opinions on Garmin GPS

[Campylobacter]

My wife wants to buy me a GPS unit for my birthday. I poked around the internet found the Garmin 430 chartplotter. A little pricey (almost $500), it seems pretty nice. It can take the new 3D chips that give "bottom contours" of coastal areas that look pretty cool, and comes with built in 3D contours of "300 popular lakes". It doesn't say which lakes, but covers some 4500 lakes in normal mode.

Anybody have any experience with these? I am planning a few vacations this year, 1 on a very large lake I am unfamiliar with (Kerr in NC/VA), and one in the sounds and ICW of the NC outerbanks.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dvan1901]

Re: opinions on Garmin GPS

I went back and forth on this same issue. I was between the Garmin, Lowrance 5200 and the Standard Horizon CP 180i. The Lowrance and SH have a 5" screen, which makes a difference in my opinion so I tossed out the Garmin, eventhough many said it was easier to use. So, between the Lowrance and SH, I went with the SH, eventhough the Lowrance had a higher resolution. The SH takes the C-Map MAX chips, which seem nice and the fish finder add-on is pretty inexpensive. I haven't used it yet, but it seems pretty easy from going though the manual. I got mine for $386 plus shipping. Hope that helps...

 

[JB]

Re: opinions on Garmin GPS

I have had 5 Garmins and each one was excellent. . .well, one of them (276c) is still excellent.

This belongs in Electrics, Electronics and Trollers.

I will move it there.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: opinions on Garmin GPS

Campy, I ordered a GPSMap 440s and am eagerly expecting delivery today. The 440 is for costal areas, with built in charts, while the 430 is for inland lakes, as you are no doubt aware. I know the GPSMap units are very easy to use, from personal experience, which was the main selling point for me. I do not plan to use the 3D view of the coastal waters, since off the NJ coast there is very little to see but sand.

BTW - If you Google search the net you will find all kinds of prices on that unit. Make sure you know if the sounder is included in the price quote, since they seem to try to deceive you. That $500 quote is a good price, if it does include the sounder. I ended up paying $518 with sounder and shipping.

I actually ordered a unit from another web company. They called me and said the unit would not function out of the box without a $150 SD card. This was patently untrue, and I ended up cancelling my order with this company, due to their lies and argumentative tone.

 

[JB]

Re: opinions on Garmin GPS

Best place to find and buy Garmin products:

http://www.iboats.com/Garmin/dm/***...rmin--search_type.brand--**********.801137128

Find the one you want and bookmark it for her.

 

[spongebobswimtrunks]

Re: opinions on Garmin GPS

I have the 440s and love it!

The built-in maps are very accurate. I haven't seen a need for any additional charts yet.

See my post about an additional feature that Garmin added to all of their 400, 500, 4000 and 5000 series chartplotters...
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=239265

The 440s has a standard SD card interface for storage and updating the firmware. Older Garmins had $pecial interfaces with $pecial cards.

The only downside I can see to the 440s is it's size. It is the biggest chartplotter I could squeeze onto my dash below the windshield. I wish I could have gotten a bigger one in there.

 

[Woodnaut]

Re: opinions on Garmin GPS

I have a Garmin 185 GPSMAP Chartplotter/Sounder that I bought in 1999 and it's still going strong. It is really been a great little machine and has brought me home many times. When it finally scrools over its last bottom contour and plots a course to Davey Jones locker I'll definitely be buying another Garmin - next time with a little larger screen, color, and higher resolution. GPS, chartplotter, sounder, fishfinder. If only it would print money....