gps/fish finder, combo or seperate???

I bought a boat with an old finder/loran that doesn't work. I want to replace it with either a combo fishfinder/gps or a fish finder and a seperate gps. I have the room for 2 units and I was wondering what everybody elses experience has been? Any pros or cons from your experience? I was looking at the garmin 162 or 168 gps and gps/finder units and the freestanding garmin finders.

If I were you I would look at the Lorance products they have great resolution and their
customer service is great!!If you have a problem they will fix or replace the unit and turn it around in 48hrs or less!!!!

My experiance is Lowrance does have excellent customer service and very reliable products. The negative side is Lowrance GPS products only work with there propriter software. I own a Lowrance fish finder and think it is the best product I have ever owned in the fish finder category.However I also own a Lowrance Global map 100 which is a nice unit but lacks the good mapping upload/download capability that Garmin offers. I recommend purchasing a handheld GPS for the simple fact you can bring into your house plug it into your computer and plot ,route and do other things that are great.
I you plan on purchaseing a GPS I can help you decide what to get on the capabiliets of the unit.

I have various charting software and wished I had a Garmin instead of a Lowrance for this.
Hope that helps.

Id second FishmaterDans comments.

Buy a separate Garmin Fishfinder, and a separate handheld GPS.

The Fishfinder always stays on your boat, the handheld GPS you can use anywhere......

Always buy seperate units!!!
If one brake's down, you won't loose the use of it while the other is out for repair.



Cigar

I've got a Hummingbird (that came on my boat when I bought it) and it works fine and the Garmin Map 76S. I figured out how to load both my topo software and the bluechart software. I can see detailed maps on my computer and load routes into the gps from the computer.

As long as u have the room I would buy seperate units. I have a lowrance ff and personaly think its the sweet deal. My gps is garmin. and I always throw the hand held Garmin in the glovebox of the boat . Of course I think Murphy was an optimist too.

Herm

I have been fortunate enough to try out the Garmin, Lowrance and the Furuno combo units. They all are new models with similiar prices and all worked great. I found that the design of the Furuno was easier to use especially the sounder. The use of color on the GP 1650F makes the sounder data more accurate and reliable than the others. As far as the seperate units versus the combo, it depends on the boat, the way you use it and your budget. Currently I use a handheld GPS. After using these units, I understand why the dedicated marine GPS is so nice. with the handheld, I have had problems maintianig a fix with the top up or in rough seas. The hard wired, remote antenna units are far more usable. For me the seperate furuno units make the most sense.

I am with Fishtale on this one. I have two combo units on my boat-both Lowrances. I have the older LMS350A which is just a plotter with a blank screen and you put in the info. It also has the fishfinder which has a ton of power to read deep water. Next I have the newer Lowrance LCX15MT. It is a combo. I love this unit and it is fully upgradable over the internet. The Navionics charts you buy for them (which have come down in price tremendously) always had the tide and current info. When I bought the unit it did not have this. I fully upgraded it over the internet several times now. The tide and curent info is in it now. This baby has 3000 watts of power and You can actually see shrimp on the bottom for setting shrimp pots. It is very clear reading. I am very satisfied with these units. You need a lot of power if you go in deep saltwater. What ever you choose, make sure the transducer has less than 200 KHZ. This will read the best in saltwater and for deep bottoms. I can read over 800 feet in saltwater with these. I like to halibut fish in the ocean and some fishfinders cannot handle this. I also carry a spare handheld on board too. I really like the fine pixels on the LCX15. If you have a cell phone and have a question while on the water you can call customer support and they will tell you the answer. Both of these units do a million and one things. I am sold on Lowrance. PS I bought my maps before you could get a huge map for $299. Mine were 299.00 each. Still happy with it tho. Just my opion. Good luck.

Baddawg, If space isn't a concern I would recommend seperate units, for the same reasons already mentioned.
I would (as many here already know) recommend Garmin, they put out an excellent product, at great prices with great customer support.
As for which units, it sounds as though your a little undecided on whether or not to go with a handheld or fixed mount, if its strictly for fishing I would go with a fixed mount, if your a hunter-hiker or want to use in a car, go with a handheld, the main draw back I have with handhelds is screen size, they are small and at times hard to read.
The units you mentioned are very good "entry level" units, 1 thing to consider with them is their limited download capabilities (2.5 megs) also, the 168 you mention only has a 150 watt RMS fishfinder which won't cut it for serious saltwater use.
A great setup that would serve you well for years would be a Garmin 182 chartplotter matched up with either a 160 or 240 Blue fishfinder (500watt rms,4000 peak-to-peak), if you want a single unit the 188 is a combination unit that has a 240 blue built into a 182.
Another consideration is software/downloads, the Garmin units only accept Garmin software (proprietery) which is as good as Navionics and better then c-map and is the least expensive of the 3.
As for handhelds, the Map76 comes with all the bells and whistles (including celestial/tide tables built-in) and is probably the most user friendly gps out there.
If you can hold out on buying till mid Jan. (Boat show) prices will be roughly 10% off what you'll find in the stores now (BoatersWorld/Westmarine)