranny is only mounted loosely atm until l can come up with a solution

I hope it all makes sense. Ha

Cheers Paul