Used Lowrance GPS/Fishfinder

[Vancouvertechie]

Does anyone have or know of one for sale?  Looking for LMS or LCX series.  If not I will have to buy another HDS5 online somewhere.

Thanks,

VT

[Hydro-Therapy]

VT you may try to contact Tony Fox, his handle is Channel Cat . He buys and sells a bunch of lowrance stuff. If it helps I will have a global map 2000 for sale in the near future.
Send him a pm and I am sure he will help you out or send you in the right direction to find one.

 Hydro-Therapy

[woody]

2nd the response on Tony Fox.  He's got lots of stuff and a good source, especially for making/splicing info cables.  Like a Channel Cat he lurkes here and will respond.

Woody

[Channel Cat]

Woody, Its 03:15 in the morning, Go to sleep, or are you going fishing and can't sleep?
I certainly do appreciate the referrals, but I am trying to get over my hoarding electronics disease (HED). I am down to just 3 back-up head units, and 20 transducers. I need all of them!
I'll keep my ears open however!  Cheers, Now gear up, or go to bed...

[woody]

Thanks Tony, you must be getting home from work.  Yep, its early, but after years of working 6:00 am surgery and ERs, I'm still an early riser ... 4-6 am.  Course I do go to bed with the Sun in the summer. I know you also will have that habbit when you retire, but you will be going to bed at 5 am, getting up at 1300.

Woody

[Threeweight]

Fisherman's Marine will have a big sale this weekend, officially kicking off on Sunday, but prices are good starting tomorrow.  Amongst the stuff they will have on sale is an older style Eagle/Lowrance Fish Elite 500 GPS/Chartplotter, for $300.  I hesitate to recommend it, as the one I had died about a week after it's 1 year warranty expired.

I've seen HDS-5's on sale on the web for $550 or so, with nice base maps included.

[La-Z-Buoy]

Threeweight,

I am interested in your opinion on that 500C fish finder prior to it dying. What happened when it died? The sale runs through April 3 so I'm still thinking about it.

Thank You,
Richard

[Threeweight]

It worked well enough.  It has a basic color screen with good clarity, but it is an older design so it lacks some of the brightness and sharpness of the $$$$$ new models.  Mine had an external GPS antenna "puck", and it got a satellite lock really fast when you turned it on (faster than my newer HDS with its internal antenna).  Took Navionics or Nautic Insight chips for background detail on the maps (I had a Nautic Insight chip -- ok detail, 1/2 the price of Navionics, covered a broader area--I actually still have the chip).

The sonar functions were pretty basic, but worked well.  It used the same transducer as the $99 cheapie Eagles... good at giving depth and some sense of fish, not good at identifying bottom composition or operating at deeper depths.

I was satisfied with the unit up until it died.  I got it on sale at Fisherman's, and it was about the cheapest chart plotter/sonar combo I could find that took background maps.  I believe what killed it was spray (freshwater) blowing up and under my top and dripping down on the case.  We fished in really windy conditions on the Columbia one Saturday for springers, it worked fine but got a few drops of water on the case, right at the seam.  When we noticed we dried it off and it continued working normally, but the next morning it was toast.  Annoying, and death by mild exposure to moisture was apparently a common problem with these units.  I would not buy another one.. $300 gets you pretty close to one of the newer Lowrance Elite-5s, lower end Garmins, Humminbirds, etc... better to save up another $200 and get a nicer unit with a better warranty.