Just got a new old Ranger and am so confused over which to buy for console mounting. Seen the 53DV at F&S, looked awesome but the Hook 5 comes with a Navionics+ card which seem more detailed then Garmin.Wonder if someone went from one brand to the other or has experience with these units.Also how accurate are GPS on these as my last rig electronics had me second guessing.
Garmin won't need a map card and generally has better mapping/more lakes
It really depends on the lake as far as mapping. Garmin is better on some and Navionics is better on others. One thing I have noticed is that although the Navionics has more detail on some, sometimes it is not accurate. I know on Lake Fork there are some bridges that are 50' off. Again, just depends on the lakes.
SE Kansas grass grower
ROCK CHALK
Lowrance 100%
It will have much better down imaging and you don't have to buy a card. The mapping on a Garmin unit is a crap-shoot as to the quality and if your lake isn't on the unit you are out of luck.
I recently purchased the Chirp 53DV with the GT22HW transducer and the DownVu is stunning at 800HZ. Shows every twig on a submerged tree.
My first 53CV came with a CV22 transducer but I returned it after testing it on a local lake and viewing the same submerged tree with ClearVu 800HZ. The GT22 transducer picture is simply MUCH better.
LWINCHESTER2 did some comparison tests between the GT22 & CV22 transducer, see it for yourself here: http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=800878
The only issue that I can report is trying to download the 2017 LakeVu HD Ultra maps. I get 90% downloaded and then it stops with an error message. Frustrating as heck. Will call Garmin support this morning
Other than the Map download issue I am very pleased with this unit.
However, if Garmin support does not fix the map download issue today, I may very well insist on Garmin buying back my 53DV CHIRP and look into buying a Lowrance 5Ti or 7Ti with Totalscan. I had to modify the Garmin transducer bracket to fit my kayak so I can't return it to the GPS Store.
The same could be said about the navionics chip, except if it's not on there there is no quick draw to make your own mapOriginally Posted by fishinhacker
Reply With Quote
