lowrance which one??

[james casteel]

your boat your money which would you get??? 332,334,337 or the 339 and with which chip for the best detail and zoom.. navionics premium or the fishing hot spots elite (i fish illinois inland lakes)???

i have heard on outher sites the DF transducers have lost of problems as well as the internal ant. have you heard this also??

thanks jim

 

[Greg Meyer]

Stay away from the internal antennas... Next, I would seriously look into two units.... separate GPS and Depth.... The history has been that upgrades don't match up at the same time....



Navionics for sure...

 

[TritonGlenn]

332C with the Navionics chip. It's the combo I'm running right now, and I love it.

All the best,

Glenn

 

[Jim B]

I have the sanme combo as Glenn and its great. I have had mine for two fishing seasons now. the 332c is a great unit.

 

[Stan Tallant]

This a great post. I haven't heard about antenna problems with the 334c but I have heard a lot of good things about the 332c. I noticed from the other post about where to mount a hand held GPS that it seems many of you have separate units. How serious is the upgrade issue? Are hand held screens big enough to use effectively?

 

[TritonGlenn]

Stan,

I think it all depends on where you mount the hand-held, how sharp your eyes are, and how good your concentration is. I have a Lowrance I-Finder Hunt + hand-held that I put in my truck, and if I'm on a bumpy road, it's hard to read it - it's mounted in a Ram mount on my dash. The same went for my old boat - I had a hand-held Lowrance unit - can't remember the model right now... but if I wasn't in absolutely calm water, I couldn't read the unit and drive safely at the same time. With my 332C mounted in the dash of my boat, it's right there in front of me - not slightly off to the side of my console like the hand held was. It also is a color unit that has a very sharp picture, and my eyes focus on it, and read it better, no matter what speed/water condition I am in. I much prefer the 332C mounted in dash over the hand held mounted to the side of my console. I also have aging eyes, so the larger display of the dash mount is better for me than the tiny screen of a hand-held.



On the issue of having seperate units - I've had seperate units before. They have pluses and minuses.



The plus side - If one unit breaks, you don't lose both capabilities - GPS and Sonar.



The minus side -

1) more room required,

2) more attention to focus back and forth between where you are driving, then sonar, then GPS, then back to where you are driving..... The one unit in the dash that is set up correctly - shows me where I am going, the depth in a DIGITAL readout (nobody is reading depth contours at 70mph anyway), speed, temp, etc.... at a glance to the dashboard. When I slow down, I am reading depth contours and bottom structure, as well as pinpointing my position - comes in real handy when checking out grassbeds.

3) costs - it's cheaper to buy one combo unit than two seperate units

4) battery drain - it's not a big factor, but running two units drains more power than one.



So my vote is a single combo unit in the dash. I still have my bow mounted sonar too.... so I'm never without. 332C gets my vote for the dash, with a 102C up front.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Jim B]

Yep i think Glenn pretty much nailed it.



Before i got my 332 i had a Garmin hand held on a Ram mount at the console. In rough water it was all but impossible to read.I have 20/20 vision so my eyes aret the proboem, the screen was just too small and when its shaking it made it tough. I used it that way for years before i upgraded to the 332. I like having them both in one unit and with the big color screen is very easy to read even in the rough stuff.

 

[james casteel]

thanks guys for all the info!!!! I ordered the 332c with a navionics chip and can't wait till it gets here. the 102c for the front is gunna have to wait till spring (i have a matrix 27 now).