Sonar/GPS

[harvey lee]

I have a friend that is looking for a sonar/gps for his boat. He fishes a couple times a year. I may suggest a 522 Lowrance to him but, what would be the like model, same options but with somewhat bigger screen?

Try to keep it under $1,000.00

Thanks

[Ralph Wiggum]

The LCX-27C (and LCX-28C HD) has a 7" screen and the LCX-37C (and LCX-38C HD) has a 8.4" screen.

[Hotspotter]

LCX-27 from Lowrance, as I'm in the same boat (pun intended). It's on sale now at most places (must be coming out with a new similar sonar/GPS) at about $150 off the typical $1k retail. 7" screen as opposed to the 5", with all the same features. Anything bigger, you're looking in the $1200-1500 range.

Could also put together two units, a Globalmapper with a 5" or 7" screen for GPS, and a smaller color unit at 5" for about the same price. Almost twice the screen for the same money if you have the console space and don't need to have both sonar and GPS in the same unit.

I initially purchased a used X102C to be coupled with the GlobalMapper 7200C, but I'm interested in utilizing the sonar log file output from the combo unit to derive custom mapping products. IMO screen size matters, and would I be able to afford a combo unit with a larger screen, I would be going that route.

Joel

[PerchJerker]

 Originally Posted By: jnelson

Could also put together two units, a Globalmapper with a 5" or 7" screen for GPS, and a smaller color unit at 5" for about the same price. Almost twice the screen for the same money if you have the console space and don't need to have both sonar and GPS in the same unit.

That's what I did in my boat, separate color sonar and gps units with 5 inch screens. I'm very happy with my setup and RAM mounts hold them up under all but the roughest of conditions, but that gets tougher to do as you get larger units.

[JohnMickish]

I have two units and wouldn't go to a single unless it's the 11.4" screen, but for that price you can have to 7" screens. If you do go with two screens it's my opinion that you should not have anything smaller than a 7" map. You can get by with a much smaller sonar since you mostly just use a 1/2 inch of the screen anyways.

[hanson]

I've got a LMS-334 (internal GPS) and I always thought the screen would be too small but its never really been an issue. I think I picked it up for $500 at Reeds right before the new versions came out.

Because we all want "more", "more", "more", I've been playing with the idea of adding another small unit, either flasher or GPS. Which would be either a Lowrance x510c ($450) for a flasher or a Globalmap 5300c iGPS ($499). Both units will be on the dash.

Anyway... for those of you running 2 small units, which combo would you go with and why?

I for the life of me can't figure out how to run my LMS-334 without the transducer hooked up to it. If you unhook the transducer, the GPS function defaults into DEMO mode which doesn't do you much good. Because of this, I've been leaning towards running the LMS-334 in full graph mode and picking up the Globalmap for GPS function. The Globalmap could then be used in my truck or on the snowmobile as well in the winter.

Anyway, going with this option allows you to "grow" into some nice electronics without breaking the bank right off the bat.

If you want to pull the trigger once, I've seen the Lowrance X-27 for $750 recently which is a heck of a deal. All other Lowrance options will put you over $1000 very easily.

[LMITOUT]

I really like my LMS-520 and LCX-28cHD. They are side by side and I let the 520 take the GPS duties while the larger screen on the 28 does the sonar work. If you're on a budget I think two 520's would do the job fine, but if you were to limit it to one unit the 27 or 28 would be OK too. I had that initially and used the split screen for GPS/Sonar, but decided to add the 520 to get a bigger GPS view for trolling and running.