Prev. owned a LMS 350 A and it was a great fishfinder,sold it with the boat I was selling. Purchased a Garmin 498 C finder gps combo. Cannot get this unit to function as a fish finder to save my life. GPS works ok but as a fish finder completely worthless. I tried fine tuning and also had the tech from Garmin on the phone and it will not operate properly. Sad thing it is 6 months out of warranty. I am looking to throw this in the trash ( garbage nan coming this afternoon}. I want to go back to Lowrance and get a decent fishfinder. don`t really need GPS anymore, what I`m looking at is a good quality fishfinder that will work for a decent price. I paid $800.00 for this Garmin and it is completely worthless to me. Which Lowrance should I buy ??

Kevin,

Before you trash that Garmin might I suggest you might try contacting them one more time?

I have had several contacts with Clint Steiner there. He was a customer support specialist and really knew his stuff. This was several years ago, however, and I don't know if he is still with the company. But, I would call and ask for him specifically.

If that doesn't work out or if he is no longer there, ask to talk to a supervisor or manager. Those folks get evaluated on making sure they support their product and customers.

I understand your frustration. I would be very upset too. $800 is a lot of money. But, I have to think Garmin would not want to leave you in the situation you are in. They have always bent over backwards to take care of me, and I am just another run-of-the-mill customer.

I know exactly how you feel. I got so frustrated with a $900.00 Bottomline unit once, that I honestly sold it to a friend for 22 cents just to get it out of my sight.
Of course that was after I spent an additional $149.00 into it at the Bottomline factory to get the :censored: **working right**.

Before you buy Lowrance please read through the archives about all the problems people have had with Lowrance Units, me included. I would look at Vexilar, Furono and Humminbird, not that you can't have a problem with one of those also but Lowrance is not the same company it was when we bought those great little 350A's ! I wish I would have kept mine to.

I'm using a 498C and am very satified with it. Mine came with a dual frequency transducer, but I changed over to a dual beam transducer. It has much better coverage for shallow water. Do you have anyone local you could swap units with to see if their unit performs better on your transducer, or your unit performs better on their transducer?

I'm using a 498C and am very satified with it. Mine came with a dual frequency transducer, but I changed over to a dual beam transducer. It has much better coverage for shallow water. Do you have anyone local you could swap units with to see if their unit performs better on your transducer, or your unit performs better on their transducer?

Shellback...
I think Kevin is living out your way?

I too bought a 498c this year and have found it to be a very good unit. I think I had to turn the sonar on at first to get it to work and had a heck of a time figuring out how to get my gps/sonar split to zoom in on the bottom 5 to 10 feet. I called emailed them and followed with a call to support as I was in the wrong window menu.

My experience was just the opposite of yours Kevin, I dumped all my Lowrance units for Vexilar and Garmin, with no regrets at all.

A possible problem with any used unit may be it has a bad transducer if you do not get a clean signal, or no signal at all.

The other likely problem may be that the settings has the sonar option set to..off. Also be sure the frequency settings are set to match the transducer that came with the unit.

Customer service at Garmin is the best I have seen so if there is any problem they will work with you on it.

I won't even comment of my experiences trying to get Lowrance to remedy past issues, don't have enough time or patience left with them to try to spell all that out.

If your looking for a no nonsense high detail and reliable duel beam graph, with no GPS, take a look at the Vexilar Edge 3. Easy to use, works great with transom, trolling motor, or shoot through the hull mounting options.

My experience was just the opposite of yours Kevin, I dumped all my Lowrance units for Vexilar and Garmin, with no regrets at all.
...
If your looking for a no nonsense high detail and reliable duel beam graph, with no GPS, take a look at the Vexilar Edge 2. Easy to use, works great with transom, trolling motor, or shoot through the hull mounting options.


I don't want to steal Kevin's post Eddy (don't we always say that before we do exactly that???), but I didn't understand all of your post. Are you using Garmin or Vexilar locators? If Garmin locators, which model(s)?

I am considering a new boat and don't want Lowrance based on the posts I see on here now.

Garmin has its strong points but so does Lowrance. Garmin will last much longer with better customer service but it doesn't accept lakemaster chips and is a little bit more expensive. I fish in central MN so I really do need to use my lakemaster chip. An ideal world would either have Lowrance figure out their problems or have Garmin or Hummingbird accept lakemaster chips (or have Navionics resound the MN lakes). I am so friggin' frusterated by all of this I could just drop kick my computer :banghead:

P.S. I've gone through four lowrance fish finders in the past seven years but have an old LMS 4000 that is eight years old and has never had a problem.

