Quality Sonar for around 200.00 Dollars

[LAPORTE]

Hey all,

Can anyone recomend a good quality sonar for around 200 bucks ?

      My partner from last year and good friend is looking to purchase one for the front of his Ranger. He currently has a old H- Bird 525 unit on it now. He is looking at the one on sale at BPS this Sunday. It's the Lowrance x135 the screen is a 480x480.
Does anyone have some input ? He doesn't have enough $$ for the GPS up front but maybe he could scratch up some more cash for a better unit. 

thanks Don L

[BryanP]

He could get a Humminbird 570 for $199.  It has a higher resolution display (640x320) than the 135, and it has a dual beam transducer.  Plus, the mount and power cord from his 525 will work with the 570 so the only installation would be putting a new transducer on the troling motor since the 525 was a single beam unit whereas the 570 is dual beam.

Another option would be to go with a Humminbird 718 for $199.  The resolution is a bit less at 320x320, but he'd have the option of adding a GPS antenna at a later time to make the 718 a GPS trackplotter. Again, same mount and power cable from his existing 525 would work.  Only the transducer would need to be swapped on the trolling motor.

[Cy]

I would agree with Brian on the Humminbird units.  However I have not replaced my Lowrance at the bow of my boat yet with a Humminbird unit.  It is on list of things to do before too long.  Anyway, I have a Lowrance x125, it almost identical to X135, just a little less powerful I believe.  It has been a good unit for me and gives plenty of detail and easy to read.  I would recommend it if he wanted a Lowrance unit, but keep in mind it doesn't have any GPS capabilities.

Cy

[Bass_Cat]

Hey Don,

If he buys a Humminbird unit that is GPS ready and already has a GPS on the boat all he has to do is run an output wire to the other unit. Brand doesn't matter, it just needs the signal. (NMEA 0183, or something like that). MY Garmin supplied the signal to my Humminbird Matrix 37 on the bow before I updated. If you need help with it, let me know.

Mark

PS. I upgraded my Matrix 37 with a "Wide Side" transducer which was really just a step before side imaging. Really a great unit. Could see my jig being jigged off the bottom. I think it had 640 vertical pixels.