www.iFourWinns.com

Well, after 10 years of faithful service, my Garmin 276C just packed it in. Apparently it no longer knows that it has to look for satellites. I've exhausted attempts to find a simple fix and to have it repaired by Garmin would be an expensive ordeal as they have a base charge of $250.00 just to look at it, plus the repair, parts, shipping, etc, etc, etc.
As a result, I'm now in the market for a new unit and I'm banking on the wealth of knowledge and experience that lurks here.
It need not be a marine/auto dual use unit as the 276C was and monitoring of engine systems is not necessary. The 298 helm is not a GPS friendly space and any unit I buy will either have to be surface mounted on a bracket dead center in front of the gauges or flush mounted (no larger that about 5 x 5 inches) to the right of the gauges. Thats it for available space.
I should add that I'd like to keep the cost around or ideally under $1000.00 USD.

Any thoughts/recommendations are greatly appreciated... good or bad.

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"ROCKHOUND"
2005 Vista 298
Georgian Bay, Ontario.

I too have a 298 and installed the Standard Horizon CP-300 Cartplotter. This is a feature rich and very nice unit - priced well. You can also add radar, fish sonar, VHF radio interface, AIS. The unit does fit on the right side of your instrument panel. It looks like a factory installation.

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2002 Vista 298 VP 5.0Gxi

Take a look at these. I've read some good things about them.( HDS series )
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products/Marine/

I'll agree,

Lowrance has a great line of stuff.

I have had 2 aviation GPS units. The last one being the Airmap 2000.

I also have a Lowrance LMF-200 multi function gage that is compatible with NMEA2000 networking.

My plan is to get the HDS-5 model.

Cheers,


Rick

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1987 Four Winns Liberator 211, formerly OMC 460 King Kobra powered, replaced in 2006 by a 1997 Mercruiser 454/Bravo III

I'm a Garmin fan... check out the 545 series. A friend of mine just put one of these on his tender! (Yeah, big boat).

You should be able to get this unit, a G2 maps card for your area, and transducer for less than a grand.

it's a stunner. Picture on it is great.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=148&pID=8109

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

545s for $795 at TVNav.com. I've made all my GPS purchases with them. Excellent service.

http://www.tvnav.com/545.htm

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I too am a bit of a Garmin fan... but could be convinced to change if claims are substanciated.

545s price in Canada as follows:

Garmin 545s - $999.95
Transducer - 203.95
g2 SD card - 319.95

Quite a difference!

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"ROCKHOUND"
2005 Vista 298
Georgian Bay, Ontario.

I have a lowrance 5200 with external antenna, and I'm very happy with it. It is the size you are looking for, and I'm in Ontario too. I have way less than $1000 CDN in it, including install and software (navionics gold - great lakes)... more like $800-$850 CDN total.

I got it from West Marine (they were having a sale).

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2008 H200SS
5.7 EFI Volvo Penta
Black graphics
2004 Toyota 4Runner