Ray c80/dsm250 + 120gps OR Garmin 182c + Furuno 600

[flattie]

I'm in the process of purchasing a 28' Rampage - seatrial and survey next week. The boat has a Raytheon radar, loran(manufacturer??), and kenwood vhf with a hummingbird ff. Over the winter I want to add/upgrade the electronics as I'll be running up to 60miles offshore. With all the great deals out there right now on electronics (boat show specials) I can get the Ray C80 with the waas 120 gps sensor and dsm 250 sounder for @ $2k. I was also looking at the Garmin 182c for a gps/chartplotter and then the Furuno 600L sounder which would end up coming in around $1500. I'm kinda leaning toward the later so if one display craps out I'll still have either the gps or the depthsounder coupled with the standalone radar. Is the Ray unit which uses navionics chips a better gps than the garmin with bluecharts?? If I want to plot waypoints and routes on my PC which is easier to transfer to the gps?? Thanks for feedback...flattie P.S. Never had a gps before always a paper chart/compass kinda' guy so similarities to paper charts is a good thing!!

[EFCBOB]

I've had the same questions and issues. I have a Garmin 188C which uses blue charts and I think they are the best. I am now looking for electronics for a new boat and took a close look at Raymarine as well as Furuno. They both use Navionics charts which in my opinion are not as good as the Blue Charts. However, Raymarine C series gets my vote over the Furuno GPS/Plotter as it will take the new Navionics Gold chip which is an improvement over what they call Navionics Classic and getting much closer to Garmin's blue charts.

I am going to install a stand alone Furuno radar and don't have space left for a separate sounder and GPS so I need a combination unit. The Garmin sounder is not as good as Raymarine or Furuno. I will probably go Raymarine because they offer Navionics Gold chip compatability and have a good fish finder.....but in a perfect world I would stay with Garmin for their blue charts....you can't beat their detail and appearance.

I hope this is of some help.....Let me know what you find out.

Go for the Raymarine C80. Its a much larger screen, and its got some really nice features. They are great units.

[iawright]

I've just installed two C-80's, the 2k radome, a DSM-250 and the 120 gps on the boat below. I find the screen displays are fantastic. The new Navionics Gold chips are very detailed, cover a huge area and I've found them very accurate when manoevering in tight quarters at speed. You could check with Raymarine to see if you can get the signal from your current radome working with the C-series system. Compare the resolution of the Furuno and the Raymarine equipment. I compared the Furuno and the Raymarine side by side in direct sunlight at last year's Annapolis boat show and there was a very obvious difference in favour of the Raymarine displays. There is no comparison with the Garmin 182C -- it's screen is much smaller and it has much lower resolution than either of the above. You might want to consider the Gpsmap 2010. I use a Garmin hand-held as a backup.

[warthog5]

Hmmmmm! 28' Rampage It desirves some good stuff on it.
I've been turned off to Raytheom ever since I bought a 365L.

My new boat will have Furuno 582L FF and Garmin 2006C. Garmin leads the pack in GPS.
If one of your buddies has any Garmin he can run the one you install on your boat.
This may seem trivial, but what if something happens to you and your buddy needs to run the boat to get you help.