P.P.S. Someone really needs to send this link to Lowrance Corporate Headquarters. If they knew about the growing customer disgust, maybe they would issue a public statement.

Navionics is always trying to make the product better. Just curious which lakes you feel we need to work on?

TKS
Larry Carr
Midwest Regional Sales Manager
Navionics Inc
Westerville OH

Garmin can run Lakemaster chips. The new chips are available in Garmin format. http://www.lakemap.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=32

You just need to order the chip designed to be run in the new Garmin units that use micro/sd cards. MN, Great Lakes, Inland Rivers, Lake of the Woods, and more on the way.

My fish'n partner and I run the Garmin 5212 on the dash
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:G6a0olmdotNVSM:http://askjackrabbit.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/15/5212_01.gif
and a Garmin 430 SX on the bow on his new big rig boat. Both units can receive live XM weather and network with other boats. The network also is capable of viewing underwater or shipboard mounted cameras.

I also use a Garmin Rhino 530 HCX handheld that also reads/writes the Micro/Sd cards, plus it has a FRS/GMRS radio. They all can read the Garmin Inland Lakes maps or the Lakemaster data micro/sd cards. I love this unit and how versatile it is.
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:1BgRbfO6ugKNzM:http://gallery.garmin.co.id/d/200-6/Rino530Hcx_cf-high.jpg

I use Vexilar FL-20's on both rigs. I am a hardcore flasher guy and feel naked without one on my boat. My personal everyday fishing and guide rig has me using the Vex and the Rhino, all year around, hard and soft water.
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:5jTRUOc8pM51lM:http://www.vexilar.com/pages/products/images/fl-20_400px.jpg
The new Vexilar Edge 3 LC-507C color unit is a serious graph for the guy who does not need a permanant mount GPS on the boat, or wish's a seperate gps unit from his graph. I would add one if I had need for it, used them, loved the detail and the ease of use. Great units!
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:Rn01tQogsoDKaM:http://www.franksgreatoutdoors.com/productImages/220407.jpg

A guy can rig many ways depending on his needs. The 5212 is the sweetest gps/sonar I have ever used, and the easiest to use. Yet on my smaler rig I chose to keep it much more "basic", and still meet my needs very well.

Larry,

Specifically, I'm talking about Rush Lake and Star Lake in Ottertail County. Lakemaster has a very accurate map of these lakes. Do you guys have any plans to resound these lakes?

I see you guys must have resounded Ottertail Lake in Ottertail County last year. You are two lakes away from me switching over to Navionics. Thanks Larry.

Backwater Eddy,

You're absolutely right; I was thinking about the bird and somehow typed in Garmin.

[quote=Backwater Eddy;A guy can rig many ways depending on his needs. The 5212 is the sweetest gps/sonar I have ever used, and the easiest to use. Yet on my smaler rig I chose to keep it much more "basic", and still meet my needs very well. [/quote]


Thanks, Eddy.

I have always been told the Garmin locators weren't as good as the Lowrance. I heard this from several people who are well-known professional guides, outdoor authors, and tournament fishermen. They told me their choice for GPS was Garmin but their choice for locators was Lowrance.

I am about to buy a new rig and have been thinking about what electronics I want on it. I am sold on Garmin GPS units and own 3 of them now (one early hand-held model which is non-mapping, one older black and white 5-inch mapping model, and my current 2010C big-screen color mapping model which I love).

You apparently feel the Garmin locators are as good as any other -- true??? (Except for your preference for flashers, that is.)

Larry Carr here from Navioncs.

Just making sure that we offer the best, so please let me know which MN lakes in particular we need to resurvey????

Thanks
LC

Not a MN request but one that would serve many well and is highly requested in the sporting retail store I work with here in Fargo ND.

I would love to see somebody get the rest of the detail for the Red River from the St Andrews Dam to the Lake in MB. The Rest of the info for the Winnipeg River Papertown Dam or Kenora out to the lake and the big lake complete would be a huge hit.

Hard and soft water users are desperately looking for data on these waters. Interest is high, it would sell well.

I get 20 request for chips with this info a week in Fargo just from Canadian customers, twice that many from regional fisherman in the fall and winter.

If I can get it in Garmin format SD/Micro SD chips, I'll take 40 chips right now. I would take another 60 SD chips in Lowrance and or Hummingbird friendly formats too. That's how confidant they would move just in my store alone here in Fargo ND.