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Garmin or Lowrance

Shine'r

Member
Ok guys and gals...... getting ready to buy a new GPS which should it be? Garmin 296 (don't need the weather)
or the Lowrance 2000C . How about some input, which one should I buy and of course WHY. Thanks for the help
Shine'r
 
Just had the same decision a few months ago. I tried the Lowrance first. I like to use Vnav. The lowrance does not have Vnav. I know, they say it does, but you have to input all information every time. It's just a calculator. Lowrance is too big physically for my taste. Also you cannot change the scale when you are in "auto zoom" like you can with Garmin. These are minor things that may or may not be your preference. But these are the things that made my decision.
Mel...DAR
 
Mel,

Can you explain "... you cannot change the scale when you are in "auto zoom" like you can with Garmin."

Maybe I don't understand autozoom..., I know you can easily change the screen scale by a touch with either unit. Personally, my aging eyes prefer the larger Lawrence 2000 screen.
 
Lowrance is my pick.

Shiner,

I'm a Garmin guy from way back. I own two Garmins in addition to the Lowrance. However, the Lowrance is our choice for the RV-8.

Here are my reasons for liking the Lowrance;

1. The screen is oriented in the correct way.
By that I mean it is in Portrait orientation rather than Landscape. Why Garmin think that you might be more interested in what is beside you rather than what is in front of you is beyond my comprehension.

2. Although the resolution is less than the Garmin, the font size is just right for my ancient eyes.

3. I like that I can download into the SD cards whatever mapping level I choose. I currently have the Canadian Topo mapset downloaded for the entire B.C. and NWT with every tiny creek and duckpond shown. Not to mention roads with addresses.

4. I have just installed the Lowrance Terrain Awareness SD card which is pretty good. The elevations are shown in relief rather than contour lines as in the Topo map sets but the presentation is good.

5. This unit is very good for reading in the sunshine.

6. The unit is capable of running an autopilot and Trio Avionics have set up our A/P to run off the Lowrance. The update interval is every second.

Having flown to Wisconsin using this unit last summer from the Canadian West Coast, I was very happy with the performance of the unit.( I was in an RV-4) After crossing the border, I never used charts again. It was all there. Even zipping under Milwaukee's control zone on the way into Racine was a breeze with the Lowrance giving me the warnings and the layers of the wedding cake.

If someone stole this unit, I would buy another one.

Cheers, Pete
 
Kitplanes magazine did a side by side comparison between these two units last year. In the end, the 296 was the "hands down" winner due to it's resolution and user interface.

They mentioned that the resolution and color of the 296 made it much easier to define overlapping airspace boundary's, where the Lowrance appeared to blend some together, and was harder to define.

I myself, think highly of improved resolution, as I don't like the blocky look. I also found that I like the landscape mode, even though my older Garmin used the portrait view.

My Trio A/P is also connected to the 296's output.
 
Price

One thing everyone left out is price.If you shop around you can almost buy 2 Lowrances for the price of one Garmin. I have used Lowrance since they first came on the scene many years ago and they have never let me down.

Ollie 6a
 
Evil Empire

And don't forget Garmin is the Evil Empire building their monopoly slowly but surely.

Check out the new Lowrance 600C. Looks pretty cool. Smaller, but has neat Terrain features . ..

TDT
 
Mike,
Unless they have changed since I tried it, with the Lowrance, you must be in manual zoom to change scales. In the auto zoom mode you cannot change the scale without first changing to manual zoom.
I will certainly admit that there are several things I like about the Lowrance; mainly the vertical orientation of the screen. But just the physical size made it difficult to use in the -6.
Mel...DAR
 
I've been a longtime Garmin user but this time around I went with a Lowrance unit. I went with the new 600C model because in my RV-4 I don't have much room. I have to confess I really like the unit. It's not as configurable as the Garmin unit and I'm still getting used to the interface but overall I really like it. It locks on quick, has great resolution, terrain awareness, SD cards for hi-rez mapping, ground navigation mode, marine navigation mode, all for $500. Not bad.
 
