Navigation unit recommendations

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Leardriver

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Hello all,

I want to mount a 7 inch-ish navigation unit on my dash. I have no interest in a fish finder or mounting a transducer, just want pretty maps, Technology changes so fast that there may be the perfect thing available and I haven't heard about it.

Anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?
 
How important is adjustable lake elevation to you?

If you need to adjust lake levels, the easiest (though not prettiest) will be Navionics (now Garmin) running on a tablet/iPad.

If you don't care about that, there are a several marine GPS units (chartplotters) on the market that would likely fill the bill - though many still prefer a transducer to unlock all of the features. Look into Raymarine, Simrad, Lowrance, and Garmin units.
 
Thanks for that.
I like the Simrad, but it seems like you are paying for great fish finding features. Adjustable lake elevation isn't something that I would turn down, but basic mapping would be just fine also.

I worry about viewability, if that is a word, of the ipad in bright light. I have plenty of spare ipads that I could dedicate to this chore, though.
 
Understood. I'm told that the Humminbird Helix series (very popular here on WW) can also be run transducerless - which would open the possibility of using the Lake Master chip with adjustable levels. However, as you mention, you're paying for a bunch of great fish-finding features that you won't be able to use.

Garmin units that are Navionics-capable, would also give you a daylight-visible, heat-friendly, rugged device with adjustable lake levels. You'll need to check out which specific devices will run without a transducer.

Many Lowrance units can be run without the transducer installed/enabled, but no lake level adjustment on their standard maps.

Unfortunately, when you move from a "fish-finder" to a "chartplotter" device - even with no additional features - the price increases dramatically. So the fish-finder class devices are likely the best value.
 
Leardriver said:
Hello all,

I want to mount a 7 inch-ish navigation unit on my dash. I have no interest in a fish finder or mounting a transducer, just want pretty maps, Technology changes so fast that there may be the perfect thing available and I haven't heard about it.

Anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?
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Not sure why you wouldn’t want a fish finder! 🤣
If you have a tablet with gps, you can use the navionics app. Seems likes Bart’s suggestion of a cheaper fish finder like a humminbird helix or lowrance hook would be an easy solution. You don’t need to connect the transducer, the chart plotter will work fine.
 
You might consider a used Humminbird Helix and just use the power cord and lakemaster chip. I just picked up a Helix 9 used off ebay for a good price. There's several of the HD models up for bid also that provide great quality map viewing.
Screenshot_20231106-193748_eBay.jpg
 
BartsPlace said:
How important is adjustable lake elevation to you?

If you need to adjust lake levels, the easiest (though not prettiest) will be Navionics (now Garmin) running on a tablet/iPad.

If you don't care about that, there are a several marine GPS units (chartplotters) on the market that would likely fill the bill - though many still prefer a transducer to unlock all of the features. Look into Raymarine, Simrad, Lowrance, and Garmin units.
Click to expand...
I tried Navionics on the strong recommendation of a professional captain I know who is employed to pilot a private small luxury tour boat on the lake. He's in and out of all kinds of side canyon and coves at the will of others sometimes daily; Their boat has twin 300's and makes 60 mph so he's got his hands full. He says he's had them all, all the add ons and supplements and has found that for him nothing beats Navionics on a tablet on Powell. I tried it, I liked it, it was cool, it was amazing technology but I let it expire.

Having said that, folks want what they want and have their reasons. I don't want to pour cold water on anyones wants and desires but for me on Powell I prefer a good map and my own dead reckoning. It can be a bit confusing at first but once you learn it and get it into your brain it's like driving around your hometown. A simple cheap GPS device can be helpful at times while you are learning, for reference. The only reason I'd buy something fancy is if I wanted to run at night but that's just my opinion.
 
Marina Bum said:
I tried Navionics on the strong recommendation of a professional captain I know who is employed to pilot a private small luxury tour boat on the lake. He's in and out of all kinds of side canyon and coves at the will of others sometimes daily; Their boat has twin 300's and makes 60 mph so he's got his hands full. He says he's had them all, all the add ons and supplements and has found that for him nothing beats Navionics on a tablet on Powell. I tried it, I liked it, it was cool, it was amazing technology but I let it expire.

Having said that, folks want what they want and have their reasons. I don't want to pour cold water on anyones wants and desires but for me on Powell I prefer a good map and my own dead reckoning. It can be a bit confusing at first but once you learn it and get it into your brain it's like driving around your hometown. A simple cheap GPS device can be helpful at times while you are learning, for reference. The only reason I'd buy something fancy is if I wanted to run at night but that's just my opinion.
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My use of Navionics is solely protective of our houseboat when running up lake. It allows me to plan prior to the trip for potential parking spots for the week but looking at the usual suspects and identifying the space in the canyons at a given time. We can quickly rule out a bunch of places based on what we see up front. Then I can avoid the big hazards along the way. It was really useful 3 years ago as the bench outside of Moki started to appear. I can't get that on a map or a GPS unit that doesn't do water level adjustment. That's why I am fine paying the $20/yr for the Navionics app. I run it on my phone, but based on everyone else's recommendations, I will probably bring my iPad and run it on there this next year.
 
