*THE HULL TRUTH is the world's largest FREE network for the discussion of Boating & Fishing. Whether you're researching a new boat, or are a seasoned Captain, you'll find The Hull Truth Boating & Fishing Message Forum contains a wealth of information from Boaters and Sportfishermen around the world.
Welcome to the updated THT!
If you are having trouble signing in, please email feedback@thehulltruth.com with your username and we will help you. We thank you for your patience as we help you access the new site!
Was looking at the Raymarine E Series for a 25' Centre Console fishing for everything from Flyfishing Tuna in 20', Kingies in 60' to Sailfish in 200 fathoms.
After a really, really helpful 1.5hr session with a Furuno distributor rep (who regrettably still won't sell direct), I'm now looking at at Furuno NavNet system (24" Radar, 2kw transducer, ETR-30N sounder, 10.4" & 7" screens etc).
Any reason why I should go Raymarine instead?
He swears blue that Furuno has the better sounder...
BTW: If you plan on using the 2Kw ducer, only Furuno can put out 2Kw, Ray can only put out 1Kw, although the ducer will still work, just at 1/2 power. The Furuno will put out up to 3Kw and you can manually vary the frequency.
The quality of the Ray CRT is much better. Short of that all my investigation of the 2 are pretty even. The RayMarine Visual is such a better unit clarity wise its un-believable.
Ya know it's like this...Some people like Ford some like Chevy and some like Dodge and some like Toyota and then others like Nissan, They are all good! I have had both Garmin and Raymarine. I love what you can do with the Raymarine E-120 and the Platinum chip plus the digital Raymarine fish finder somar is awesome. I looked real hard at both the Furuno NavNet and Raymarine E series. I liked the Raymarine bigger and brighter screen, and chartplotter much better personally than the duller Furuno screen and plotter.
Both are very good units, and have their own followers. Persoanlly, I would go Ray, only because I dont really care for the Furuno Chartplotter, BUT, I think the Furuno Radar and sounder are better than the Ray.
Hey thanks guys. Certainly the guy was leaning on the Furuno sounder, and I think I would rather get all of the same brand - much more difficult to have finger pointing if it all comes from the one vendor ...
The Furuno screen is still a vast, vast improvement over the old Lowrance unit.
Still dont know whether I should bother with the Radar - lot more money for not a whole heap more added function for fishing ... It is basically a daylight boat.
Nigel...I agree with all the comments here. Furuno sounder and radar are better, plotter is a little weak. Furuno is completely programmable and you can make it do anything, but it is programmable and if you're not pretty technical you may not like the defaults (there is a lot of help available here, though). I don't think there is anything out there to compare to the Furuno radar.
I outfitted a new 2004 36 SabreLine powerboat from scratch and went Furuno/Simrad (autopilot). I'd do the same again but would go NavNet VX2 instead of V1 this time, of course. Good luck!
For one it takes me 20 minutes to tune the DSM-250/300 and if I change depth by 400ft and 3deg it goes wonky and I have to readjust gain etc... Furuno, I **might** have to adjust gain a click or 2, that's it.
One othe HUGE thing you are overlooking, he SPECIFICALLY said ETR-30N and 2Kw ducer in his original post...
Do you know Furuno has 2 black box sounders... ETR-6N and ETR-30N
Do you know what ETR-30N is? Do you know it's capabilities? Have you ever even seen one? If you have answered yes to these 3 questions, no one in their right mind can ask the question above....
I have to argue about the superiority of the Furuno sounders to the RM DSM's, my DSM300 paired with a B256 transducer walks all over my neighbor's Furuno Navnet with its sounder box (I think its a BB-1?) and his B256. Only thing I have have to do manually is sometimes run the range in manual if I catch a real hard thermocline or want to fish with my downriggers. The ETR-6N and ETR-10N reference got my attention though. What are they, new black boxes for the NN VX2 platform? Didn't see any mention of them on Furuno's website. And as far as 2kw support, make sure you have boat to wrap around the 2kw transducer before anyone gets to excited about it. Neither the R99 (thruhull) or R199 (inhull) are what I'd call small and a realistic install option for most of the boats in this forum. I was going to try one until two people (one RM and one from AirMar) talked me out of it for my boat, as I wasn't going deep enough to see any advantage, at least not when factored against the dificulty installing and its increase in price.
I beg to differ, the R99 is viable for alot of boats here and is obviously the one this poster chose. If that is the case the Furuno will run flat over a 256 at 1Kw, no contest. I fish on a big boat that has the FCV-1100 (Standalone version of the ETR-30N (BBF-3) balck box and 10" screen) with 2Kw ducer. Incredible is about the only way to describe it. This boat is kinda late to install, but my next boat will DEFINITELY have this setup.
Raymarine vs Furuno 
