Furuno....what is the deal?

[jtms]

I recently purchased a boat that came loaded out with Furuno electronics. I have a RDP 139 unit with 4kw radar, gps, sounder, repeater, and back up gps. What is the deal with Furuno? I think this unit is hands down the most difficult to use and unreliable unit I have ever used? I hear Furuno is the best out there but I have a hard time seeing why. I have seen cheap Gamin GPS units that are easier to use than this unit.

Issues:
1- Why doesn't it offer differnet colors or various depths? And yes I just bought a new card.
2- Why doesn't it mark the channel inshore. It has these sorry red lines that I guess are suppos to mark the channel but they are very poor.
3-Good luck trying to integrate everything. I have two different electrical guys(one of them Furuno certified) that couldn't even get the right buttons to come up. I can't get the temp/depth/COG/SOG/and bearing to come up at the same time.
4-Will unit show time to waypoint? Mr Furuno couldn't figure that out and he works on the dang things
5-I will save the two best for last.....Do the sounders actually work? I can't tell you how many times we have been in 400 ft of water and good ol' Furuno show we are in 12 ft....then 4000. The only mode the sounder will work is in the Auto cruise mode. Don't ask me why but it is what it is. If you try and go into manual and adjust the gain.....it is gone.
6- The last 2 out of 4 times I have left offshore at 4 in the morning the radar overlay feature went out just as I was pulling into the channel. Try messing with that in the middle of the channel at 4 in the morning while boats are blazing by. Couldn't get it to work so I decide to run w.o radar which isn't really safe but what choice do I have. When the radar does work it is EXCELLENT. I will give them that...the sensitivity is like no other.

I am 1 more trip from yanking all of this Furuno stuff off and replacing with Garmin. Somebody please talk me out of this b/c I hear Furuno is really really good but I am not seeing it. Should I buy a newer Furno displat unit? I hate to reward them with more of my $, but it will be real expensive to pul everything off and completely replace with Garmin. All I want it to do is work!!!

[jtms]

Oh I forgot one. Last Saturday the unit got stuck for the whole trip back saying we were 36.8 miles from the jettis. The WHOLE TIME.

[themadgaffler]

i do not own any garmin stuff, i recently had a bad experience with lowrance and vowed never to buy another lowrance product. i replaced my combo unit with the furuno gp 7000 combo unit. i have found it little hard to use, however i have not had it long so that is normal. it may not be as user friendly as my older unit but gives me a better finder for sure. the plotter is so so, but i do not yet have a cmap nt card so all my options havent appeared yet. the furuno unit gives me more options, it is more sophisticated and therefor has a steeper learning curve. i feel when i get a bit more time with the unit it will prove to be far superior to my old one. i have called their customer service (where u get connected to a person immediately) and found them to be knowledgeable. id try calling their customer service.

[takefive]

I have a Furuno Navnet system with 2 displays, network sounder, back up GPS and radar all tied together through an ethernet hub. It all works great for me. I will say that the setup if you are using a network hub is a little confusing as you have to reboot the system in "installation mode" in order to configure the devices to talk to each other. I have even made a Navnet and a Navnet VX2 talk to each other. My depth sounder also works great -- best that I ever owned. The original ower may not have installed all of this gear incorrectly. The wiring instructions that come with the unit can be very confusing as well. I found supplemental wiring information on the Furuno website that helped, especially in creating network cables. You may want to check to see if he selected the right transducer for the depth sounder. Furuno offers several different series of depth sounders and they require different transducers.
Good luck.

[ssminnow355]

I've got one to. They do take some getting used to but it's a pretty quick learning curve. I am very pleased with mine. You definately need the card. I got the cmap max card. Tells me everything. The sounder is very good to.

[ssminnow355]

You've probably already done this but check the antenna line and transducer cable and make sure they are not run to close to any hot wires. I've noticed that sometimes they will get noise from this and how they each react differs. Furuno definately won't be winning any graphics awards.

[makosteve66]

I have always had Furuno and loved it - have bever owned any of there multifuctions. Currently have the Raymarine E series and love it. The cartography, sounder and radar are as good as anything I have ever used.

[makosteve66]

here's some more

[Miller25]

Navnet 1's are old...... They were good in there time, I would upgrade to a vx2 (vx2 uses better charts), all you would need is the display. Call furuno tech support (They are actually in the US!) or just wait for the navnet 3......