I have a brand new ipad air in a box. Does it have GPS? My boat has a depth finder, not as sophisticated but shows straight down depth in a primitive way.

My reason for preferring not to have a transducer is simple. i don't want to drill holes in my boat. I could be swayed, though.

Meatwagon, you are on to something. I buy so many things used off of ebay. I just see better and fancier display on electronics every year.

Doesn't Navionics cost $249, and must be renewed ever year? That's what it looked like on the Simrad site.
 
iPads don't by default include GPS. If you have an iPhone, you can hook the iPad up to the iPhone and it will rely on the GPS of the iPhone or you can purchase a separate GPS receiver for the iPad. If you go the iPad route, you need to pay the Navionics subscription for the iPad. It looks like they have upped the price to $49/year, though when I renewed in July through the App Store, I paid $24.99+tax (looks like the price adjusted in September). They have gone from $19.99 prior to June, 2022 to $49.99 now. Seems like an extreme price adjustment.
 
Leardriver, you may be looking at a navionics subscription that’s needed on a fish finder. For just navionics on your phone or iPad it’s Pennies compared to your trip. When I first started buying navionics I think it was $15 per year. $50 is going to hurt but I’m still going to buy it!
 
The Navionics chip that you would use in a fishfinder could well be $ 249, the mobile app that nzaugg and others are referring to is a subscription. It works well but much prefer the lakemaster chip that Humminbird units use. A new LM chip runs anywhere from $149 to $199 depending on which version you get.
 
Meatwagon said:
The Navionics chip that you would use in a fishfinder could well be $ 249, the mobile app that nzaugg and others are referring to is a subscription. It works well but much prefer the lakemaster chip that Humminbird units use. A new LM chip runs anywhere from $149 to $199 depending on which version you get.
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I have had Lowrance, Humminbird and Garmin, all have are good. If I only boated lake Powell, I would go with Humminbird just for the lake offset feature that they offer on the cheaper units. Leardriver, this feature will let you easily visualize safe travel routes without a lot of fussing with settings. Whatever unit you choose, you can highlight hazards at different water levels fairly easily on all the 7” fish finder/chart plotters that you can pick up for around $500-600…
 
The Simrad suite is like a late model IPhone, it will do everything you will ever want including the 99% of the things you do not even know about or care about.

Simrad with navionics is unbeatable but make sure you use knobs as well as touchscreen, you will need the knobs when the water gets rough.

The iPads WITH cellular chips WILL provide GPS even if out of cell tower range and even on units that are not with a current subscription but IPads screen brightness is low and this makes it tough for easy use in bright sun… but I have at least 1 pad right next to my Simrad clusters. I use the 12’s and 9’s and I would prefer 2 or 4 of a smaller screen than 1 big screen. For me I have a 12 in the center and a 9 on each side and and Ipad. Splitting a nine makes 2 pretty small screens, splitting a 12 is fine. There are countless screen populations to show anything you want.

I have a saved track from low water for the main channel and this is awesome, especially for night runs. In the late season with runoff over, runs up to face or west or even oak are 100% safe and doable with the proper equipment and training and experience. There is NO WAY i would run at 60 mph, but I would cruise at 15 all night long in the main channel, and wakeless in side channels.

If you are buying just 1 screen get the biggest you can. Avoid the tippy top expensive glass like Furuno and Honeywell unless ego requires it. Go with HIGH NITS.

Simrad is amazing value for everything nav, standard horizons is amazing for communications, Shakespeare for antennas, Horsehoe Repasado for tequila.

Bad elf is a winner!

Enjoy


Here is a link to the marine yachting best electronics site. There are some amazing sailing blogs as well with real world. B&G is the Simrad brand for sails.


https://panbo.com
 
Dorado said:
I have had Lowrance, Humminbird and Garmin, all have are good. If I only boated lake Powell, I would go with Humminbird just for the lake offset feature that they offer on the cheaper units. Leardriver, this feature will let you easily visualize safe travel routes without a lot of fussing with settings. Whatever unit you choose, you can highlight hazards at different water levels fairly easily on all the 7” fish finder/chart plotters that you can pick up for around $500-600…
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Garmin bought Navionics a couple years back and has merged all of their cartography. The Garmin Navionics Vision+ card is about the same cost as the LM card (~$150), and it supports the Lake level offset feature as well as a host of other features. No subscription is required, unless you want continual updates. I have used it now for two seasons and really like it, it is very similar to the original Navionics.
 
Coho975 said:
Garmin bought Navionics a couple years back and has merged all of their cartography. The Garmin Navionics Vision+ card is about the same cost as the LM card (~$150), and it supports the Lake level offset feature as well as a host of other features. No subscription is required, unless you want continual updates. I have used it now for two seasons and really like it, it is very similar to the original Navionics.
Click to expand...
Good to know. I bought a Garmin 7” unit last year for $500 but I need the upgraded card. The one that came with it at that price does not have the lake offset feature…
 
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