Recommendations for best bang for your buck Radar...

[caltexflanc]

Best bang for the buck? A used Furuno. Plenty out there as take outs from boats whose owners want the latest. Excellent support from the factory even on units 3 or 4 generations old,

 

[Airstream345]

We had a similar situation with our trawler when we purchased. A lot of stand alone, old, in some cases failing or inconsistently performing electronics.

I ended up replaced everything: an older Furuno radar, one failing depth sounder, a striker fish finder and a Loran (that's right a LORAN) with a 9" Garmin MFD that came packaged with their 3G radar. I then added an internal depth sounder. All in for about $2600...installed DIY (not too hard). This got us through this season just fine.

Next we plan to go further (Vancouver Island next year and Alaska in 2020) so we're planning to add redundancy and safety.

Therefore the next phase will add a second 9" MFD fro redundancy and another transducer (replacing a decommissioned one) to get better bottom information when anchoring (the thru-hull transducer basically gives me only depth to about 900 ft.). That will add another $1500, likely to install this winter.

I also plan to replace my failed Navico Auto Pilot with a Garmin (integrated) AP (re-using the existing AP pump) so there is another $2000.

I have a Standard Horizon VHF but would like to add AIS. So, another $700 for a black box AIS transponder or $1000 for a radio AIS transponder.

Finally, I'd love to add a touch screen PC with Costal Explorer on it for planning and additional data underway. I figure that's another $1500 - $2000 but totally optional as it's a nice to have.

We also have a Samsung tablet ($200) with Navionics ($44) on it and use it quite a lot for planning and when underway (Coastal Explorer on a PC could take some of this load in the future)

So, in the end - it's about $9K to install everything over three years.

I looked long and hard at open source options on iPads but in the end wanted the support and integration offered by the majors. I chose Garmin over others as I felt like they have the best range of solutions for our use case, in particular ease of use for both my wife and myself.

Good luck with your electronics upgrades. It's fun and makes a big difference in the usability of the boat. We're phasing ours out over time so it's not one big expense but I look forward to the final product.

 

[Dougcole]

We just installed a pair of Garmin 942xs mfd and their 18 inch he radar, sorry I don't remember now which model it was. West Marine offers it in a package for about 2k. Very nice and really expandable. Personally, I understand the stand alone argument, but the mfds are pretty reliable these days and That's old school thinking. Doesn't mean it's bad, just out of style.

We had a p79 transducer already installed, it works fine with the 942. I did the radar, 2 mfds, nema etc for right around 3k. Sold my old raymarine stuff for just over 2k. So came out pretty good.

 

[Xsbank]

Koden, not Si-Tex, although they are the same company.

 

[Benthic2]

Charts can be very inaccurate when in inland waters (ICW)....and you are operating within feet of shallows sometimes.....

So seeing the bottom come up rapidly can save you from going aground.

Thanks !!

 

[C lectric]

I bought and installed a Furuno 1815, a stand alone unit that can take GPS and AIS inputs if I wish.

I'm still playing with and learning to use it .

Cost for me was a factor, also the space used. The MFD shot the cost way up so take a good look at that part of it. ALone it was worth more than my entire expenditure. Although myscreen is not tiny it takes a lot less space than the MFD.

I did seriously consider the WIFI unit but the cost of the two was a wash and I finally decided I liked the solid connections better although installation was harder, not bad , but the cable between the screen and the antenna took some thought to route it.

As far as show crab and lobster pot floats or logs I do not count on it. Many crab marker floats are so damn [excuse me] small I would not expect it to find them. Chop and rough water can bury or hide them so don't count on a radar picking them up unless in flat water and you run on a short range and are still very lucky.

I did see the large floats for the commercial prawners and crabbers but those things are about 2 to 2.5 ft diam. but usually as mentioned on a short range when i was scaling up and down.

You may well be able to afford a lot more than I which is to the good but mine has done what I needed showing me the small fishing
boats, in the fog, that abound in the area I was travelling last spring.


Just my own experience.

 

[HiDHo]

I also replaced an old Furuno that was so old no part available to plug and play repair it with a new Furuno 1815. It targets the small floating 8” +- outside diameter TVA channel aids to navigation really well. Like C lectric I’am still learning all of the features it offers. Installed it my self. Love how Furuno kept the same bolt down pattern for the antennas, never imagined a twenty plus year old open array antenna bolt pattern would be duplicated on the new 1815 antenna, it made the install to the mast mount minutes not hours.
Thanks Furuno

 

[wdbox]

Here on the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, most of the year, you can almost walk from crabpot to crabpot. Most of the floats are made from cork or plastic. Neither one of these materials is a good radar reflector. With the older analog radars and a flat sea if you fool around with the tuning you MIGHT see a few at close range. The new digital radars are better but again require tuning. The automatic gain setting that most of us use will not do it. Also, if there's any chop the returns are lost in the sea clutter.

