electronics package for new boat - The Hull Truth

panga707 · 02-21-2010, 07:35 PM

Im looking for electronics for my new to me boat, chartplotter, sonar and radar. I spent the majority of my boat budget on the new boat, so I am not sure that a furuno package will be in my future. I have been reading the posts on here and a few other boards and been reading mainly that people say furuno over raymarine, so now I am wondering about garmin. I have been hearing good things locally about garmin. Im not sure I want to spend the kind of money required for furuno, kind of went over budget on the boat. What do you guys think is Garmin better than raymarine? Im not talking autopilot here, BECAUSE.. Im getting the sense that raymarine autopilot sucks, which is giving people a bad impression about their entire line of products? Any truth?

GARMIN??? any other suggestions for electronics in the raymarine price range. The lowarance HDS seemed like a good option but my mechanic says they are crap. please help

bamaboy473 · 02-21-2010, 07:52 PM

Welcome to the club and you'll find a lot of good information between the lot of us. That said, if your questions are as basic as they are, then prepare yourself for a Ford/Chevy debate because you have no frame of reference for how to evaluate the information being given.

It might better be asked about how much your money can buy for X $... and what your primary and secondary purposes you expect from the unit you get.

panga707 · 02-21-2010, 08:12 PM

Thanks, that is not what I want(chevy/ford), I don't have experience with raymarine, garmin or furuno, I do have a HDS7 lowance on another boat, that I am rather happy maybe could be a little more user friendly. My mechanic says they have been having problems with lowarance and bad customer service, and that no external antennae is available which is bad for a pilot house.

OK so to the budget, probably around 3k for the package, gps sonar and radar. Will be using radar mainly for navigating through the fog, and steering clear of freighters, I don't think I wil be able to get a radar unit in this budget that will show me birds, as far as sonar this is where I likely don't want to skimp to much, as finding bait means catching fish, on the GPS end something comparable to the chartplotter on my HDS serves me fine.

Southern Hunter · 02-21-2010, 08:20 PM

Garmin

abbor · 02-22-2010, 01:58 PM

HDS works excellent with the internal antenna in my pilothouse. Actually it works as well as the LGC-3000 antenna I still have at the roof from my previous LMS-525 installation. In addition to the internal antenna you can get the LGC-4000 antenna if needed.

Lowrance had some quality problems with their previous generation instruments, but according to what I've heard and read HDS is much better.

HDS is the first generation instruments introduced after the Navico takeover. The Navico CTO is coming from Simrad so he should know what it takes to develop and manufacture a quality product.

panga707 · 02-22-2010, 02:25 PM

anyone have any experience with the furuno GP7000F unit, seems like a goo buy at 1700, and the sonar output seems to be up there with other higher end units.

Can I hook a furuno radar reciever dome to the unit and display the radar on split screen on the furuno GP7000F display? If not I could get a seperate display.

any opinions help thanks

gotumon · 02-22-2010, 05:15 PM

I make a living with the Raymarine units and the FF is awesome. The HD radar is, I believe as good as you can get with dual range and they use Navionics charting in the CP. I run them 2000+ hrs a year and have had very few problems of any sort. Be sure to look at all the manufacturers units before you spend your hard earned bux.

rickq · 02-22-2010, 05:53 PM

First off what kind of boat did you buy? what are you going to use it for? pleasure,fishing, dockside condo.etc

answering these questions will give you a better idea what system (gps,sonar,radar,weather,vhf) you need
also Furuno has a rebate going on on. I just bought all new electronics and i pleasantly suprized that Furuno was less expensive then anyone else for what i wanted to buy and what mfgs i would only buy from so don't rule anything out yet.

ryan faulk · 02-22-2010, 06:08 PM

GARMIN! Very user friendly! Great customer support!