I will certainly admit that there are several things I like about the Lowrance; mainly the vertical orientation of the screen. But just the physical size made it difficult to use in the -6.

The large Lowrance Airmap 1000 fits nicely in my RV-6, my eyes appreciate it, and my wallet really liked it! :D

panel_07-05.jpg


Does a fine job of driving the very capable EZ-Pilot, too. The only quirk of the Lowrance units when used with the Trio units is that Lowrance doesn't send the standard airport identifier via the NMEA data stream. The EZ-Pilot works precisely as advertised, but the waypoint in the EZ-Pilot display will be a number instead of a K-indentifier. The same issue was present in my old Airmap 100. If I forget where I've pointed the plane, I just glance over at the GPS. ;)

Sam Buchanan
 
product support

My experience with Lowrance left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I was pretty unimpressed with how they supported, or failed to support, my Airmap. I basically got to use it for a little over a year (I bought it new) before it became obsolete (database became too big for the unit). They offered me $100 for it if I bought another of their models. I am sure Lowrance knew that memory size would soon be an issue for the unit. Buyer beware you may say, but I view it as borderline deceitful. Then to offer to buy the unit back for a fraction of its purchase price is a great way to treat customers. How difficult could it have been to charge the customer for a memory upgrade? Maybe that would have been cost prohibitive, who knows.

Has this sort of thing happened to the Garmin 296 people?

Antony
 
I'd like to chime in here as a budget limited shopper. A couple weeks ago, I found a dealer for the Lowrance 2000C who was selling them for $695 plus $12 shipping (SnF special carryover). He told me about a rebate program that allowed an additional $225 for trading in my old Airmap 300. I gave him my credit card info and received the unit 2 days later.

In the meantime, per his instructions, a call to Lowrance got me an RMA number to ship my old unit in for the credit. Within a week, the credit letter arrived and the $225 credit was issued...net cost: $470!

I use it in my RV4 on a kneeboard and it works like a charm. It also comes with a bunch of different mounts and several CD's for loading auto stuff.

The dealer I got it from is "Rollison Airplane Company", www.AirplaneGear.com, 812-384-4972....very prompt transactions.

Mitch Garner
RV-4 N10TH
 
Lowrance

I have been a Garmin guy for a long time. I never even looked at Lowrance untill a buddy showed me one he was selling since he picked up the color model. I was shocked at the value you get for the $$$. You can get the 600C for HALF the price of a color Garmin.
 
Garmin is the new Bendix/King

I've been buying Garmin GPS units since the days when Beindix/King owned the market, and acted like they thought that situation would never change. Today, Garmin has taken over the role of the "take it or leave it" monolith.

I had a problem with my 295: turn it on, go to the moving map page, and the unit would shut itself off. Called Garmin support: send it in with a check for $250 and we'll fix it. Having been around computers since I bought a TRS-80 Model I back in the 70's, I figured this to be more of a software glitch than a hardware problem since it only happened with one of the pages. No way I was blindly sending then $250 for that. A little time with Google led me to a little internet backwater where I found a list of the apparently trade-secret master reboot codes for Garmin GPS units. Three finger salute and the problem was resolved.

It is inconceivable to me that Garmin has never heard of the problem I had, and equally inconceivable that the first response from the tech support team wasn't to suggest trying a reboot. I also find it somewhat less than customer friendly to not have the reboot codes available on their support web site. Al I can assume is that they make a bundle on charging $250 to press three keys. Yes, I understand that $250 is a blended flat rate, and if I had a $500 fix it would look like a bargain, but as the first step in the support process, I find their motives questionable.

The whole thing left me wondering why I would ever buy another Garmin unit.