Depending on your radar to avoid crab or lobster pots will produce the same results as depending on luck to miss them. It will not work, eventually you will get one wrapped around your prop.

Most radars when set to a range of a mile or less will display a day markers as solid returns. Anything smaller, unless it is a rock steady picture, should be questioned. Radar on a trawler is the most useful when operating in fog. You can run it with the automatic tune settings and it should reliably show you other boats. Also if you are going to operate in fog than I would highly recommend an AIS transponder.

 

[Steve91T]

Thanks guys! I think we are going to go with the Furuno 1st watch. I think I’ll grab a used iPad and keep it on the boat for the radar. The fact that it has a chart that it can overlay is really nice. I will admit that I found with our Mainship that rarely was the radar used because of the really narrow ICW. Plus most of our cruising is in daytime VFR conditions, although I’d like to have an option of some nite time cruising.

I have been using Aqua Maps for navigation. Is there much difference between that and a dedicated chart plotter?

Also the difference between sonar and a regular depth finder, can you actually see the bottom in front of you before you get there?

 

[High Wire]

I love everything about it, but it won’t see things like crab pots, right?

The answer to this question is no. Conventional pulse radar cannot see objects that close to the boat. You would see them with your eyes much easier. If there’s any ripples in the water at all even broadband radar is going to miss some.

 

[wdbox]

There are a few new sonar systems that have a limited "look ahead" capability. They are not cheap and require a marine chart plotter (MFD) for operation.The conventional sonar or depth finder just displays a small part of the bottom directly below the transducer location.

 

[twistedtree]

The answer to this question is no. Conventional pulse radar cannot see objects that close to the boat. You would see them with your eyes much easier. If there’s any ripples in the water at all even broadband radar is going to miss some.

25m is the typical cut off for a conventional pulse radar, so 75'. If you are using your radar for something closer than that, you have much bigger problems.

 

[Steve91T]

Ok thanks guys. I just wanted to make sure I was choosing the right radar. It was tough when I really wasn’t sure the strengths and weaknesses of the different types.

 

[stubones99]

What do you guys think of this custom radar mast? I can't imagine someone building this where the cross member is in line with the forward Furuno radar. You won't see anything but chrome on the lower radar from the rear.
And if you didn't wouldn't you shorten the post mount of the forward radar to put it closer to the deck and get some use of the aft radar?

 

[IRENE]

I share your concern about the location of the antennas, and raise additional concern about the dome to the starboard. There is no point in buying all of the quality toys, only to hinder their performance with a poor installation. I have purchased new Navico and Raymarine units in the past few years, and the instructions are very clear about antenna (my words) field of view.

 

[Moonfish]

Steve's interest in purchasing the Furuno 1st watch Wireless radar led us to create a $100 Trawler Forum discount in our online store. Anyone here (and your friends, too) just enter this promo code: TFDRS4W

That'll make the unit $995 plus shipping and any applicable sales tax (MSRP on the DRS4W is $1,245).

 

[captjamied]

my choice...

I needed aradar in a pinch...I had just purchased my boat with no working radar or chart plotter and I had to get her up the coast. My choice was a Furuno First Watch and Open CPN on a lap top.
https://www.furuno.com/special/en/wireless/radar/
I am very happy I did.
I have since purchased a JRC radar, but having the Furuno as a back up is really a piece of mind...

 

[boatguybill]

Steve -

You might be interested in the Furuno 1st Watch Wireless Radar (DRS4W). It's designed for the iPad. We've been transitioning to all iOS devices for navigation, and the DRS4W fits perfectly into that realm. VERY easy to install and use. And it will display on two iOS devices simultaneously. It's nice I can take my iPhone up on the flybridge and keep an eye on the radar. Plus, it will overlay seamlessly on the TZ iBoat Navigation App (which has replaced Navionics on our boat), even in 3D and using satellite imagery. We think it's pretty cool!

Here's the video we made of installing and testing it: https://youtu.be/prCtdALeWV8

We've also recently been approved as Furuno retailers so we'll be offering the DRS4W in our online store next week at $150 off ($1,050) as an introductory price.

This post and #23. Make a Vesper AIS transceiver with WiFi your backbone. Tie in the depthsounder data from the sounder you have, if you can. Then run and view it all on your iPad. A thing of beauty for WAY less money. Heck, buy a backup iPad if you like. They’re cheap compared to MFDs.

 

[Kit_L]

This is not about radar (but I have bookmarked this thread: gold) but about backup GPS devices.

