new gps ...furuno or lowrance ??

ok , so my gps units could do with an upgrade

currently I am running two ,,original is a Furuno ,with about 800 + waypoints still works well , but id like to have a bigger screen , colour etc and upgrade it as the screen lettering is starting to fade

second unit I acquired a few years ago with a boat buy is a hummingbird , its colour and works well ,has about 675 waypoints on it

so I have always had good life with no hassles from the Furuno , so I was thinking to upgrade with Furuno … it will likely be a gps, sounder combo … but ill only be wanting to run it as a full gps as I have a good Furuno 620fcv, with a 2kw transducer that does all I need

so talking to a few peeps , some are advising to go with Lowrance ? , as Furuno are exy and Lowrance will be better value and make better gps ??

to date iv not done a lot of research , been too busy ……

so who runs what and why ?? looking for feedback on the both as just gps units ??

price range is around the 2-2.5 k mark ?

what peoples thoughs on either ? have you got either and what are the differences for the gurus to chime in with ??

hezzy

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OFW 11

evil flourishes when good men do nothing

 


Tim's picture

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Date Joined: 26/09/06

Size

Mon, 2018-09-03 20:09

 

How big a screen do you want? Would a Gp-1971F work?

hezzy's picture

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Date Joined: 27/11/09

that's about the size id be

Mon, 2018-09-03 20:21

that's about the size id be wanting tim yeh

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evil flourishes when good men do nothing

 

Tim's picture

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Date Joined: 26/09/06

Setup

Mon, 2018-09-03 21:00

 

Would make a good setup and fits in your budget.

Compatible with your sounder too which allows for backup.

Jackfrost80's picture

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I run a HDS7 Gen 3 next to my

Mon, 2018-09-03 20:31

I run a HDS7 Gen 3 next to my Furuno as a dedicated plotter and I love it. Touch screen plus hard buttons and very easy to use to toggle through the menu options. BCF had the HDS7 Carbon for $1119 last week.

Downside is the your 620 won't send waypoints to the Lowrance without installing a Markfish

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Simrad

Mon, 2018-09-03 20:39

 Hi hezzy 

I have a simrad nss7 with a FCV588 and it’s great, easy to use. I got it as a gps but put a p66 on it for track back to mark spots instead of setting up a mark fish. You cans still use all the lowrance accessories with the simrad aswell

Posts: 45

Date Joined: 15/09/15

.

Mon, 2018-09-03 20:37

.

Posts: 75

Date Joined: 22/07/10

 Check out the Raymarine

Tue, 2018-09-04 12:51

 Check out the Raymarine Axioms. i have had mine for 6 months now and loving it

sea-kem's picture

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 Lowrance all the way for me

Tue, 2018-09-04 13:42

 Lowrance all the way for me for GPS, way to user friendly.

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hezzy's picture

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which model do you have

Tue, 2018-09-04 14:39

which model do you have andrew ?

furuno historically have had the better quality electronics imo , but lowrance do seem to have easy functionality

im also interested if i can sinc my 620fcv in to a new furuno combo ?

hoping to catch a tech guru at boatshows coming up

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OFW 11

evil flourishes when good men do nothing

 

Jackfrost80's picture

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Aye Hezza. Furuno use a

Tue, 2018-09-04 15:01

Aye Hezza. Furuno use a different sentance for waypoint data and Lowrance won't recognise. You can sync a Lowrance to the Furuno so that it sends GPS and you can use your 620s mark function but it won't send the waypoint data back to the Lowrance. To do that you need a Markfish which gets the two talking together www.chsmith.com.au/Products/Markfish.html and I can now send depth, temp and waypoints to my Lowrance with it.

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Officially off the Pies bandwagon

hezzy's picture

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apparently if I go the Furuno

Tue, 2018-09-04 17:38

apparently if I go the Furuno combo , I can direct cable it to the fcv 620, and use the mark function direct to the chart plotter , it can also use a ''wifi type app to a Furuno radar , no cable ,,, ? so im told today ..

so Furuno is looking an easy fit option ,

hezzy

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OFW 11

evil flourishes when good men do nothing

 

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 Earth2ocean  can download

Tue, 2018-09-04 18:29

 Earth2ocean  can download your marks out of the old furuno plotters for a small fee and convert them to suit your new plotter. Saves a few days of transferring them manually

Jackfrost80's picture

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Yep no issues with Furuno

Tue, 2018-09-04 18:53

Yep no issues with Furuno units talking to each other and  I looked at the same option when I upgraded but at the time the 1817 only ran CMAP charts so something to keep an eye out for if you have/prefer Navionics charts.