IKAT · 02-22-2010, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickq

First off what kind of boat did you buy? what are you going to use it for? pleasure,fishing, dockside condo.etc

answering these questions will give you a better idea what system (gps,sonar,radar,weather,vhf) you need
also Furuno has a rebate going on on. I just bought all new electronics and i pleasantly suprized that Furuno was less expensive then anyone else for what i wanted to buy and what mfgs i would only buy from so don't rule anything out yet.

x2-info on the boat will help a great deal as well as what you expect--bottom line is dollars and what you want.

panga707 · 02-22-2010, 07:28 PM

BOAT INFO: Parker 2520 DeepV twin yamaha 150s bracket mounted, second station on fly bridge, older garmin chartplotter/sonar which I am moving to the fly bridge along with VHF radio, down below cobra VHF, need to add chartplotter, sonar, radar, and eventually autopilot. I live in california and will be using the boat for inshore and offshore fishing, including salmon, halibut, albacore, rockfish, crab and shrimping.

Thanks very much for the help, please give me some direction. I will likely be looking at furuno or garmin, due to all the raymarine and lowance bashing I keep hearing over and over again. I am wondering about the furuno GP7000FNT GPS Plotter/Fishfinder. Anyone like it? I am not sure about adding a radar, do I need a seperate display, or can it be tied into the display? Im not finding many reviews on this unit?

thanks

bigk23surf · 02-22-2010, 07:41 PM

I'm doing a Garmin 3210 with 18HD radar on mine. Also have a Raymarine DSX 600 for sonar but would like to have a Furuno 620. Its going to be about $2500 for everything and that seems good for what I'm getting.

Justin_NJ · 02-22-2010, 08:02 PM

Panga,

Welcome to the board. I went through this same debate last year and had all 4 that you mentioned here as my starting point.

The first thing I did was looked at my budget and that kind of ruled out Furuno for me even though I wanted it. I was also in Consumer Marine and was told to wait if I wanted NavNet 3D due to some issues they were having, which are now worked out.

My requirement was a 12" screen (and a second 12" and 8" to be added at a later date as a I build the system).

I maintained the RayMarine Radar on the boat as a stand-alone unit, however had the raydome been compatable with the E-series, I would have gone for RayMarine.

I ended up going for Garmin due to the positive reviews and feedback I had. I can tell you that I am not 100% thrilled with the fishfinder as it has had a few issues in shallow water (in water that is 6-8 feet deep) and some of the updates that Garmin put out made it worse at times.

The chart plotter is fantastic, works great, is dead on, and very very easy to use.

You need to look at 3 things:

Your budget
The space you have for displays
Your usage of the boat

If you are going to be spending your time in the bay and near shore and your home port, do you need to spend 30,000 in electronics, unless you want to?

If you are fishing in the bay and have limitted dash space, you could go for a multi-function display that covers all 3 function you want. A Garmin 4208 or 4212 with the appropriate size radar and add on of sonar can run you between $4000 and $5000.

Another option you may want to look at:
Furuno 1623 or 1723 Radar (1300 and 1600 respectivly)
Garmin GPSMAP 740S (1700 + cost of your choice of transducer up to 1kw)

The Garmin GPSMAP can actually interface with a garmin radar if you wish, but on a 7" screen it's not as versitle as a 12" screen for all of the functions you want.

Good luck with your research and purchase. One recommondation, don't forget to factor in the cost of an install if you are not planning to do it yourself (which I would recommond so you know how to debug the system if it goes down while on the water).

panga707 · 02-22-2010, 08:21 PM

Thanks Justin, I think you might be on to something, I am now leaning to two displays, the furuno radar, and either the GP7000FNT GPS Plotter/Fishfinder furuno or the garmin GPSmap 740. I wish I could find some info on the furuno GP7000FNT GPS Plotter/Fishfinder I will keep looking for some reviews.

One question you might be able to help me with, is there any reason to connect the radar and GPS if displaying them on separate screens? It looks like the NEMA cable could do it. Does the radar then show current cordinates? Or.... what is the advantage to this?

Thanks

Rodm · 02-22-2010, 09:33 PM

I'm undecided too. The HDS stuff does look good, but alot of people seem to agree with your mechanic. I noticed that on the BOE marine forum the "what to do" question, Yachtjim mentions the HDS FF as even better than better than the FCV 620. It seems most agree a high quality transducer designed for your purpose is at least as important as the unit you buy. The navico broadband radar looks great, but my radar needs are pretty simple and I don't know how it compares to the HD stuff. I'm leaning toward a Garmin system and a stand alone FF (maybe with gps as a backup to the main unit). I'm stalling my decision hoping Garmins sonar upgrade comes out and is a big hit.

