Any Lowrance Users? Advice and Feedback

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0A072CC0-CDFC-4967-9B11-D39F9DB58D38.jpeg Hello,

Anyone use Lowrance for off road navigation and Overland? I saw they are marketing their HDS5 and HDS7 systems toward this market. How have you mounted the system? How have you wired it to the vehicle? Reviews, photos, and descriptions appreciated!

Thanks
 
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Flipper

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Better make sure land maps and topo software and not just charts for the water are available another issue is going to be an internal or external antenna depending where you mount it if you have a soft top no problem, center of the cab down on the center console with a metal hardtop your going to have an issue. Before I retired I sold and installed marine electronics for years. Any questions I will be glad to help.
 

nickburt

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Just had a quick look on a few websites here in the UK. Expensive and over clever for what we need as Overlanders, and I suspect, difficult to get land based Topos on to it,
 

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I use a first gen HDS 7 with basic land mapping. Since that's what we race with in Baja 1000, I've been using it on long trips in addition to my Garmin. The HDS is on passenger side angled toward driver using a Ram suction cup. I put a micro fiber towel on dash area underneath unit so it can rest on solid surface. It's to heavy to free mount with suction cup. I like it because it allows you to use either it's internal antenna or you can use the external unit which has faster refresh rate. I also have my speed enlarged on the screen as well as elevation. It's really good for following tracks where you've already gone if you have to backtrack. I can put up a picture if anyone is interested.
 
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Cam_Cam_Tech

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Old topic but I also run a Lowrance, same as Mark Low we use it for the race in Baja. I also run a Ram 3 suction cup rested on the dash so it doesnt move. It works great if you really just need to follow a pre loaded trail or making a new one. Its set up to make a track as you go so you can either backtrack or save that as a file. Can make notes and drop lots of waypoints. Both PCI and another web site sell you a chip with their western states top/street/offoroad maps. I think you really need to run another program along side lowrance for using it in the states as your main gps. Something like Gaia on you phone where you have access to sat images or US forest service overlays.
The unit is hardwire into your vehicle and most units have internal antenna built into it. I do run an external on mine. Once thing we have found is that even with the western states mapping its not perfectly aligned with the road in a est/west direction up here (Californai). Like the overlay is shifted slighly. It actually works better in Baja haha. But lowrance is made and works out of baja now.

Here are some files you would need to make it usable in the states:
https://www.pciraceradios.com/collections/mapping
 
Old topic but I also run a Lowrance, same as Mark Low we use it for the race in Baja. I also run a Ram 3 suction cup rested on the dash so it doesnt move. It works great if you really just need to follow a pre loaded trail or making a new one. Its set up to make a track as you go so you can either backtrack or save that as a file. Can make notes and drop lots of waypoints. Both PCI and another web site sell you a chip with their western states top/street/offoroad maps. I think you really need to run another program along side lowrance for using it in the states as your main gps. Something like Gaia on you phone where you have access to sat images or US forest service overlays.
The unit is hardwire into your vehicle and most units have internal antenna built into it. I do run an external on mine. Once thing we have found is that even with the western states mapping its not perfectly aligned with the road in a est/west direction up here (Californai). Like the overlay is shifted slighly. It actually works better in Baja haha. But lowrance is made and works out of baja now.

Here are some files you would need to make it usable in the states:
https://www.pciraceradios.com/collections/mapping

Thanks for all the great information!