New GPS system for the boat.

Hey guys,

Looking for some recommendations on a new GPS system for the boat. Right now, I only have a depth finder. I am not filmiliar with the waters that I am going to be in this year. Looking for something that will possibly plan a route for me, etc... Top of my budget is 800 but I'd like to get closer to 500. I have heard Garmin can be a rip off but looking for suggestions and Pros Cons!

Thanks in advance!

Re: New GPS system for the boat.

kylejb2663 said:

I have heard Garmin can be a rip off

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Where did you hear this from? From a Lowrance or Hummingbird Salesman?

I have in excess of $2K of Garmin products on the boat. I've not had a any problems with the equiptment and their customer service, when needed, is second to none.

Re: New GPS system for the boat.

dingbat said:

Where did you hear this from? From a Lowrance or Hummingbird Salesman?

I have in excess of $2K of Garmin products on the boat. I've not had a any problems with the equiptment and their customer service, when needed, is second to none.

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I heard it from a salesman from Garmin. I called up their Marine Department to find out how their GPS systems work and he told me "They mainly focus on Automotive GPS systems" and he was extremely vague with the systems, he said they are basically way point systems and are not meant to navigate a route for you. After that I had a sour taste in my mouth because when I asked if they can integrate with AIS, the phone went quite.

I then heard from my friend who switched from Garmin to Lowrance merchandise that Garmin charges a lot for map updates and their XM Radio/Weather add on is an additional cost of 500-600 dollars just for a receiver which is almost the cost of a GPS unit itself.

However, if you have better info on their products, I would like to hear which one you would recommend and why and which add-ons you would recommend.

Re: New GPS system for the boat.

By the way, in no way did I mean to disrespect Garmin... Don't get me wrong, I use their products on the Cessna 172 for the glass cockpits and they are great!

Re: New GPS system for the boat.

The guy you talked to at Garmin was an idiot. Are you sure it wasn’t the janitor answering the phone after hours?

The auto-routing feature is a part of the Bluechart Vision software. You enter your keel depth and your overhead clearance requirements and the software generates the shortest route between two points taking the keel depth and height into consideration. It is not perfect but it work in most instances.

Garmin AIS is a black box. The AIS 600 is a send receive unit while the AIS 300 is receive unit only. I run an AIS 300 on the boat.

Funny, a Lowrance user would complain about charts costs. Most of the Garmin units come with a detailed set of maps (Bluechart G2) whereas you have to buy them separately for a Lowrance unit. The last time I checked, a Garmin update was cheaper than buying a set of Navionics Gold charts for the Lowrance unit.

With Garmin you get 1 free update within 6 months of purchase. After that, you get 30% off the cost of the new chip by exchange. With Navionics you get unlimited updates for one year. Navionics does not give an update price on their website

The Garmin and Lowrane charge pretty much the same (~$129) for their XM antennas. The Garmin standalone XM balckbox is $250. I'm not aware that Lowrance even offers a stand alone BB for comparison

I have auto-routing, AIS and a remote control from my 4208 Chartplotter. If I had it to do over again I would have gone with 5208 with the touch screen.