Having shared my $.02 on the topic, I now have $249.98 left in the bank for my next Garmin support issue.

aparchment said:
My experience with Lowrance left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I was pretty unimpressed with how they supported, or failed to support, my Airmap. I basically got to use it for a little over a year (I bought it new) before it became obsolete (database became too big for the unit). They offered me $100 for it if I bought another of their models. I am sure Lowrance knew that memory size would soon be an issue for the unit. Buyer beware you may say, but I view it as borderline deceitful. Then to offer to buy the unit back for a fraction of its purchase price is a great way to treat customers. How difficult could it have been to charge the customer for a memory upgrade? Maybe that would have been cost prohibitive, who knows.

Has this sort of thing happened to the Garmin 296 people?

Antony
 
Lowrance

All,

The 2000C can be flown in the "auto zoom" mode and if you need a closer look you can zoom in to check an airport identifier, lake name, highway name, whatever!, and within a short time delay, the Lowrance returns to the auto zoom range for your route.

I keep one of the nav maps on auto zoom and one on manual. I can navigate out of the DFW Class B using the manual map and then switch to the other when I don't need as much surface detail.

I've been a Lowrance user since 1998 and have never had a problem with them. I prefer my 2000C over my panel mounted Garmin, any day of the week!
 
mrreddick said:
I prefer my 2000C over my panel mounted Garmin, any day of the week!

The resolution and memory of a panel mounted Garmin 430/530 is much lower compared to a Garmin 296/396.

How about the 2000C versus the Garmin 1000 panel mount? :D
 
Larry,
It seems to me the resolution issue might be significant if you use the 396 as a handheld (close to your eyes) or mounted a "steering wheel", but not if it is mounted on the panel. On the panel, bigger seems better to me, particularly with the digital number displays. ;)
 
I bought an Airmap 100 in 1999 at Oshkosh. I would have bought a Garmin but I needed a vertical orientation for the only place I can mount it. If you buy a Garmin with vertical orientation, the buttons are above the screen, you cover the screen every time you push a button. That was unacceptable. I bought the Airmap 100 and have been very happy with it. I recently tried to upgrade the database and was told the about the memory size and the $100 trade-in. I will probably buy an Airmap 500 or 600C but will not trade in the Airmap 100. I will use a RAM mount to attach it to the seat back support so my wife can play with it and navigate from the back seat. She will love it and it will be worth a lot more than $100 to her.

Karl
 
cobra said:
Larry,
It seems to me the resolution issue might be significant if you use the 396 as a handheld (close to your eyes) or mounted a "steering wheel", but not if it is mounted on the panel. On the panel, bigger seems better to me, particularly with the digital number displays. ;)

Mike,

The Garmin 1000 "glass panel" system uses 1024*768 resolution for it's 10 & 15" MFD displays. The Avidyne Entegra uses 800*600, and the difference is quite noticeable. High res gets rid of the "blocky" look.

With the 296/396 you have choices for sizing the letters & numbers, as well as a host of other display options, and I'll assume the same with the Garmin 1000.
 
Garmin or Lorance

[/IMG]I have the Lorance 1000 and I must admit I think it is a great value and very easy to read with old eyes. But the Garmin has a logbook feature that I wish I had. I wanted to upgrade at Sun-N-Fun to the 2000 but the color did not show up in the sun as well as the 1000 mono-chrome.
 
I have a Lowrance 2000c and really like it for all the reasons already described. My son has the Garman 296 and he really likes it. We both have RV-4's. Each gps unit has it's advantages and drawbacks. Trying to be completely fair I think the 296 is a bit more user friendly and does have a bit more information available about airports and services. It also has an instrument page that is sometimes nice.

The 296 also displayes a bit more overlay information than the 2000c such as ground speed, altitude, ete, and distance remaining. The 2000c does these things just fewer at a time. Seems like I run out of overlay available at 3 items. The 296 displays at least 4 items at a time.

