Humminbird 898 and 998

[Covey]

I'm leaning towards buying an 898 SI. What comes with the unit? I've been told a transducer comes with it but is it a sufficient one or does a person need to upgrade. Do I need mounting brackets?

Other than a lake Map chip that I know I need to purchase, what else do I need to plan on purchasing. This is a big investment and I want to be aware of all the add ons that I may need to get.

[Nick Kuhn]

The unit should come with everything you need except the map card. There should be a transducer, transducer mounting bracket, and some sort of console mounting system (I have a 798 so I'm not sure what this is for the larger units).

[delmuts]

Some memmory cards( to save you way points, and anything else). We had talked this over before and most felt the 4 gb is about right size.

Unless you're wiring from a fuse pannel, you will need an in-line fuse( i think my 798 si takes a 4 amp).

[JohnMickish]

If you buy it new, it will come with a

SI/DI transducer and mounting bracket

Fuse holder and fuse

"U" shaped mounting bracket

Sonar head unit

Antenna

Instructions

It won't come with

Lake map

Ram or stabil mount

Blank SD card

Network cables

Extra wire needed to get to the fuse panel

[katoguy]

If you have a high performance boat I would recommend getting a conventional transducer to glass in and a Y cable. (High performance boats usually will have the SI ducer on a jack plate that is out of the water when on plane.) The HB unit uses both ducers depending on what screen you are looking at.

(These aren't needed. I have a tin boat that just has the SI ducer hanging off the transom, but my glass boat is on the jackplate. The SI ducer is expensive and more protected up on the jackplate.)

[JohnMickish]

My glass boat has the transducer mounted under the pad in the back of the boat in front of the jackplate. I don't lose bottom until about 50MPH, but at that speed I'm looking more at the map than the sonar. Even if I did see something bad on the sonar at that speed it would be to late by the time I did anything about it. A shoot thru or mount thru transducer is a great option.

[kg2]

The thru-hull works fine on some Rangers that my friends own. (It didn't work out on my Skeeter due to the sponsons.)

If you purchase a SI unit and want to try the thru-hull version, HB will swap out the regular HD SI ducer with the thru-hull one at no charge if you send it to them.

[Covey]

Thanks for all of the info. A couple more questions does anyone think that it's worth an extra $500 to go to the 998? I know the bigger the screen the better, but $500 for an inch.

Also the Big C told me it would cost $90 to install the unit on my boat, is this worth it or should I do it myself? any thoughts?

[foo]

I did not think that extra inch was worth it for $500 but, I also run a HDS-7 beside the 898.

Also I had Cabelas in Rodgers rig it and am very pleased with the results of the mounting they did. I ended up lowering it an 1/8th of an inch so that it would read at 40 mph+.

[Kyhl]

I don't know the screen ratio that HB uses so I based this on 6:9.

A 7" 6:9 screen has an area of 20.7 sq in.

An 8" 6:9 screen has an area of 27.3 sq in.

In my book that is 31.9% more viewing area for that $500 inch. You have to ask yourself if $500 worth a third more screen?

[Nick Kuhn]

Depends on how sharp your eyes are: as the resolution is the same meaning an identical amount of information is displayed.

[foo]

I made my decision looking at them side by side. It sure didn't seem 31% bigger but, maybe it was. Go to the display in the store and buy what looks right to you.

I bought the HDS-7 for right around $500 this winter so, for me two screens and two different brands for the same price seemed like a better deal. You really cant go wrong with either the 898 or 998!

[JohnMickish]

I don't know the screen ratio that HB uses so I based this on 6:9.

A 7" 6:9 screen has an area of 20.7 sq in.

An 8" 6:9 screen has an area of 27.3 sq in.

In my book that is 31.9% more viewing area for that $500 inch. You have to ask yourself if $500 worth a third more screen?

Thats the way I see it. You will NEVER wish your screen was smaller.

[delcecchi]

[quote=mnfishinguy

Thats the way I see it. You will NEVER wish your screen was smaller.

[hanson]

I have an 1197 Bird on my console and would run 2 side by side if my dash had that kind of room.

Buy the biggest screen you can afford.

[Kyhl]

But you might wish your bank account was bigger...

You've got that right.

If my bank account was bigger I'd run a 8" GPS/Sonar split screen next to the downscan and sidescan splitscreen on my HDS-8.

[JohnMickish]

But you might wish your bank account was bigger...

Nobody said the stuff was cheap.