lowrance hds 7m or furuno gp7000

[sjp2]

just about to order the furuno 7000 gps from the states when i recieved the new BIAS catalogue and can get the lowrance 7m plus a nav aus wide card for the same price ,have there been many issues with the new lowrance gps's , has the backup service improved because the price is certainly tempting also the detail on the furuno c map might be a small issue going by peoples opinions and chart favorites

[NEWBY]

just about to order the furuno 7000 gps from the states when i recieved the new BIAS catalogue and can get the lowrance 7m plus a nav aus wide card for the same price ,have there been many issues with the new lowrance gps's , has the backup service improved because the price is certainly tempting also the detail on the furuno c map might be a small issue going by peoples opinions and chart favoritesMate have a read through here at the many issues that the Lowrance HDS units are having then make up your own mind from there. There seem to be many issues, I have the HDS10 with althe fruit. So far GPS is the only thing that is workin properly...Radar mlfunctioning and sounder has had issues from day 1...Still not resolved after 3 months.

[sjp2]

Newby part of my thread did mention backup service and even though there is always 2 sides to a the story ,your reply certainly answers that question .,3 months :o

[honda900]

I have similar issues to Newby, particularly around the sounder, as newby has said my GPS also works faultlessly.

Having said that, you should be aware that grey imports are not covered by warrranty in australia, you will need to send them back to the states for warranty.

Reading between the lines of quite a few posts I have read on the subject, the American distributors / dealers as efficient as their aussie counter parts and in some cases much better.

following link is furuno's stance.

http://www.furuno.com.au/grey_imports/index.html


Regards
Honda.

[Teabag73]

I have 2 HDS units that have work faultlessly since purchase in May this year. I must admit I'm not a fan of the C-Maps which I had in my previous Navman but that's personal choice. Navionics charts are heaps more detailed IMHO......

[siegfried]

IMO the furuno gp7000 is a very average machine with ordinary mapping and graphics that is bloody expensive, I rate the old lowrance 7200 much higher and at less then half the cost. I have heard of a few hds sounder dramas down here but the plotters appear to be good ,They would only be better then the 7200 so you couldnt go wrong. Newby did you get a new transducer mate? Sounds like your copping a pizzlin 3months is pi$$ poor I reckon

[NEWBY]

IMO the furuno gp7000 is a very average machine with ordinary mapping and graphics that is bloody expensive, I rate the old lowrance 7200 much higher and at less then half the cost. I have heard of a few hds sounder dramas down here but the plotters appear to be good ,They would only be better then the 7200 so you couldnt go wrong. Newby did you get a new transducer mate? Sounds like your copping a pizzlin 3months is pi$$ poor I reckon
I am about to crack the big wobbly with Lowrance and when I do I am going to get all legal on thier arses and slander the living hell out of them.

Got a call from Darren from NZ on Friday, Finally....Darren is the big boss apparenly although he told me he looked after customer relations....Like they even exist????
Darren was reasonable competant at talking over the top of me and denying my request for them footing the bill to lift the boat out of the water until I actuall managed to get 3 words in between his ramblings. "Merchantable Goods Act" were the only 3 words I needed. An interesting act but unfortunately screws the dealer not the manufacturer. Loosley it means a reasonable expectation of quality or lifespan from a product relative to a price line. I told him that considering it hasn't worked from the start and I have already paid for it to come out once and I am NOT paying again, then Lowrance will be paying. As usual, he hid behind international policy of not doing that sort of thing etc etc... However asked me to send him pics of the problems and he will "see what he can do" so I know now that he will come back to me with the usual we will go halves" and I will tell them to "get F@#$ed" I have always had a way with words.
Once this is over, which could be a while, I will vent my disappointment in slanderous ways about their crap service and even crappier products.
Lowrance are about to pi$$ someone off they never should have pi$$ed off. Someone with knowledge of the law, a bad temper, a reputation for not taking $hit from anyone even the multinationals and someone with the means to make a hell of a difference. Thier lives are about to become hell. I havent had a good legal fight for a while...Times up.

[Seahorse]

Cant wait for outcome here.
Love the way u put things.
Hope it all goes well.
I have no doubt u will let us all know.


cheers
greg

[honda900]

Picture better than a thousand words. Lowrance HDS 8 with P79 transducer. I also have a transom mount both experiencing the same problems. Low & medium depth.

Although the first two look like they are working, Zoom in on the images and you will see that the brown, line in the black is missing.

Stick it to em Newby, other sites are starting to see the same problems at speed. slow or drift is fine. Crap, cost me 3k.

Regards
HOnda

At speed
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l269/honda900_uw/IMG_0614.jpg


At Speed
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l269/honda900_uw/IMG_0615.jpg

What is truly happening.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l269/honda900_uw/IMG_0616.jpg

[siegfried]

Hey mate, the left side looks like electrical interference, the other side perhaps too much gain, in 7-10 m of water you dont need as much boondy and you may be able to adjust the surface clarity to clean it up. Hope this helps. I run my sounder direct to the battery on a seperate fused line and use magnetic suppressors

[honda900]

Hey mate, the left side looks like electrical interference, the other side perhaps too much gain, in 7-10 m of water you dont need as much boondy and you may be able to adjust the surface clarity to clean it up. Hope this helps. I run my sounder direct to the battery on a seperate fused line and use magnetic suppressors

Siegfried,

I also have an interference problem, as per the pic below, the real issue is that the sounder is losing the bottom, as per the second image if you look closely in the red box you can see that the lighter brown lines are not consistent across the sounding. The software seems to automatically compensate for this and draws its best guess, the old colour scheme shows it up easily as gaps in the sounding. I have found that backing off the gain doesnt help that much, in the pictures I posted earlier you can see it it at -10% but so far I have found the best balance for clarity around the -4% mark.

Regards
Honda.

[fishmtb]

So i jumped on here tonight to see if the HDS reports had improved. 4 months ago I went to buy a HDS 7, quickly jumped online to check the reports before purchasing and saw a heap of negative comments with the odd "they are great". Looks like little has changed, guess i better dig the bias book out and have a look at what else is on offer. Sorry to Hijack your thread sjP2, it's just real disappointing

[Ally Jack]

Yep I was the same but looking at the HDS8 or Furuno 585...

I chose the 585 in the end, it might not be the absolute latest and greatest but way less problems with the system and/or service and I didn't want to spend $2500 on something that wasn't quite right

Ally Jack

[NQ-FISH]

mate i have a furuno 7000 & fcv585 in new boat had lowrance in old boat cannot fault 7000 or the sounder very impressed with both had a bit of trouble getting used to sounder but gps is excellent

[Getout]

Siegfried,

I also have an interference problem, as per the pic below, the real issue is that the sounder is losing the bottom, as per the second image if you look closely in the red box you can see that the lighter brown lines are not consistent across the sounding. The software seems to automatically compensate for this and draws its best guess, the old colour scheme shows it up easily as gaps in the sounding. I have found that backing off the gain doesnt help that much, in the pictures I posted earlier you can see it it at -10% but so far I have found the best balance for clarity around the -4% mark.

Regards
Honda.


Have you tried running max ping rate?

[sjp2]

since posting this thread i lost my fishing mojo and the boats been sitting in the shed collecting cobwebs,but after seeing a Furuno at bcf realised it too big for the console and also decided to look at the Raymarine range instead,nothing too bad said about them and they run the navonics card as well