20005 228 seafarer in need of new gps and depth finder. current unit OLD, still functioning {marginally} Replacement suggestions.

[wmassey9]

current Garmin unit OLD, still functioning {marginally}. Replacement suggestions. current unit OLD, still functioning {marginally} Replacement suggestions. Limited offshore, mostly near shore, rivers and sounds

 

[Father's Day]

I just got a RayMarine Element 9 this year and I am very happy with it, I fish a lot so my hands are not always the cleanest so I didn't want to touch screen. Good luck with your search.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

As mentioned in your other post in the other section... last summer I just replaced the 7" touchscreen Garmin that came with my boat when I bought it in October of 2021 with a Garmin 943xsv. It went belly up on me when I did an update on the software as well as upgrade the mapping on it. I personally am a Garmin fan and have been for sometime. There's a place here locally called Harbor Marine that has a good deal of Garmin, Simrad, Lowrance and other units for sale that I tried at the time and settled on Garmin. I personally think the 9" screen is a great happy medium for the boat, though I know that guys have gotten bigger 10"-12" screens, enclose the small electronics compartment behind the steering wheel with starboard and then flush mount them. I personally didn't want to go that route for a couple different reasons, such as not having a locking door to "secure" the GPS behind it and I feel like it's more exposed to the elements when it's flush mounted. Anyway, I like everything about the 943xsv, it's got traditional/SideVu/ClearVu sonar and everything is built into it without having to run a separate sonar/black box. I'd honestly upgrade the transducer at the same time while you're replacing the MFD as you don't want to have a brand new MFD running on an old transducer, if your transducer is really old. Looking up your old MFD, the owner's manual has the years of 2010-2012 listed on it, which means that technology is at least almost now 12-14 years old. And if you haven't replaced the transducer in that time, it's also likely going to be of the same vintage and quite a bit outdated. I would, and did, definitely replace both, of which I replaced my transducer with a Garmin GT-56UHD that can be found for less than $400. I think the entire process of removing my old electronics and installing the new ones probably took me oh maybe 2 hours at the most? The most time consuming part was running the cable for the transducer in the same location that the old one was installed in, and then waiting on the sealant to cure. But the rest of it was extremely easy to do. I'd post a few more details about what you're looking for such as the style of boating/fishing that you do, the size of screen that you're looking for, if you want it to be touchscreen or button operated, what features you're looking for and probably the most important thing would be your budget.

 

[Gulffisher]

Can you get new Garmin that will fit existing space (same hole/bracket) and utilize same wiring (assuming still good)? That would make the swap very easy and in general all basic combo GPS/sounder units are about equal.

 

[wmassey9]

depends on age of current unit, if old like mine, neither the power plug or depth

 

[Mustang65fbk]

You should post a picture or two of your current setup. Is it flush mounted or installed in the electronics compartment behind the steering wheel? If the latter, it should be very easy to remove and replace with something new. If it's flush mounted, you'll likely have to either find something similar in size, go bigger or get a new piece of starboard or whatever material to replace it with. Though, if your old unit is a Garmin 400/500, I'm guessing that's a 4"-5" screen and anything 9" and above should be bigger than that, would be my thinking. For the purposes of comparison, and neither of these are my boat, but here are a couple of pictures of a 228 Seafarer with the electronics in the electronics compartment compared to being flush mounted.

 

[luckydude]

I sort of went overboard but I'm happy with the setup I have.

Garmin 7607 aka Yamaha CL7 (my engine has digital controls so I have no gauges, just an engine app). I really like this unit because it's a regular Garmin so when I need radar, I tend to display radar on this screen and charts on the 8610.

Garmin 942xs - this guy lives in the port side cuddy and is pretty much a dedicated sonar display. It's nice because you can see it from the cockpit and it is in a dark spot, no sunlight, so it is easy to read.

Garmin 8610xsv - my installer covered the helm opening with some starboard and mounted this display and the radio on it. This guy is mostly used for charts, if it is really foggy then it is used for radar and the 7607 or the 942 is used for charts. It's also used for auto pilot because I don't have a dedicated auto pilot display (that may change if I can figure out where to put it).

Here's a pic, really hard to see the 942 but it is in there.