Which Plotter

[skippa]

Time to upgrade the old lowrance hand held gps, just too small to read on a bumpy sea. Would love to hear any feedback from current owners of chart plotters. Plus which charts are better.

Partial to lowrance products atm, had many sounders (and the old gps too) so have good knowledge of the lowrance menus etc

Thanks guys,
Tony

[ianspain]

Hey, Im new to boating so cant offer an expert opinion, but i just bought a lowrance 3500c with full east coast maps from Bias boating at Tingalpa and i am well pleased with the unit. It offers about the best resolution of anything in the price range, and even a novice like me has been out in the bay a few times using it and returned home safely!!..Dont know if this is any help to you mate...ps..anyone spots a little blue/white haines half cab bobbing about off wynnum/manly..feel free to pop over and show a pom how to fish!!
Regards
Ian

[skippa]

Thanks Ian,

Actually thats the unit I was looking at 2. Went to Bias at tingalpa today but they had closed, bugger >

If ya don't mind how much was the unit?

If I see ya on the water I'll give ya a yell

Thanks,
Tony

[HOOKLINEnSINKER]

iam looking for a unit as well. so rang around for the model i want a gps/sounder garmin 178c. but they all have the same fixed price and costs 600 bucks less if i get it in the states. so if i were you and you have a price limit , go via the states youll get double your moneys worth. one of them said if it breaks i have to send it to the states to get fixed...who cares at a $600 saving i could get someone local to fix it and still save loads. good luck daniel

[skippa]

Yeah thanks Daniel,

Considering all options at the moment. A few of the guys here buy direct from the states, will have to investigate a bit further. Still like the lowrance tho.

Who have you gone thru and what are the pitfalls I should be aware of?

Cheers,
Tony

[longtail]

tony ,

i have a navman 5110i chart plotter , very happy with it easy to use and read and good detail on the map. when i see ya next come over and have a look.

cheers
jason

pic of my unit

[Daintreeboy]

I've heard the navionics chart system they use now (instead of Cmap which they used to have) comes in a distant third to Cmap (Navman among others) and BlueChart (Garmin). Because of this and the fact I've seen Moffy's Garmin GPSMAP 172C in action, I got my brother to get that over a Lowrance. Garmin appear to have one of the best reputations around for reliability also. You should be able to pick one up with external aerial for around 1200 bucks including chart of your area.
Cheers, Mark.

[dazza]

hi tony,
will be watching this thread with interest. currently looking for a new gps. will probably stick with garmin as the software seems very user frendly. very easy to upload marks etc. and reasonably priced. havent had a play with other brands yet.
will be interested to see what people recon
cheers
dazza

[skippa]

Thanks Jase,

Yeah I'll certainly love to have a look, like something simple to use. what sort of price would I be looking at for the Navman?

Thanks Mark,

I don't know much about the plotters, thats why I thought I'd ask here, to get some 'non salesman' advice before I started hunting around the shops. Just thought of the lowrance first because I've used their products and familiar with the menus etc.

Dazza,

Have you bought from overseas or just local?


Cheers,
Tony

[longtail]

tony , the black and white unit like mine will set you back around $1000 with the colour unit a couple hundred bucks more.

navman website - http://www.navman.com.au

cheers
jason

[Tony_N]

MODIFIED

I've deleted this post because I decided it was pretty hard to understand (poorly written). #I think I've done a better job of explaining what I was on about in another thread in ELECTRONICS :

MOTION TREND VECTORS ON GPS UNITS


thanks

Tony

[ianspain]

Thanks Ian,

Actually thats the unit I was looking at 2. Went to Bias at tingalpa today but they had closed, bugger #>

If ya don't mind how much was the unit?

If I see ya on the water I'll give ya a yell

Thanks,
Tony #

Tony

I got my lowrance 3500c plus the full east coast map from Bias at tingalpa for $1300 on the nose. Like i said, im a complete novice, but the high resolution won me with this unit. The guys at Bias were real helpful so it was informed choice.

Ian

[hempy]

Tony

I got my Navman 5110i for $699 from whitworths a month or so back

Hempy

[bazzaman]

garmin 172c and i cant fault it, very easy to use and plot points !! Highly reccommended!!


Shane

[vertico]

have to agree with shane