Furuno to Garmin?

[Big D]

I keep promoting NMEA 2000 gear because the possibilities are endless. Just blows my mind what you can do with on-board and off-board systems now, and the connectivity possibilities....On the down side, the technology is great but it comes with a price point that is slowly pushing the average Joe out of being able to afford the toys.

[alexander38]

Big D wrote, "On the down side, the technology is great but it comes with a price point that is slowly pushing the average Joe out of being able to afford the toys."

That's the biggest reason why I went with Lowrance, my radio and 5300 plotter both 183 nema work with my 2k nema and all talk, I can even use the 183 with my digital radar ...and the stuff I can install is endless...and good bang for the buck. I've seen boats with more stuff on them than Navy Destroyer's do. Some times I thing we need to set back and think about what we NEED and WANT at our helms. And spend the money on enjoyin' the boat....IMO

[Commissionpoint]

Some times I thing we need to set back and think about what we NEED and WANT at our helms. And spend the money on enjoyin' the boat....IMO

Funny you should say that Tony. I have a piece of paper with a line down the middle of it on my desk. On the left side is the heading "Needs" on the right side is the heading "Wants". Sometimes its hard to seperate the two.

[rbcool]

Garmin (chart plotert/FF) is absolutely the easiest to use. Someone who has never been on a boat before could very quickly navigate home in an emergency!!
Lowrence is great but you still need the manual until your used to it.
Furano is the only radar I've used since it was so easy to tune it to find a small flock of feeding birds 5 miles away.
But for now I'm using the Garmin 740S and plan on buying a 2nd one combo radar unit for redundency since it's cheaper than buying a Furano radar seperately