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I have been looking at getting my first fishfinder I have a budget of $120 or so. I dont really care about color. I have been looking at the humminbird 176i because it is a humminbird and has internal gps which would be nice mostly for speed (trolling) and you can get them for 117 shipped on amazon. My boat is a 14' flat bottom with a 6hp.
Thanks for your help
Birdhead, can you put your hands on one at a local sports store first? You spoke of amazon but if you can go look at different models that match your budget and have what you want I'd get with our sponsors who sale the units. Great deals and willing to answer Q
I played around with one at academy i liked it from what i know about fish finders which is not much It seemed easy to use If you have any other suggestions please tell me i did play with a few lowerance it is kind of hard to much of a difference the cheaper fish finders all kind of seem the same
Buy used and get twice the unit for the money. The classifieds here are a great place to look also bass boat central's classified section. I would not recommend that 176i for the gps. It's not near as functional for gps as any of the other units that have an sd card slot. I was looking at the same unit last year until I found a nice gentleman here on c.c that sold me a great color unit for $50.
Bird don"t get hung up on brand. Think of what you want out of the unit then compare the ones you choose. Low HB and Garmin all make good units just some have features the others don't and remember all brands have some flaws. By doing the research on the ones you choose you can then see what units others have had problems with like dinobot talking about the 176i. Right now new units are out and lot of folks are getting rid of older stuff (to them) like dino said and great deals can be found. You could probably find a usedLowrance Elite-4 Base Chartplotter/Fishfinder Combo for a good price. Clear image and I like that the map that comes with Low shows the channel.
Birdhead - Dinobot offers great advice. Techno-addicts are constantly moving up to the latest & greatest devices. Often, that means a low-mileage "old" device needs to be sold in order to afford the new one. Even if they are not listed in the Classified Ads forum, these units are out there if you ask. Have you tried a "want to buy" post?
I'm with slabbacks, I would buy it from someone I could get help from. It's good to have a friend in your corner when installing or opperating the unit. Especially if it is going to be something new to you.
LOWRANCE X-4 IS A GOOD UNIT FOR 84.00 AT DICKS . DEPTH, TEMP, AND STANDARD IMFO . THERE ARE NO GPS UNITS,CHART PLOTTERS THAT I KNOW OF IN THAT PRICE RANGE . I HAVE AN X-4 ON MY TROLLING MOTOR AND A CUDA 168 ON THE BACK . I STILL BUY A COUPLE OF CACES OF CATSUP PER YEAR .:biggrin
$80.33 w/ free shipping at Amazon.