Looking to install a seperate fish finder.

[Bob Coco]

I presently have a Garmin 5212 and was thinking of adding a second 5212 but now after looking at dedicated sounders, I'm thinking differently. Today I looked at the Furuno FVC-585. This looked like a nice unit . Does this sound like the direction to go? I love my Garmin but hate split screening so either way I will be buying a second display. As far as having redundancy I have that covered. I always carry a handheld Garmin GPS so it will always get me home if I have a problem with the 5212. I hear that Furuno and Sitex both have high end sounder units. What are you guys running and if you were to buy a unit now which route would you go?

Thanks, Bob

 

[duconce]

I'm running a Garmin 4210 for radar and gps and a 4208 w/ gds 22 and tm260 transducer. Will have 4208 install completed by monday. I also wanted to have a dedicated screen for depth and fish finder.

 

[cgmiller]

Bob,

I was looking at units at the show as the boat I bought had a small Garmin combo unit. The Furuno and Sitex models are pretty nice. The sitex was a little bigger and also cheaper than the furuno, but it is a new unit where as the furuno has been around a few seasons and come highly recommended.

 

[Bob Coco]

I am going to look at the new Sitex equipment. I was at a boat show yesterday and a dealer told me the Furuno 585 was about 2 years old but after reading posts on here and other forums I see it's been around quite a bit longer then that. So that makes me want to look at the Sitex equipment even more so. I would imagine the newer equipment has newer technology and besides the Sitex Company is local to me so if it did need repairs or updates it would be no problem as it's a 30 minute drive. I also am interested in the sound that comes on the Sitex unit. A long time ago, I was a sonar technician in the Navy and the sound of the returns told you alot about the object you were pinging on. I will try to research this more and I will try and find the unit on a boat if possible. I will post more if I get any info on either unit and if anyone is running the Sitex 8.4" display would you kindly let me know how you like it.

Thanks, Bob

 

[wdlfbio]

2 advantages of sticking with Garmin:
1) if you have a failure of your main unit. Run your secondary and you are still boating/fishing. Meaning you can enjoy your day on the water and the week or two while the broken unit is being repaiered.
2) you don't have to learn two operating systems.

There's a lot of talk about the new GSD24 and GSD26. Might get you very high quality resolution with either of those????

 

[Bob Coco]

2 advantages of sticking with Garmin:
1) if you have a failure of your main unit. Run your secondary and you are still boating/fishing. Meaning you can enjoy your day on the water and the week or two while the broken unit is being repaiered.
2) you don't have to learn two operating systems.

There's a lot of talk about the new GSD24 and GSD26. Might get you very high quality resolution with either of those????

Thanks wdlfbio, I will seriously look into the GSD-24. I didn't even know such a thing existed. Everyone around here pushes Furuno. Well, I will have to wait until August to get it which allows me to save some extra money to add a second 5212. I think I might have to change the transducer as well. I will call Gamin tomorrow and talk with tech support.

Thanks again, Bob

 

[wdlfbio]

I think the ducer change would be required if you went with the GSD26. Should be fine with the GSD24. There's a long thread at THT, marine electronics section