Guys I'm looking for something to go in my boat thats not no $1000 unit that is good. As much hell as I put my boat though (with limbs and trees coming in the boat) I would hate to put more then about $300-$500 in a unit at tops. $150 would be dam good! I wouldn't care much for the Sonar part I just want a good GPS unit. What yall recommend?

Garmin doesn't really make a cheap unit anymore but I have a Garmin unit and love it. This discussion is basically like the GTR vs. Prodrive debate between Lowrance and Garmin

Look at the Lowrance Elite

I prefer the lowrance HDS over the Elites

Blake, not sure what Garmin offers anymore. The 60 series handhelds with a Ram mount as WEA mentioned is what I have used for a good many years. You can load maps and waypoints and tracks from a computer to these things. Pretty tuff also. BPS has good sales on them a couple times a year also...if they are still available.

Some good suggestions in here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=59597

I'm going to order this one in a week or two: http://www.basspro.com/Garmin-echoMAP-5 ... 606163820/

Just ordered a Lowrance elite 5 from Academy. they have them on clearance right now for $299. I believe they have the Garmin Echomap 50s for $349 on clearance also

I have the Lowrance Elite 5 HDI mounted on a ram mount and love it. Wondering why I didn't buy this a long time ago. GPS wise you can get better maps for the HDS model but I believe they stop making the HDS 5 genII. I was told they don't make the HDS 5's again till March or April of this year. The HDS 5 Gen III will be coming out. What ever is left on the shelf will be it for the Gen II's. For South Louisiana marshes best mapping is Standard Mapping IMO. It's a satillite imaged map, so its a true map, and it works with the elite series. Thats why I went with the Elite and saved a few bucks.

I use a Garmin Oregon 450t with a ram mount attached to my grab bar. Bought it like 5 years ago and it's my first handheld, but it gets the job done. I will more than likely upgrade to the Garmin Montana 600t. Basically has the same features just with a much bigger screen. I like that if I get out of the boat to wander into the woods I can bring it with me. I also like that I'm not limited to just using it in the boat. I use it hunting a lot, hiking and canoeing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Its a great back up if you need it. I've considered a wired unit with sonar in the boat but decided against it due to the versatility of the handheld.

the only advice I can give is--don't buy a Delorme unit. Their unit is nice and easy to use but their battery life is terrible. My PN-40 gets about 3 hrs tops with all background stuff turned off. It is the same with AA or Lithium rechargeables. They sent me 3 different rechargeable batteries and none would take a charge. Finally the Customer Service rep told me to just keep them and buy one from "one of our competitors" Back to Lowrance for me.

I bought a Asus Nexus 7 android tablet for $150 and put the navionics app on it. I also will save google maps to it for the location I am going to. I Use a ram mount to mount it. I also have all my music on it, which I send to my Bluetooth speakers.

Works great, 7" color screen with access to satellite maps for $150 is hard to beat. I also bought a waterproof bag for it, where you can still use the touch screen. Best of all worlds for me at $150.

You may want to consider this mount if you are putting it on the grab bar. Eliminates the need to drill holes and gives you the option to move it around. Whatever you use plan on setting it up with the ability to run off the boat battery so that you do not have to worry about it going dead half way to your destination. Being able to leave the back light on and having a big screen are extremely handy

^this is what I got in mind doing with mine.

It is a 547 and I love it. I am used to Garmin stuff which made it easy to learn.
You can research the mounts on the Ram site but there are a untold number of places you can buy them on line. Be sure you order the heavy duty (larger size ball and the plates are metal instead of plastic). I ended up ordering a complete unit and the clamp mount separate to get what I wanted.
I am sure the grab bar vibrates worse than the boat as a whole but I do not think it is enough to be a problem but time will tell. The mount is solid so I can not imagine it absorbing any of the vibration.

I have used nothing but garmin in the past, yet I really thought the lowrance touch with structure scan was pretty cool technology that I purchased for my bay boat and really liked it and it has proven to be reliable. When I purchased my surface drive I wanted to be able to use the aerial chip I bought for my bayboat. So I purchased a Lowrance HDS for pretty cheap as they were clearing them out as the new ones that are coming out (chirp sonar). Although I have a transducer on my surface drive I seldom use the sonar mode. I really like the aerial capabilities, yet not all units are capable of generating those images, something to think about when purchasing. The navionics chip I have will only work on certain Simrad and Lowrance HDS models. My backup is a hand held garmin unit, no aerial capabilites yet has just enough topography to safely navigate.

I still have not been able to figure out how to get satellite images on this unit which is something I would have been specific about if it was not a gift. In my case the satellite would be a luxury not a necessity.

Does any of these come with the maps? I got a handheld not long ago an it didn't have shit for maps on it. I brought it back I didn't think it was worth it

My Garmin 62S came with a map and a 1 year subscription to Birds Eye, but I bought it as a bundle. If you just by the unit you have to purchase the map uploads.

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