The Lowrance has a big advantage in price. And, I really like it's size of display for my aging eyes (although I didn't have a problem with the 296). The 296 also has a big advantage in battery life. We flew from south of Houston TX to Vancouver, WA on one charge with the 296. The 2000c required airplane power. It's own batteries will probably only go about 5 minutes. Forget buying the external battery for the 2000c as I never would have room for that.

In the end each have advantages and compromises. I can live with the compromises of the 2000c and I am very happy with it. My son loves his 296 and is talking about getting a 396 for the WX.

Either unit becomes a bit of a challenge for room in an RV-4. We both have them mounted down by the fuel selector valve. Out of the sun and seems to work pretty good there. No room on the panel in a -4 for either. At least not on either of our panels. Good luck in deciding. :D
 
Lowrance vs Garmin 1000

L Adamson wrote:

How about the 2000C versus the Garmin 1000 panel mount?


Okay! How many pallets of Lowrance 2000C's could I get for the price of one installed Garmin 1000 system? Hmmm.......... :rolleyes:
 
Has anyone else had problems with the color not showing up in the sunlight? What about the Garmin in the sunlight? For less than half the cost the 2000C is looking real good!!!!!!!!
 
Discounted 2000C

Shine'r said:
Has anyone else had problems with the color not showing up in the sunlight? What about the Garmin in the sunlight? For less than half the cost the 2000C is looking real good!!!!!!!!

And check out PAcific Coast-
http://www.pacificcoastavionics.com

Is that a mistake? $699 for a 2000C?
I just read this thread and started looking at the differences and ... wow :eek: Ther must be no accessories included or something? what a deal mon!
Brad
 
Airmap 2000C

AZtailwind said:
And check out PAcific Coast-
http://www.pacificcoastavionics.com

Is that a mistake? $699 for a 2000C?
I just read this thread and started looking at the differences and ... wow :eek: Ther must be no accessories included or something? what a deal mon!
Brad
That's the price I get. Wow - that is really a lot cheaper than the 296. I hope they come out with a model with weather and traffic!
 
Dont forget the the 2000C also comes with "free" software for auto navigation- the Garman charges a bundle extra for theirs. It doesn't do weather mapping yet :mad:
 
cobra said:
Dont forget the the 2000C also comes with "free" software for auto navigation- the Garman charges a bundle extra for theirs. It doesn't do weather mapping yet :mad:

Out of curiosity, how much does a weather subscription for a 296 cost each month?
 
Only the 396 has WX- expect a one time charge of $75+ either $30 or $50/month for the weather data feed depending on level of service options. Id expect you will have to suscribe to XM radio as well (~10/month).
 
XM Weather Cost

The costs/service for XM are here: XM Aviation Weather
You don't have to subscribe to XM radio, but its only $6.99 to add it to a weather subscription (click on the .pdf pricing guide on the left).
 
$30 a month doesn't sound too bad, but $50... ouch. That would mean $600 a year extra! I'm not sure I'd get even $360 worth out of it, though if someone were determined to try to weave their way around or through storms it would be a nice thing to have.

Lowrance 2000C, sans weather, is looking pretty good at $699, particularly since I'm "budget" ($50K +/-)building. Other's I've heard, on this forum as elsewhere, have indicated the lowrance resolution is more than adequate, though I'm sure that is a preference thing. Fortunately I've still got 12 months or so before I have to commit.
 
For what it's worth, I have an AirMap 1000 and I love it. I'll continue to use it until Lowrance comes out with a Wx solution (and maybe even traffic someday). Then I'll upgrade to that. I really like the Garmin stuff, but it's not a good value IMHO.
 
cobra said:
Dont forget the the 2000C also comes with "free" software for auto navigation- the Garman charges a bundle extra for theirs. It doesn't do weather mapping yet :mad:

My Garmin 296 has the "basic auto interstates, city's, major highways, & marine" data-bases built in. High detail city streets, shopping. etc. are in the add on packs.
 
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