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Tim's picture

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Yep

Tue, 2018-09-04 20:15

 your Furuno sounder will connect to the new units

sea-kem's picture

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 I've got a HDS9 Gen 2 touch

Tue, 2018-09-04 19:05

 I've got a HDS9 Gen 2 touch Mike but as a stand alone GPS. I run a Furuno 585 as Main sounder,  reckon I've got the best of both worlds there. I recently transfered all the waypoints from that GPS to the new one going in the project boat very simple I did it before drinking one beer lol.

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little johnny's picture

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Agree with sea kem

Tue, 2018-09-04 15:04

lowrance very user friendly .easy screen to see. Easy menu system

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Date Joined: 06/09/09

 Yep I’m with seakem and

Tue, 2018-09-04 18:07

 Yep I’m with seakem and little Johnny. Been runnin a old HDs just upgraded to HDs Carbon  12 and this thing is ridiculously good easy to use. Plus it runs Navionics which in my option is way better than c-maps

sea-kem's picture

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 Navionics are bloody

Tue, 2018-09-04 19:07

 Navionics are bloody brilliant as well as their online support. I managed to pick up a second hand gold card of here for my second unit for half price. 

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Don't F$%^# about, get

Tue, 2018-09-04 19:10

Don't F$%^# about, get Furuno. New ones do navionics or cmap im pretty sure.

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little johnny's picture

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Never played with furuno

Tue, 2018-09-04 19:39

Maybe easy unsure.? Still run jrc sounder Navman/ lowrance gps . Little Andy furuno all the way. It's what your happy with I guess.i like simple:)

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 I was pretty keen on the new

Tue, 2018-09-04 20:14

 I was pretty keen on the new Furuno but was told only takes c-maps. Def Furuno for sounder / Lowrance for plotting

Fish_Hunter's picture

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lowrance plotter > furuno sounder

Wed, 2018-09-05 06:40

 from a lowrance owner who wishes he had a furuno sounder. I run a HSD 12 gen 3 but still wish i had 2 screens 

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Belly Fish's picture

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Moved from a Lowrance GlobalMap to HDS Carbon

Wed, 2018-09-05 12:37

...and I'm a little disappointed.

I customised a lot of screens on my GlobalMap, but whilst it is easy to do on the Carbon, there are obvious fields missing. For example, it is not possible to add Time to Destination or Estimated Arrival Time to your customised screens. Time to destination is on the default steer page, but ETA is nowhere to be seen. I use these a fair bit when travelling, so it's a huge omission in my mind. Lowrance support desk couldn't help :-(

ChopChop's picture

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Hezzy. Where did you land?

Sun, 2019-03-10 18:28

I am weighing up options similar to you. Looking at Furuno 1971 as main sounder with a smaller seperate Lowrance for GPS Plotter. Prefer separate units. Keen to hear from others who have done the same.

 

 

 

ChopChop's picture

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Date Joined: 17/01/15

Hezzy. Where did you land?

Sun, 2019-03-10 18:28

I am weighing up options similar to you. Looking at Furuno 1971 as main sounder with a smaller seperate Lowrance for GPS Plotter. Prefer separate units. Keen to hear from others who have done the same.

 

 

 

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Garmin all the way 

Sun, 2019-03-10 20:55

Garmin all the way 

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Furuno

Mon, 2019-03-11 13:14

the new furuno gps units are awesome rate them better then lowrance. I run mine as a god and sounder next to my 588. 

ChopChop's picture

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Thanks mate. What model? What charts does it run?

Mon, 2019-03-11 13:58

I liked Navionics on my last sounder but used c map before that and rated it also. Not as much detail up north, but was 10 years ago.

same on Garmin, seperateknob. What models and what charts?

Budget is 2.5-3k.