[bens2]

jtms,

Furuno has developed a good reputation because of their reliability and customer service. That being said the old Navnet 1 stuff is not as good as the Navnet 2. I have the 1934 c vx 2 on my boat and in general it does a good job. Admittedly the chartplotter is not nearly as intuitive as my Garmin 182 c that I have on as a backup.

If I were in your position I would either 1. Try to find a Furuno rep and start from scratch with your current system. ie check to make sure it was wired correctly from the ground up and then go through the installation manual step by step making sure that was done properly.

2. Upgrade the Navnet VX2 system which I think is very good. I also put an RD 30 repeater in my upper e-box which gives location, water temp, speed etc in big numbers at a glance.

or 3. Replace with the networked Garmin system which I think is very good but probably not as good on the sounder and radar.

I think if you replace your existing set up you can probably squeeze a 12" screen in the e box which is easier on your eyes. If your boat does not have a thru hull Airmar B 260 transducer in it I would recommend one. That 1kw transducer is wonderful and really lets you take advantage of the Furuno capability but I would not purchase it until you decide what brand and iteration of the electronics you are going to use.

Good luck..If you can get anywhere near the tidewater VA area I would be happy to show you my set up.

Ben

[tunaorlater]

I have a nav net 1, I love the radar and I love the sounder when it works right. I use my 6000i as a gps and the nav netas a back up. The only problem I have is when I use the sounded in deeperwater than 400ft I get alot of noise, it's 1000w transducer.Anyone have this problem or know what I can try to fix mine? Thanks

[Somethin-Fishey]

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:38 PM

Oh I forgot one. Last Saturday the unit got stuck for the whole trip back saying we were 36.8 miles from the jettis. The WHOLE TIME.

I bet you moved the cross hairs and didn't hit "Center" fairly common problem...albiet not a furuno problem

[Somethin-Fishey]

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PM
1- Why doesn't it offer differnet colors or various depths? And yes I just bought a new card.

C-map or navionics, my C-map has various colors, but not alot of them.....prolly every 30 fathoms or so...

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PM2- Why doesn't it mark the channel inshore. It has these sorry red lines that I guess are suppos to mark the channel but they are very poor.

again, what chart, and which model?

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PM3-Good luck trying to integrate everything. I have two different electrical guys(one of them Furuno certified) that couldn't even get the right buttons to come up. I can't get the temp/depth/COG/SOG/and bearing to come up at the same time.

Where are you trying to get them to come up, data boxes or navbar?

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PM4-Will unit show time to waypoint? Mr Furuno couldn't figure that out and he works on the dang things

OK, so he was a Mr. Furuno that didn't know squat, move on... BTW, who proclaimed him Mr Furuno?

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PM5-I will save the two best for last.....Do the sounders actually work? I can't tell you how many times we have been in 400 ft of water and good ol' Furuno show we are in 12 ft....then 4000. The only mode the sounder will work is in the Auto cruise mode. Don't ask me why but it is what it is. If you try and go into manual and adjust the gain.....it is gone.

In manual it is MANUAL, which means you have to MANUALLY set the depth bands, you have 6 or 7 sets to choose from and the + and - buttons cycle thru them. Did you get a manual with this boat. The furuno should have 2 manuals, one for installation and one for operation.

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PM6- The last 2 out of 4 times I have left offshore at 4 in the morning the radar overlay feature went out just as I was pulling into the channel. Try messing with that in the middle of the channel at 4 in the morning while boats are blazing by. Couldn't get it to work so I decide to run w.o radar which isn't really safe but what choice do I have.

What are you using for a heading input? Is it calibrated? The overlay relies on external data to line up the radar and the chart, normally if it wigs out, it is the external data.

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PMWhen the radar does work it is EXCELLENT. I will give them that...the sensitivity is like no other.

So will the rest of the system, but it sounds like you haven't taken the time to peruse the manuals. Most of these questions (ie databoxes and navbars) are very clearly defined in the owners manual and how to change them. If you didn't receive them, you can download them from furuno free of charge.

jtms - 6/26/2007 2:36 PMI am 1 more trip from yanking all of this Furuno stuff off and replacing with Garmin. Somebody please talk me out of this b/c I hear Furuno is really really good but I am not seeing it. Should I buy a newer Furno displat unit? I hate to reward them with more of my $, but it will be real expensive to pul everything off and completely replace with Garmin. All I want it to do is work!!!

I have a NN1 system and it has been flawless for over 3 years now, there is no reason yours won't work, but it will take a little time to work with it, have you gone out on a tuesday afternoon and tried to play, take the time to learn it so at 4am it is second nature and you can worry about if there is enough beer in the cooler, not wether or not your overlay will be ok.