I will be using a full-size iPad, coupled to one of the new Garmin GLO GPS devices ($99!). These see all the major satellites; the accuracy of the Navionics charts (about $85 here for the full set) with the GLO is frankly amazing: literally accurate to the metre.

Low cost redundancy with a beautiful screen in a waterproof case: excellent.

 

[koliver]

My boat came with a big, very old tech open array Furuno Radar that had no difficulty in calm conditions, picking up seagulls, deadheads, crab floats, what have you. When it died, the cost of rehab was about the same as the cost of my JRC closed array 4kw unit. This one will also pick up small objects quite well, though avoiding crab floats is better done with a searchlight, as when you come up on them, they will disappear off the Radar when you get close.
As for spending less, I have avoided MFD displays and therefore have lots of stand alone stuff. My charts are on a larger than usual screen, on my laptop at 16", and I am very happy with that. The MFDs on the RCMSAR rescue boat display both radar and charts, so the chart display gets only a tiny portion of the screen of its own, about the size of the one I have on my dinghy, about 5" diagonal. I don't find those easy to work with, but on that boat there is no real estate in which to have several stand alone units.
Perhaps I am just spoiled with my big screen.

 

[Phil23]

I have had numerous radars over the years both in commercial environments and private use.
Obviously it depends on your intended use/travel I am now only doing coastal cruising and have installed the Furuno wireless unit via an Ipad a "little ripper" in my application only draw back is the old sun on screen situation however all you have to do is pick up the Ipad and turn around/shift no wiring/cable hassles just wire into 12 volt Dc and do your business

 

[Nepidae]

I happen to have a 24xHD Garmin Radome that I purchased and had it mounted for about 4mo before I bought their Fantom radar. Still has some warranty.


Everything you need still in box.


If your interested, let me know.

 

[Cigatoo]

I have a Lowrance HDS-7 multifunction display and one of their broadband radars. If you want to see targets like crab pot floats you will need a broadband radar (Lowrance, Simrad, B&G) (also called Quantum - Raymarine, Doppler - Furuno, and Fantom - Garmin). That type of radar uses a fundamentally different technology and is all solid state - no magnetron tube and uses much lower transmit power.


I prefer a multifunction display that allows you to overlay radar returns on the chart display. To do that with my system I had to add a heading sensor.


Note that Lowrance, Furuno and B&G are all the same company with different target markets. Lowrance is the cheapest, but essentially the same as Simrad and B&G. You can buy a Lowrance HDS-7 Carbon MFD with integral charts, a BR3 broadband radar antenna and a Point-1 heading sensor for about $2,250. You can also find a similar Simrad system for about the same price. That will give you a chart plotter, radar and, if you buy a sonar transducer, sonar all in one unit.


It is easy to install these systems yourself if you understand the basics of DC wiring and can read the instructions. The radar simply plugs into the MFD. The radar does require separate power wiring, but that is no big deal. The hardest part is pulling the radar cable from where you mount the radar to the display unit.


Alternatively you can buy a Furuno antenna that does not have its own display and uses your Ipad (or I-phone) as the display. That antenna requires that you pull power wiring to the antenna, but the connection to your I-device is wireless. This is probably the cheapest option you can implement (~1,000) for the Furuno First Watch Wireless Radar. This is stand alone radar (no chart possibility) that uses magnetron tech so you won't get the sensitivity for targets like crab pot floats.

The Nobletec Time Zero chart plotter program on my IPad has the capability to overlay the Furuno 1st Watch (wireless) Radar on the chart plotter IPad. No 1st hand experience as I do not use it.

 

[Cheechako]

Garmin GPSMAP 742 xs Chartplotter with GMR 24" xHD dome radar. Affordable, reliable, and feature loaded. Very satisfied.


Regardless of the system you eventually decide, insist that your new electronics will include the essential Radar-Over-Charts feature. Nothing makes more difference to me when on the water than Radar Over Charts. As we all know, charts can vary in accuracy and marine structures can move (bouys, shoals). In contrast, Radar shows you what is actually out there right now, and the distances are more accurate than the printed charts.



The issue then becomes interpreting the Radar reflections and deciding what is land, what is boat moving towards you, etc. In reduced visibility, this is where Radar is the essential tool.



With Radar-Over-Charts, the reflections are displayed on your Chartplotter screen as a layer on top of your charts. A reflection that is not associated with a corresponding chart entry is most probably a boat.



With my Garmin, I can see buoys ahead, and they are clearly labeled on the charts and there is a corresponding Radar reflection most of the time. Same for land masses, small islands, pilings. So, you get an immediate confirmation that a reflection represents a known (charted) structure. All other reflections are either a boat in the water (or noise).


Radar-Over-Charts !!! For my money, that is what modern electronic systems must have to be useful, esp for the hobby or non-professional boater.


Thanks