new depth finder

[T AMBURGEY]

Its time to put a depth finder on my tracker up front, while puting on a new trolling motor the other day I noticed two spare wires up there is that what this is for, plus I only have room for two battries in back how will this affect it, any suggetions with brands would help not much room for alot up there, I have about a 1200 budget

 

[Jim B]

Yep those two wires are for a FF and it will run off the start battery so no worries there.



You can buy a lot of depth finder for $1200, actually thats a lot more then you need to spend on one for the front. I have a Humminbird 788c on the front of mine( i have a SI unit at the rear) and im totally inpressed with its performance. I paid somewhere ~600 at Three rivers marine for it. The 788 has GPS built in too so if thats not a concern the 778 i believe has no GPS and is a good bit cheaper. I highly recommend checking out the 700 line of humminbirds, all of them fit in under your budget.



One thing i cant recommend ans anything made by Lowrance at this point. My last one was a horror story and i demo'd a hds5 for about two days before i got so frustrated by its lack of performance that i returned it. They have lost my trust for sure.

 

[keith c]

lorance/eagle customer service is terrible. I will not be using them in the future.

 

[Dick Durbin]

I have a 788Ci at the console of my Tracker and a 778C at the bow. I would endorse either unit. The 788Ci has an internal GPS receiver. If you network the two together as I have done you will be able to see waypoints you have input on the 788 on the 778.



The waypoints will be displayed on a blank white screen on the 778 since it doesn't show maps. Whatever you choose to buy, include a Navionics card in your budget.

 

[TritonGlenn]

Jim B,

Sorry to hear that you had problems with your last Lowrance. Hopefully, they will win your trust back in the future.



keith c,

Who are you dealing with at Lowrance? I haven't heard that statement often, but I am sorry to hear that you had issues. Linda Colt is a fantastic person to deal with, and I have never heard a single complaint about her.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Jim B]

Glenn,

I think its going to take a long time for me to trust them again. I had way too many issues with my 520c. you may remember last summer when i was complaining about poor sonar performance. I sent that unit back more times then i can count for that as well as for other issues like water intrusion and networking that would not stay working. What really pushed me over the edge was when i was finally fed up with that 520c i got myself a new hds5 and put it on the bow and it worked no better then the 520 it replaced. There is absolutely no excuse for a $600 unit to not be able to mark a school of bait that i could see with my own eyes or not be able to pick up a sunken 5 gallon bucket. One call to lowrance and it was back to BPS it went. Like Keith said the CS was terrible, i never delt with Linda but the people i did deal with were either uninterested or extremely condesending.



The whole ordeal made me angry enough to drop close to 2k on new electronics. I made the switch to Humminbird im pretty darn happy i did. I finally have electronics that work like they should, i get sonar returns, no more random lockups, no more random gps module not responding on one unit or the other. i can actually use them in less then 10' of water, i can find a weed line or a transition from hard to soft bottom.... Plus i got SI and some really great free software to make the most of it. This was a switch i am so happy i made.

 

[TritonGlenn]

Jim B,

Glad to hear you have something that works for you now.

All the best,

Glenn

 

[Rich Eder2]

Glenn,I'm with you.I have never had a CS problem with Lowrance.And I have great performance out of the units I have.

 

[Dan Nevill]

Todd,



I have a Nitro 640LX. On the front I use a 728 or a 363 Humminbird unit and at the consule I have a 797SI2 unit. On the 797SI2 in have the transducer for imaging mount on the outdside back and a transducer in the boat gluded buy the drain. I also have a temp probe in my live well. All units are grat and have had no issues with them now for over two years, just the 728 condesates in the sun for a bit then clears up. I was told this is common when the seal has a leak. I'm impressed with the two front Black and White units and the detail they show. My SI unit is cool too. I have had great service and support from Humminbird and I recomend Humminbird all the way.



Dan

 

[Pierre Voisine]

 

[Pierre Voisine]

I traded in my lowrances for the Humminbirds. Can't go wrong with side imaging. the 797 is amazing. I originally wanted to wait for the lowrance SI's but after calling and sening them questions 5 times I received...nothing. So far Humminbird has been all over any of the questions I have had.

P

 

[FLsportsman]

I

 

[Humminbird Greg]

Not meaning to hijack your post here Todd, but wanted to help Doug out here if I can.





Doug, if the unit shows the bottom okay when at a lower speed or even when drifting than the problem could be that the transducer is starting to go bad, that it was not mounted properly to begin with, that the mounting of the transducer is starting to fail, or even motor interference.



If its motor interference you should see it on the display of the unit when you are drifting and rev the motor while out of gear to the same RPM level you see this at while on plane. If it causing the interference you should see it on the display.



The others are harder to troubleshoot for. Has it ever worked correctly while on-plane?

If so have you changed anything in the set-up of your boat or how it is loaded that would affect how the boat now rides across the water?

Was the transducer location tested at high-speed before it was installed?

Try adding some water to the inside of your hull (may have to disable the bilge pump for this) and see if that helps the readings any.





Greg Walters at Humminbird

 

[FLsportsman]

Hey Greg,

I placed it where the original Pro 128 Tracker (?) transducer was which doesn

 

[Jimmy Easterling]

While we are on the subject, I have two 520c's and haven't had any of the problems except: I left the one on the bow in a two day torrential down pour and it's innards got wet. I guess this is what Jim B was talking about, mine is 1 12 years old. I bought a HDS7 to replace it, now I have the X96 that came with the boat, one good 520c and the new HDS7. Where to put what? Leave the 520 in the dash and the HDS7 on the bow, x96 back in the dash, 520c on the bow and mount the HDS7 so I can see it when running, or just put the HDS7 on the bow and leave the x96 in the box where it is? Networking is not an issue because both 520's have independent ducers and antenna's.