What bottom machine-transducer works 4 you?

[Taz Lancaster]

Winter is here and Im gonna be upgrading my sounder. Right now I have the Furuno 667 w/ transom mount ducer. It sucks past 50 fathoms. Should I buy a thru hull transducer or a new unit w/ transducer. Anyway what do you have ,how does it work,would you buy it again and if you did it over what would you get? Thanks Gang..

[bitemysister]

Taz, I use a RAY C120, 1KW thru hull. Works unreal!! Can pick up the wiggly worm on the nose of an anglerfish at 100 fathoms. Well, that may have been dust on the display. Anyway, got it off of ebay and saved big bucks...

[TommyTuna]

Taz Lancaster originally wrote:
Winter is here and Im gonna be upgrading my sounder. Right now I have the Furuno 667 w/ transom mount ducer. It sucks past 50 fathoms. Should I buy a thru hull transducer or a new unit w/ transducer. Anyway what do you have ,how does it work,would you buy it again and if you did it over what would you get? Thanks Gang..


that unit is less than 600w for sure(i think 350w), a thru hull won't make much difference in depth, maybe more clarity.

if u NEED to see the bottom clearly over 100 fathoms then get a 1kw unit and thru hull. The new Raymarine's i have seen are excellent, as are Furuno, buyers choice

[Taz Lancaster]

Yea thats the thing I never fish inshore only off and wreck fish,so I need to be able to mark some stuff especially bait I hate not being able to see whats under me w/ what I have now.. Thanks Guys.

[HIT N RUN]

1kw tru hull. If your fishing in the deep, IMO you should only be looking @ the top 40 fat anyway if you are trolling. Take the sounder off auto & set the range & gain to see the thermocline & above.

[surfperch1]

I have and am using the Raymarine E80 with the DSM 300 interface to a 1kw thru hull w/Fairing Block.

I also have a Furuno 525 on my new boat and it does not even come close to picking up the fish like my Raymarine system. It will even help you to see if larger fish are feeding in a bait ball.

Now for a radar the Furuno Systems has the advantage.

[Miles Offshore]

have you guys running the rays experianced any problems with interference/ static on your radios?

[K.R.]

Furuno 1850 with 1000watt through hull transducer. I can see the bottom at 2500' although I see much more definition at 1000'.

[justkiddin]

I have dual c-120's with 1kw thru hull with fairing bracket and it is awesome. Have not tried it offshore yet but works great in Bay. Old boat had c-80 with transom mount transducer and dsm300 and I thought that was the bomb- Thru hull is the ticket and Raymarine has gotten their stuff dialed in for sure

[On The Line]

Airmar B260 through hull transducer...check it out, well worth the $$. It does require a quite large fairing block though.

[Taz Lancaster]

Wow Raymarine...looks like that has been the consensus I have also been looking also looking at the Furuno 582L and a Sitex that is commercial grade guess I need to do something here in the next couple months to be ready for spring. Thanks for the help.

[TommyTuna]

forget the 582l for deepwater performance - its only a 600w unit

[Taz Lancaster]

Cool thanks Tommy...

[Tuna Hound]

I have the furuno 1850 and as mentioned before, use the Airmar b250 through hull with high speed faring. Check out the airmar site, they pretty much have a lock on the transducer market. I upgraded to the furuno becasue as Tommy Tuna mentioned, you'll need the 1000 watts if you want to see deep. However, I have found my desire to see bottom is a waste and keep my unit set at 200-300 feet to see the tuna marks. Even with time variable gain setting on a furuno (makes deep marks appear larger), you miss what is going on in terms of fish if you are on auto deep mode.

[GAW]

I have learned the hard way. It seems most recs also learn the hardway. We are swayed my marketing hype on the sonar units and use the factory junk ducers. A good analogy is cameras. It is mush better to use a quality lens on a cheap camera, than a piece of junk lens on a professional grade camera body.
I purchased an Airmar M260 (shoot through sister to the through hull B260) and it was like night and day on my POS Lowrance LCX-18c. I can now easily differentiate larger fish in a pod of bait, and see those Grouper on the bottom at 50 fthms. To the other Lowrance suckers out there: the Airmar units for Lowrance are fully compatible with all Furuno 1k units ( you will have to send back and get them to put a new plug on it for about $20)-- not compatible with Ray Marine, ie. a different Airmar ducer is needed for Ray Marine products.

The people at Airmar were most helpful and know many more times what any of us know about sonar technology. Their consensus on recreational sonars?--- Furuno, Furuno, and Furuno.
They ndicated that there are other good products, but Furuno are tried and true.
I have heard nothing but good comments about the Furuno 1850's ( although I have not used one myself).
Oh BTW, my Airmar really shines on 50khz, not much better than the factory ducer on 200 khz. but the 50 outperforms ther 200 khz even in shallow water ( 50' or so), so I just leave my unit on the 50khz setting.

[Taz Lancaster]

Wow very intersting read Glenn Thanks

[hd232]

I put in the new Furuno 585 in this summer with the 600w ducer and it has work great so far in up 600 ft plus It can also output at 1k with a 1k ducer.

[trnsmaster]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-FURUNO-582L-FISH-FINDER-with-FREE-TRANSDUCER_W0QQitemZ220041479440QQihZ012QQcategory Z26444QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem