Lt.mike

Been shopping for a new fishfinder and finally got to work with various makes and models at Westmarine.
The stand out for me is the Lowrance Elite 9Ti 2 .
The Faruno I have now came with the 20’ Grady I bought some 7 years ago and I never did fully learn to use it properly. That’s a 2002 manufactured unit so pretty much all of those I looked at were a huge improvement but two units I went over the Simrad Go9 and the Lowrance elite 9ti2 (both made by Navico) were so much easier for me to understand and operate. The touch screen and operation of both are like using my iPhone. In 10 minutes of fiddling with them I had them figured out. It’s been put to me that the Lowrance is more for inshore and Simrad offshore. The Lowrance has something they call “fish reveal” which looked good on the simulator but ya, that’s the simulator.
Taking that with a grain of salt.
Now my main targets are stripers and Fluke and I’m not going offshore in a 20’ boat. Lowrance seems to be the choice.
So is there anyone who has an Elite 9 and can tell me what their take is on it?
How the side scan is on it?

sams

I have an elite 7ti, which I have used chasing fluke, stripers and many other fish. I think your assessment is pretty accurate. It is a good and functional all in one machine that does a good job of all the things it is supposed to do. The only thing I would change is that i would prefer to have the 9" screen instead of 7", but, it sounds like you have that covered.

sam

Lt.mike

I was going for a 7” screen but there’s a $200 difference between the two I I’ve thought there’s been times I’ve pissed that much money away not being able to account for it so I’m just going for it now. Won’t need reading glasses for the 9” screen.
Thanks for your input.
I’ll probably grab it first sale on labor day though the best would probably be for Black Friday (or whatever their calling it this year) but I’d like to have it on the boat to chase fall stripers.

jdps150

went from a garmin 7in to a Simrad 12 in when we got our new boat
bite the bullet & get the largest screen that would fit.

Lt.mike

Yes that’s what I thought and that’d be the 9”.
My boat is a Grady Overnighter 20’, it has to be on the left of the helm. The unit I have now is overall 9” wide and the Lowrance 9Ti is 10-1/2”.
The 12” would look like a drive in on the helm.
heres 2 pics that show the position of the Faruno. That’s really my only option.

going2fast

I have that unit. So far I love it but I've only had it about a month. The side scan is awesome. I striper fish the potomac. I highly recommend getting a navonics chip as the base mape are very basic. My boat has no bracket and the transducer is mounted to the starboard side of the engine. I get engine noise on the port side of the side scan if I'm going over 4 mph which makes it unable to read that side. That's my only gripe so far. If you have a bracket you shouldn't have a problem. Thinking of moving it directly under the engine and see if that helps but hate drilling holes in the transom.

Lt.mike

Thanks, my motor hangs directly on the transom too.
I took a quick pic of my boat to showing the transducer mounting position.
The mounting tips I’ve seen say to mount the transducer 1/8-1/4” below the transom. I also run with my motor trimmed slightly raised. Maybe that will help

Relocator

I've had the Lowrance Elite ti 9in for 2yrs now.
This unit has been great for us. Wish I would've gotten the 12in for when you have the split screens, but the 9in works fine.
I went with 2 separate transducers connected with a Y cable. The side scan/down scan transducer loses it at 4-5 mph. The traditional transducer for normal sonar holds bottom over 30mph. I mounted the long one in the dead center of the hull, and the traditional one 2-3ft to the starboard side.
The side scan works great for pinpointing structure (you can tap the side scan screen and save a waypoint) and it also works great for locating bunker when they're not showing on the surface.
I don't think you can go wrong with this unit.

Lt.mike

I didn’t realize the unit lost sonar at higher speeds but a lot depends on mounting position.
Here are two pages from the mounting instructions for a Lowrance/Simrad transducer. What’s of interest...
First page : transom mount second page operating speed.