After many years (12 I think) my LMS 332 finally bit the dust.  I'm looking at a Lowrance HDS-7 Gen3 Insight w/ 83/200 khz trans.  (it looks good and is on sale!)   I know NOTHING about the new technology and never even used the last unit to it's potential. 

 

Not sure I understand... the write up says it does structure scan with the included transducer but then there is a $200 option for a structure scan transducer and another $300 for a total scan transducer.   Can anyone dumb this down for me? 

 

I'd also appreciate any feedback from those running this unit.

 

Thanks!

Keith

 

 

the transducer included will give you down scan and broadband. you can add a Lss 2 tranducer for side scan. the total scan will replace both transducers and give you down scan, side scan, and broadband. I have heard complaints about the total scan not reading with higher speeds.

Thanks for the explanation.  So to confirm, I'll need 2 transducers for full functionality? (or one really big "total scan" transducer) Both can be externally mounted? (I've had 2 shoot throughs in my life and neither worked well at all & both were dealer installed)

 

Thanks again!

side scan has to be mounted externally. lss-2 and total scan transducers are both very long. lss-2 doesn't have this problem because when using side scan you should be going 3-5 mph as per the manual.

I have a gen 3 9".  Great unit BTW.  The touch feature is great.  I rarely use the SI feature.  I am more comfortable with the sonar readings not to mention I fish shallower bodies of water.  From your post above it sounds to me that your a "sonor" guy (kind of like me).  You might want to save your money at first and just run it with the 83/200 and see if it fits your style.  If not then add the SI Stuff later.

Guys it all really depends on the boat and the installation. Here is a StarCraft 206 with the OEM 83/200 and SS3D transducers and you can see it reads bottom very well at 30+ mph, and notice that the larger SS3D transducer creates no water spout. The boat topped out at 52 mph, still reading bottom from the 83/200 although the SS3D ducer wasn't useful.