acar555

AGM batteries are NOT Gel batteries and require different charging cycles than wet lead acid and AGM's. A lot of people get the AGM and Gel batteries confused.

The Tracker is way overpriced. NADA lists that boat and motor at $2000 and a newer trailer doesn't make that much difference. The 1993 Johnson Fastrike, same motor as my Evinrude Intruder, was one of the best 2 cycle carbuerated motors ever made. IMO the Ranger is the way to go. I think for a $4000 budget you can get into a good boat.

Use this. Used for wetsuits and drysuits for scuba diving. Also had a customer that used it to patch a flat tire and ran it for years after. Great stuff. Dries flexible. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp;jsessionid=5DZ114SJM32WDLAQBBKCCOVMCAEFKIWE?id=0005516810247a&type=product&cmCat=froogle&cm_ven=data_feed&cm_cat=froogle&cm_pla=0610106&cm_ite=0005516810247a&_requestid=106969

What kind of buget do you have and what kinds of water are you going to be using it on?

Don't forget to look at a Ranger

The tranducer send out a cone shaped signal that "reads" the bottom and anything in between. It is like a flashlight beam. It will only detect what is shining on. So if your boat isn't moving it will stay shining on the same exact spot, giving the same reading over and over. The screen shows the most current information on the right side of the screen and as it moves to the left it is older information. I think you are starting to get it. It just takes time on the water to get it down pat.

The sonar needs movement to show changes in the bottom. While sitting still it just redraws the same information over and over, thus showing the flat bottom. This should help you understand how they work a little better. http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Sonar-Tutorial/

Those instructions are for a lowrace system. The Hummibirds only require you to insert the card. The maps will load automacially.

It is usually a voltage problem from either a dirty or loose conneciton or an old/weak battery. Can also happen when cranking the main motor causing a voltage drop.

A 75 E-Tec is 320 lbs, but being you are looking at a Tracker they only come package with Mercury motors. Just get the max rated hp for the hull which will give max performance and resale.

I would go with the external as well. If you do have an antenna problem with an external you don't have to send the entire unit in to get look at, just the antenna. You won't have gps but at least you will still have sonar.

The Humminbird RF15 does have a 4 level grayscale screen the small wrist and rod mount units do not. They work fine from the shore. The biggest issue with them tends to be battery life. You could always get an extra humminbird power cable and run it directly to a 12v Flasher or underwater camera battery for increased run time.

With SI the wider the screen the better, especially if you plan to split screen it from time to time. The 798 is about an inch wider than the 797 so it isn't as big a difference from the 997 as the 797. I did chose a 997, but that was 2 years ago.

Get the Side Imaging, you will be glad you did.

Try this out. http://www.sideimaging.com/

Get the Humminbird. They just put out an update to enhance their downlooking sonar and further improved the side imaging. There is no set date for Lowrance's product yet.

The lowest speed I have gotten good results with is .7 mph. I would definately hook up the gps antenna. With it you will be able to accurately mark exactly where all of the stuff you find with side imaging is located.

Thats why they make them with transducers already built in as well.

The 575 is being discontinued and will no longer be available so you better hurry if you want one. If you want a new model similar to the 575 you would need to look at the 728 and get a quadrabeam transducer to go with it.

Give this a try. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0001390010655a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=boat+patch&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

On the 580 you get gps speed on the sonar and map screens. It will not show up on the flasher screen.

I have used both, but in my immediate area, the navionics chips offers way more lake than the hot maps chip, so it isn't even a comparison. The navionics premimum will have hd lakes on it with 1 ft contours with rest usually with 3 ft to 10 ft contours. Some of the hot maps chips I have used were 20 ft contours but did lable structure better that the Navionics chip did. I feel with over 4 times the number of lakes mapped the navionics chip is the way to go. more bang for your buck. Accuracy is right on.

You can purchase a second 520c without a gps antenna for usually less than the 510c. They are both being discontinued as new products are replacing them for next year. You can probably get a great deal on a system now. Network them and you have gps at both spots.

None of the current Humminbird 500 series have and internal antenna. The new models for next year will though.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=catfeatboat&id=0030617017385a&navCount=7&podId=0030617017385&parentId=cat603944&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=8IS&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true $50 rebate also.