Good luck,

rbarky · 02-23-2010, 07:06 PM

Stay away from Lowrance, I also took an interest in the HDS unit until I did some investigating on the Hull Truth about Lowrance, your mechanic is correct. CUSTOMER SERVICE is very weak.
Go with Furuno! The GPS store had the FCV 620 for $699 and Furuno has a $50 rebate through March.
Look at the new Garmin 740 touch screen for GPS. Great unit for the price $1400. Garmin just introduced it at the Miami boat show. Will be available in March. Will handle Weather, Radar, auto pilot, 740S model has sonar but I chose to stay with 740 since I also went with Furuno for sonar and fishfinder. I felt this was the best of both world at a reasonable cost.
Barkie

rickq · 02-23-2010, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panga707

BOAT INFO: Parker 2520 DeepV twin yamaha 150s bracket mounted, second station on fly bridge, older garmin chartplotter/sonar which I am moving to the fly bridge along with VHF radio, down below cobra VHF, need to add chartplotter, sonar, radar, and eventually autopilot. I live in california and will be using the boat for inshore and offshore fishing, including salmon, halibut, albacore, rockfish, crab and shrimping.

Thanks very much for the help, please give me some direction. I will likely be looking at furuno or garmin, due to all the raymarine and lowance bashing I keep hearing over and over again. I am wondering about the furuno GP7000FNT GPS Plotter/Fishfinder. Anyone like it? I am not sure about adding a radar, do I need a seperate display, or can it be tied into the display? Im not finding many reviews on this unit?

thanks

Panga I dont about your choice on the garmin ff the gsd22 doen't have a good folowing just read the threads. Ijust bought an new electronics package for my boat and i'm using it for much the same thing you are so this what i bought and why take it for what its worth.
furuno
nn3d mfd12 because i've got the screen space to split it and have gps,ff,and radar up at once also the 3d has a roto key that will allow toy to switch from your preconfigured screens in a flash
DFF1 one of the FF's on the market.
sirius weather so a can track fronts and get buoy data wave height wind speed and sea surface temp.
Drs6a radar HERE IS a BIG Point only raymarine and Furuno make dual beam radar. why do i want dual beam you ask. Well for me the big selling point for dual beam is that i can have 1 radar screen set up as boat/land finder while i can independently setup a second radar screen with the gain up etc to find birds(check the threads).
But it doesnt come without a price.
Aconsultant once said to me that i firmly believe in
"you can have it good,cheap,an fast but you only get to pick two"
I guess my point is if you can't afford all this right away start with some of it and upgrade it maybe next year. If you start with quality components you will end up with a quality system/network.
REgards,
and good luck

dlevitt · 02-23-2010, 07:41 PM

Am I the only person who has a Furuno GP-7000F?... It was on the boat that I bought last year and for my basic needs, it works fine. As expected the sonar works great ( I haven't been in water > 100 feet though). and the GPS works fine. If I were to buy a new unit today, I probably wouldn't buy the GP-7000F. For the same money, I would probably buy the Garmin 740s, which also includes charts. Also, you can add Radar to the Garmin where you can't to the furuno. I would think that the furuno would have a better sonar, but the Garmin wins with GPS, ease of use and expandability. Also, if your engines send nmea 2000 (I think that's what it is), you can display engine data on the garmin. You can't on the furuno.

Remember, with either of these, you can not network to a second station. Is that important to you. If so, I would look at the garmin 42xx series.

panga707 · 02-23-2010, 08:08 PM

Thanks for the info, I was not aware that you could ad radar to the garmin unit, that is good to know, I will look into that. I was thinking I would have to ad radar seperate, going furuno for about 1300 w/ seperate display, and in that case would have gone furuno because of the better sonar, but if I can interface the radar into that on screen, garmin may be the move?

panga707 · 02-23-2010, 10:35 PM

Does the Garmin 740s come with a transducer? I saw aftermarket 1kw through hull, but they were around a grand? This makes this unit fairly pricey? Does the furuno unit mentioned above come with a transducer? If so I am sure they will be transome mount units, I have not had the best luck with these in the past.

thanks very much