Garmin vs Lowrance

[Big Kahunaz]

went and checked 'em out at west marine today.....i wish they'd make these things as a complete package with the maps inland and coastal....garmins don't come with a set ducer and you have a choice of inland or coastal maps and the basic map of the opposite of choice is just a yellar outline of a lake....not even basic info. Lowrance...i really like the sonar imaging..........eh..........think im just gonna flip a coin on this one and let heads or tails make my decision!

[bluewing]

Originally Posted by Big Kahunaz

anyone have a 531s for inland lakes? I'm thinking that it will be best option to have the inland lakes detailed....really don't need super detail on coastal waterways...just basic areas for waypoints and what not. Can anyone chime in on this opinion********

I have the 545s, your coastal maps will pick up everything you need in big lake

[Montauk17]

Garmin if you do not care much about a good sonar. Lowrance if you want a good sonar. I prefer Garmin,much better customer service and user friendly.

[Big Kahunaz]

That's what the gentleman was telling me today....said lowrance is a pain to get anything from. I suppose i can give the garmin a shot...if i don't like it ill just pawn it off. Gonna go with the 531s (inland) with the coastal sd card. Surely the sounder is good enough right? easy to distinguish hard bottom from mud, and grass?

[Montauk17]

Originally Posted by Big Kahunaz

That's what the gentleman was telling me today....said lowrance is a pain to get anything from. I suppose i can give the garmin a shot...if i don't like it ill just pawn it off. Gonna go with the 531s (inland) with the coastal sd card. Surely the sounder is good enough right? easy to distinguish hard bottom from mud, and grass?

Lowrance customer service sucks! We were installing a hds-10 in a bass boat with the structure scan and down imaging. Ran into some problems with black lines on the screen. They kept us on hold for almost 30 mins just to tell us he got a bad unit and needed to be shipped off. Come to find out it was just the wrong transduser selected in the settings.

[Big Kahunaz]

Originally Posted by cmdrost

I had lots of experience with both.......Garmin seems more user friendly with the touch screen options, but both are nice. I currently own a Lowrance. Would like to upgrade though to either the Lowrance HDS 8 or Garmin 740s

What unit are u running and how much u wanna sell it for?

[cmdrost]

Originally Posted by Big Kahunaz

What unit are u running and how much u wanna sell it for?

Really have no clue what a used one would go for??