acar555

Get the humminbird 565. Higher res screen (more pixels) higher power sonar and dual beam transducer for the same money as the eagle 480. The humminbirds offer more for the same price.

I have good luck with my minn kota motor with sonar. I have used both a lowrance and humminbird finder on it with no interferece. Minn kota has made their systems digital as well to negate the motor guide claims of digital advantages. I have not had any experience with the motor guide systems so I can't comment on them. I do like that the US2 is a dual beam transducer with temp that pairs up great with my humminbird 787c2.

These units are awesome and offer fish and structure finding like no other company can touch. They are absolutely at their best in 2 feet of water to 125 feet. Being able to scan out to the sides up to 360 feet in each direction is a huge advantage over traditional 20 degree sonar cone angles that will show you about 3 feet of the bottom at 10 feet. With the 797 being introduced this year at a thousand bucks they are getting affordable as well. It's the same price as a Lowrance Lcx-27c with a ton more features. Awesome piece of equipment.

The handheld units are a good way to go and the Lowrance H2O units will take the Navionics, Hot Spots or Lakemaster chips. If you want to be able to mark structure based from sonar reading then a combo unit might be the best bet. Almost all of the entry level sonor/gps combo units will not take any map chips except for the Humminbird 580 http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0045502018990a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=580&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=580&noImage=0 and the eagle fishelite 480 http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0023563016594a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=eagle+fish+elite&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=eagle+fish+elite&noImage=0 They will accept the Navionics Premium chips. The Humminbird unit has a little better vertical resolution and higher power rating. But both are good units for the money.

The live LVR is only available thru Cabela's.

The mustang hydrostatic jacket use water pressure to automatically inflate. You need to submerge it in 5 inches of water to get it to inflate. So humidity,rain, or falling overboard don't effect it at all. The SOS and cabela's brands use the pellets that can do that in those situations.

I had the oppotunity to spend 2 days at the Humminbird facility in Eufuala, Al. And the side imagine works just fine from trolling speeds up to about 30 mph, at least it did on the boat we were using. As far as the color units, I would recommend them over the grayscale ones. They have the same or better resolution that the grayscale ones and much easier to see in bright sunlight conditions. You mentitioned the x-510c. For a little less money you could get a humminbird 777c2. It would have a higher resolution screen at 640X480 than the lowrance and more power at 4,000 peak watts to 2,400 peak on lowrance. It is also gps ready meaning you could use your handheld gps as the antenna for the 777c2 and have full gps functionality on the display. If it were up to me I would go with the side imagining, it does exactly what they say it can do and no other company has anything that can touch it.

For more information go to http://www.lowrance.com/LowranceNet/LowranceNET.asp. To get a depth reading on each unit you will need to use separate transducers or use a switch box. Fort temp, fuel flow, water speed (execpt thru gps), etc. you will need to use a lowrance sensor added to the Lowrancenet backbone.

Go with the Humminbird 787c2 ($649) on the console then add either a Humminbird 777c2 ($500) or 747c ($400) , both gps ready, to the bow. Connect the 2 units together with and interlink ($100). The interlink will allow you to use the gps antenna from the 787 to work on the 777 or 747, so you will have gps functionality at both spots. You will also be able to share waypoints between units and marking a spot on one will automatically create a waypoint on the other. Like HPBB said the 787c2 is an awesome unit. For the same price as the 522 from lowrance you get more power and higher screen resolution and a true dual beam transducer. The 777c2 is the exact same as the 787 execpt for the gps antenna the 747 has lower screen resolution. The brand new 797cs SI($1000) would be the best option as it has features that nothing from lowrance can touch, but it would put you over your budget for the entire system.

There is 1 other Revo reel that you could look at. It is a Cabela's exclusive called the Revo SC. Pretty much the same as the SX but with 8 bearings instead of 10, and it is red and $20 cheaper. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0042976121669a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=revo&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=revo&noImage=0

You can run them but only thru a switch box and only one unit will show the reading at a time. The transducer is not networkable thru LowranceNEt.

The Quadrabeam technology for Humminbird works well. It lets you know to which side of the boat the fish or structure is. http://www.humminbird.com/productLines_wide.asp?ID=794 I used to be a Lowrance guy, but the innovation for Humminbird makes finding fish and structure easier and faster that anything from Lowrance and in most cases you get more screen resolution or power for the same price point. To really appreciate the 343c you will need to see the screen in bright sunlight. I really looks a little dim in the store, but the more light that hits that thing the brighter it gets. Have someone in the store shine a bright spotlight on it.

The Humminbird is an execellent choice. For the same price point as anything from Lowrance or Eagle you will either get higher screen resolution, transducer power and coverage or both. If you have the cash get the Humminbird 797c2 with side imaging. It is light years ahead of anything from Lowrance. You will be amazed how much water you can cover with that unit to find fish. The only problem with it is that it works too well and you tend to spend more time looking at the screen than fishing. About the trolling motor go with Minn Kota. Several of the warranty repair guys I talk to fix about 7 more Motorguides to Minn Kota. I have seen how each is built and Minn Kota simply build them better. For bass fishing get a Maxxum or Maxxum Pro with the new US2 sonar built in.