RayMarine or Furuno? Which do you prefer?

[FishPimp]

I am going to be buying in the next couple of weeks some new electronics for my 23SE.
Raymarine C- Series and E series or Furuno Navnet vx2 with a 4KW dome.
Both companies seem comparable. New England appears to be more Furuno and the West Coast seems to be more Raymarine.
I will be building off of this initial setup once sticker shock has passed.
Any opinions to help with this buying process?
Thanks

 

[Capt. Ronnie]

If I had the choose between the 2 it would be Furuno !
But I'm not a big fan of 1 machine doing all !!!
For chartplotter, Garmin and if you want to go higher end North Star
Sonar, Furuno
Radar, Furuno

 

[Porkchunker]

I have a full set of Raymarine electronics (Radar, FF, GPS/Chart). So far I'm happy...especially with the radar and GPS/chart.

FF is a bit weak, but I'm going to add the DMS250 to it before I would consider swaping.

I have two separate displays. The grayscale FF also has GPS/chart capabilities. The color Radar also has GPS/chart capabilities. They are interlinked with the HSB2 LAN, SeaTalk LAN, and NMEA LAN. So if one display were to die, I could move the C-Map NT+ Wide chip to the other display and at least get home.

I also carry a handheld VHF (Standard Horizon), and a handheld GPS/chart (Garmin color GPSMap 60) as backup.

Bottom line is that both companies build great equipment. Regardless of your decision, make sure you have handheld backups.

 

[Megabyte]

I own a Furuno bottom machine and a Garmin chartplotter on my present boat, and would buy the same again if I were in the market.

I owned a Raymarine bottom machine on my previous boat, but it wasn't representitive of the gear available today, so I wouldn't be fair to comment on that one.

As Dave said, most of the top companies build good gear, so its hard to go wrong these days.

 

[FishPimp]

My bottom machine will be the same brand as radar. (I think I am going to go with a 1000 kw shoot through split with temp and speed sensor off of transom or 1000 kw transom (T258) and get speed from GPS.
Definitely not going to put all of my electronic informational eggs in one basket and he split all sorts of screens. Thinking 2 10" or 8" screens.

Have the hand held covered with Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx.

 

[Outta Here]

I will only buy Furuno (as long as I can afford it! ).

If your only speed imput is GPS, you'll never know the relationship between your speed, current, and bait action. Can you get speed off your Yamaha speedo?

 

[Porkchunker]

...If your only speed imput is GPS, you'll never know the relationship between your speed, current, and bait action. Can you get speed off your Yamaha speedo?

The yami spedo is nothing more than a pitot tube that measures water pressure and translates it to mph (or kph, depending on your setting). It can get clogged with all manner of debris and not read accurately.

I have a transducer with a spinning paddlewheel that measures forward water speed. That can be compared to GPS speed, as both readouts are possible on the Raymarine equipment I have.

 

[Porkchunker]

BTW, both of my Raymarine displays (now 5 years old) developed small cracks at the bottom of the NMEA plug port. I sent them in in Jan for repair, expecting a $699 flat rate bill for each (that is what the web site stated). Got the first one back with a $250 charge, and the second one back for free. Now that is service.

 

[Outta Here]

The yami spedo is nothing more than a pitot tube that measures water pressure and translates it to mph (or kph, depending on your setting). It can get clogged with all manner of debris and not read accurately
quote]

I have had much better luck than you with the Yamaha speedometer. In 9 years, not one clog! Also, in 9 years, not one bent prop! Normally fish in clean water.

To check the accuracy, I ran a couple of days and compared the GPS distance traveled vs. the Yamaha speedo distance traveled. Don't remember the exact numbers, but to my suprise they were very close. This is an easy test anyone can do.

The Yamaha speedometer (assuming it is not clogged) can give a good idea of "apparent" speed thru water. If one relies on GPS speed, a 1 mph into a 5 mph current will have an apparent speed of 6 mph. The poor pogies (or bunker, for you Northerners ) will soon be surfing on top of the water lifeless and spinning like tops.

Admittedly, your paddlewheel is just as good, or better. I was trying to give "fishpimp" one more choice to get "apparent" speed without having to relie solely on GPS or having to mount a paddlewheel on his transom.

 

[Megabyte]

There is actually an additional option for speed...
Airmar makes an ultrasonic speed sensor (the CS4500), which you can see here:
http://www.airmartechnology.com/airmar2 ... enData.asp

 

[FishPimp]

I have a transom mounted FF transducer now. I am thinking about switching it out with the airmar ST69. If the holes and wiring is there why not right for $110 and tapping into my yamaha for speed and GPH.
Not sure how anything is mounted as I have not even touched the boat . I am still in Cali and boat is on Cape. Yet extras are being ordered daily!
Coming back east in April to suss out the layout and details before T-Top is fabricated.

 

[Foggylink]

I've had, and seen other Raymarines, with fogging issues. These were separates, not the larger C or E series. I would imagine they all get some. My Brother In Law is a commercial fisherman from Maine and has worked in Alaska. He likes Furuno 8)

 

[FishPimp]

Leaning wicked hahd toward furuno.
1834C 10" navnet with 4kw dome.
not a bad staht

 

[SamR]

I'm running a Raymarine C80 with DSM Airmar P79 ducer and speed/temp sensor. I am very happy. If you bottom fish I would compare areas you know on any unit you looking at. Charts can be good, bad or just wrong. Also, why get a thruhull if a shoot through works? No holes and I can mark fish at WOT

 

[FishPimp]

I am going to use a shoot through Airmar M260 and split with temp and speed sensor on transom. Not drilling any holes into my hull. nuh uh.

 

[pelagic2530]

cant beat furuno elecs... all at least 5 yrs old and still running great, no screen/ transducer problems, cant complain. i think you can still get separate screen units for radar, gps, etc, and not have to go navnet

 

[FishPimp]

FURUNO was the final call.
2 1834's FURUNO NAVNET VX2
BBFF1
Airmar Shoot through

Damn that was s a ton of lap dances I just gave up for electronics