Garmin 75sv or lowrance hds7 gen III
Hi everyone
chasing some input from anyone on here who has either a Garmin 75sv or lowrance hds 7 or 9 gen III.
about to bite the bullet and upgrade from an elite 5 chirp and wanting to get some feedback either good or bad of either of the proposed units.
I hear the the garmins have good mapping features and are pretty user friendly, however the lowrance has built in wifi to connect to iPad ect, as well as touch screen and the ability to upgrade maps easier.
I will be using it as more of a fish finder / sounder than anything and maximum depths would be 80m or so and prodominately saltwater fishing. Both units have side scan and down scan chirp function, however the lowrance uses 2 seperate transducers instead of garmin's 1.
Final question is, if I end up going the Garmin, can I leave my elite 5 chirp transducer in place and run 2 transducers side by side? Or will that just send back the wrong signal to the wrong transducer and throw the whole lot into chaos?
Any feedback or or hands on experience / thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
scano
.thumbnail.jpg "Tim and Belly manning the decks")
Yewiefish85
Posts: 795
Date Joined: 02/01/11
Not too sure if I'm 100%
Not too sure if I'm 100% correct but from what I have been reading (upgrading from mark5 to hook 7) it appears that with a HDI transducer there is no need for 2 transducers as the HDI functions as both traditional and downscan, hope this is the case as I don't want to run 2 transducers on my boat
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
That may be the case
But those transducers are mainly only much good for very shallow water. The lss2 transducer is mainly for the side and down scanning and doesn't cope too well in depths beyond 30m. For depths beyond that the more traditional 83/200 transducer needs to be used to get a descent interpretation of the bottom. That's my understanding of it all anyway.
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
Hey yewiefish
Any particular reason for going for the hook 7? As I read into them they are basically a glorified elite 7 anyway.
Yewiefish85
Posts: 795
Date Joined: 02/01/11
The unit I ordered comes
The unit I ordered comes with a 83/200/455/800 HDI transducer, is this what you are referring to above?, the reason I decided to go the hook is that it is going in a 4.2m dinghy, and the only reason for the upgrade is I need the plotter, not sure if a HDs would be any better for me or not but the hook ticked all the boxes I need
Yewie
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
Fair enough
That transducer should cover all the bases in the one unit then. The problem for me is the hds units run 2 seperate transducers (might be because the hook series is the latest release).
so getting back to my original query. Anyone got a hds 3 lowrance or Garmin 75sv? And can give some feedback on either unit?
quest
Posts: 248
Date Joined: 03/08/15
Lowrance 9" gen 3
Hi Scano
I have the lowrance 9" gen3 and love it. It's super easy to use and have all the cool functions anyone could want. The touch screen works awesome and if the weather gets rough i go back to using the buttons. I've got mine hooked up to the lowrance auto pilot and its the best thing ever. As for Garmin, I can't comment much but have heard good things. Hope this helps.
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
Thanks questy
does your hds9 use 2x seperate transducers? So an 83/200 transducer and an lss2? I presume they have to be mounted separately? And not on the same mounting plate?
cheers
scano
bleicester
Posts: 219
Date Joined: 10/09/14
2 separate transducers
One for CHIRP/Broadband sonar, one for StructureScan (LSS-2 or 3D StructureScan). For downscan overlay to work properly you should mount them side by side no more than a foot apart with structure scan unit lower in the water than any other protruding objects (trim tabs, other transducers etc) to avoid those objects blocking some of the side-scan signal.
Here's the manual for the Gen3 if it helps
www.lowrance.com/Root/Lowrance-Documents/HDSGen3/US/HDS_GEN3_IM_EN_988-10733-001_w.pdf
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quest
Posts: 248
Date Joined: 03/08/15
What he said
Bleicester is correct. It uses two transducers. I use my Lowrance mainly for gps and use Furuno for sounder. I think structurescan is pretty cool but only works in shallow water while travelling very slow (like 5 knots and under). Furuno out performs Lowrance by far as a sounder, but Lowrance is an easy to use top quality gps in my opinion.
ginodan
Posts: 37
Date Joined: 04/09/14
Save your money mate and buy
Save your money mate and buy a Furuno you won't regret it
mw87
Posts: 123
Date Joined: 20/07/11
Final decision?
Hi Scano,
I'm in the same position as you were, looking at the 75sv chirp or hds.
What was your final call? Bang for buck I'm finding the garmin hard to resist, however they haven't exactly been given a huge wrap in the past and I can't find much user feedback on the new models...
Any feedback from yourself?
mw87
Posts: 123
Date Joined: 20/07/11
Double post
.
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
Ended up going the Garmin
best bang for buck and seems to do everything I need it to
scano
upg
Posts: 137
Date Joined: 25/06/07
Gday scan of How's your
Gday scano
How's your garmin unit going?
Happy with the purchase?
Torn between a fcv628 and a 75sv chirp
Nimbin 157
Posts: 130
Date Joined: 03/05/10
Ive got the Garmin 95sv
Ive got the Garmin 95sv chirp. Built in nav charts plus quickdraw contours mapping (google it) good structure and down scan and the traditional sonar is great. Recommend geting the splash guard for the transducer for few extra bucks.
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
Yeah the Garmin is going good
To be honest though I am not using the new boat anywhere near as much as I would have liked. A few things have changed and I might be looking to put it on the marketin the near future. Wanting to buy a better 4wd and then probably just a basic 12 foot tinnie. But in summary the sounder and gps Combo has been great.
Scano