Need help with buying new fishfinder/chartplotter combo

[Islander77]

I'm expecting a delivery of newly built boat next month (will be my first) and the boat comes with pre-installed Garmin Striker 7".

I'm thinking about removing the Striker straight away and selling it on eBay and buying myself something nicer/larger with chartplotter capabilities. I'm completely confused of what's on the market so ang help or advice is appreciated.

Will fish in Tasmania, mostly in 20-100 meters of water with occasional offshore trips (depth 200-2000m). Happy to spend anything between $1500 and $3500. Unfortunately dont have an opportunity to try these units in person in real action.

Choosing between:

-Garmin EchoMAP plus 95sv (comes with gt52 transducer) $1500
-Garmin GPSmap 952 $1900 + transducer (which?)
-Garmin GPSmap 1022 $2900 + transducer (which?)

-Furuno GP-1971f $2300 + transducer (which?)

-Simrad Go9 $1800 (includes totalscan transducer)
-Simrad Go12 $3100 (includes totalscan transducer)

-Raymarine Axiom 9 with RV100 transducer $2400
-Raymarine A128 with CPT-DVS trabsducer $3000

-Lowrance hds9 Carbon $3300 (not sure if comes with transducer)

If some of the units come without maps preinstalled - happy to pay for the Navionics package.

[Islander77]

Did some more research and shortlisted the following items:


-Garmin EchoMAP plus 95sv (comes with gt52 transducer) $1500
-Simrad Go9 $1800 (includes totalscan transducer), will also consider 12" model
-Simrad NSS Evo 3 $2600, possibly will go with 12" model as well.
- Or Lowrance hds9 or hds 12 Carbon

Did some research on charts and would definitely prefer Navionics Platinum Charts, I guess it eliminates Garmin then?

Is there much difference between Simrad Go and NSS Evo models?

How it compares to Lowrance Carbon series?

[Dignity]

Here's a way around the Garmin navionics issue. https://www.navionics.com/aus/go-boating/garmin-plotter
I guess all the units above will most probably do what you want, the most important part is the transducer, often the packaged transducers are rated to 300 metres or more but start to fade out around 100 metres in anything but perfectly flat seas. General rule of thumb for small pleasure craft used to be for sounders - furuno, although the Axiom is now up there, gps, radar - garmin. Having said that the others have now come ahead in leaps and bounds. I myself have found the refresh rate on Lowrance gps to be slower than the others but once again in recent times they may have improved., Simrad used to be high end expensive and for professionals but in recent years started filling in the gap, you really need to work out what you really need and match the transducer, eg side scan offshore is not worth it unless your targeting tuna.

The one thing you can be sure of in 2 years time your unit will be obsolete as all the manufacturers crank out new models with great new features.

[Andy56]

Here's a way around the Garmin navionics issue. https://www.navionics.com/aus/go-boating/garmin-plotter
I guess all the units above will most probably do what you want, the most important part is the transducer, often the packaged transducers are rated to 300 metres or more but start to fade out around 100 metres in anything but perfectly flat seas. General rule of thumb for small pleasure craft used to be for sounders - furuno, although the Axiom is now up there, gps, radar - garmin. Having said that the others have now come ahead in leaps and bounds. I myself have found the refresh rate on Lowrance gps to be slower than the others but once again in recent times they may have improved., Simrad used to be high end expensive and for professionals but in recent years started filling in the gap, you really need to work out what you really need and match the transducer, eg side scan offshore is not worth it unless your targeting tuna.

The one thing you can be sure of in 2 years time your unit will be obsolete as all the manufacturers crank out new models with great new features.

personally , i think the axiom 9 hits the sweet spot. Comes with a chart at that price point. Does everything the others do plus 3d. The lowrance equivalent is nearly $1000 more.

[ozscott]

Get the sv95 Plus touchscreen Garmin and get retailer to swap out the excellent for shallow water GT-52 with the deeper water Gt-51 and dont look back! If you are minded it will take the 1mhz trans and Panoptix. All of those set ups are fantastic. Once you use the slick touchscreen even in rain you won't go back (button assist with short cuts). The chartplotter is typically Garnin just so easy.

Cheers

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[Spaniard_King]

Garmin 952XS with TM185 1kw transducer.. in your budget and the most capable for your situation

if needed you can opt for the Garmin G2 Vision.

Garmin has bought Navionics so cant see navionics being better than their own card... what does navionics have that the g2 Vision dosnt

[Dignity]

Garmin 952XS with TM185 1kw transducer.. in your budget and the most capable for your situation

if needed you can opt for the Garmin G2 Vision.

Garmin has bought Navionics so cant see navionics being better than their own card... what does navionics have that the g2 Vision dosnt

Yep, Garmin bought them out 12 months ago,wondering why they are taking so long to have it as standard, even retrospectively. Islander, where abouts are you, Moose is in Victoria but others available if your in another state.

[chocolatemoose]

So Navionics data has slowly made its way into some garmin tech. Garmin made it clear that they were keeping it all seperate "much like CMAP and navico". ... though i have found that is now a lot more annoying to order cmap cards than it used to be so... i guess that aspect has changes. lol

Navionics had a lot better detail "in victoria" in rural areas and .... better in metro. we found garmin maps to have some really average layering in WPB. but... auto guidance is great. 3d is...... fun...

Garmin does produce some pretty good.... useable.. easy to work systems.

in many ways... you do get what you pay for

in others.. you dont. its a mine field! lol

[Islander77]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm in rural Tasmania. To my surprise just found out yesterday that there is a Whitworths store in Hobart. Hopefully they have these models on display - will go there wothin next couple days to check it out