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Posts: 284
| I would like to purchase a GPS this spring but haven't decided what to buy yet. Are there any porable units that will accept navionics chips? I don't know if I need the chips because I usually fish the same water but it would be nice to have I suppose. If not what is the best for the money in either case. I don't need a 7 inch screen with high definition color graphics but like I say for the money waht would you buy? Lets say I wanna keep it around $500 so we have some where to start from. Then is buying a $500 dollar unit a waste of money? Should I just save my money and get the best. Oh yeah I also need a new sonar becasue my lowrance x65 is a piece. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I have the Garmin 76CS and really liked it prior to getting a less portable (but I made it portable) Lowrance 522iGPS. I got the lake maps for my 76CS and it is a hand held unit for about $400 or less. You can get them on eBay for a lot less used. These are color, have tracking, zoom, etc... The thing is taht might anoy you is that you have to load on the lake(s) you want to visit. Was not a problem for me though. Just plug it in to the computer before I left and loaded on the lake. I put it up by me at all times so I coudl see the depth map and it was very nice. My Lowrance iGPS blows it away though for screen, all maps loaded, etc but it does not fit in my pocket. I took a speed bag and make a stand for it for portable reasons and ice fishing. Hope this helps.
James |
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Posts: 10
Location: WI | If you're looking for just a GPS unit that is not a fishfinder take a look at the Lowrance Xog. It's their new road-trail-water GPS unit. It does turn-by-turn directions and takes the lake map chips. A friend of mine bought one about two months ago and loves it. He just got back from a trip to MN for ice fishing and he said it worked great.
I've seen it online for $250 without a lake map chip.
http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Automotive/XOG/ |
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Posts: 726
Location: Eau Claire, WI | The lowrance 520c seems like a pretty good unit. I have a 332 and I've been happy with that. Had one issue on my first one but lowrance took care of me. The people I know w/ 520s have been happy and no issues that I've heard of. The 520 is what I am purchasing for my next ride. You can make an aluminum bracket for the puck so it's very easy to make it portable - either use a small batt like you would for a vex or use the 12v cig adapter.
I have an ifinder H20 monochrome - it's OK as a back up but you don't get the zoom resolution with the chips that you get in bigger better units and the screen is a little small. That said though, I made it around LOTW for days without a depth finder using only an ifinder and a map. So it will do the job. I had been up there before though so I did have some experience with the water which helped too. I would recommend the color version of ifinder over the monochrome. I chose monochrome because this is only my back up and decided to save a little $$. I am happy with that decision based on its intended use. Maybe the newer versions of ifinders will zoom better too, I don't know.
The 520s cost about $650 I think? so a little more than what you want to spend but you get color, can use chips, its a gps and a sonar unit. so you have some flexibility and can grow into it should your needs change in the future.
Jono
Edited by Jono 2/27/2008 11:41 AM
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Best GPS