Simrad

MK_FishAmeila904

Whats your thoughts on the simrad series, im thinking about getting the eo5

1outlaw

Have had the G07 for a year and half now with the total scan transducer. Love it! My FMT mapping card works perfectly in the unit. Only regret is not going with the 9...Plan to upgrade soon!

surfman

They have a very good reputation, commercial guys almost always used to use them exclusively from what i saw.

StayinLazy

I have the G09 and am 100% pleased with it so far

mikenav

Those GO series units are REALLY nice. I have a Raymarine, but I LOVE the Go's. The other thing to look for is, if you buy one of the Go Series by the end of July, you can get a $50 rebate when you buy a Navionics Regions card with it. Those two are a great combo and the $50 back doesn't hurt either. 

bordeaux

I have the Go9 and love it, I have the NMEA hooked up to it for my engine data its awesome

ANUMBER1

Always been a Furuno fan though I have a RM E80 in conjunction with a Furuno on my big boat.

I bought a GO7 for my 24 skiff as I wanted to try the total scan.
I hate it, it over heats and shuts down, it turns on by it's self while the boat is on the trailer and gets so hot I have to unplug it to turn it off then do a hard reset to get the screen to work and I lose all my data.
I bought the unit and didn't install it for 6 months so by the time I started having issues it was out of warranty.
Simrad told me I needed to update every week or so to resolve the problem, that didn't work, then told me that my wiring was the problem so I put it on an isolated circuit just to see, nope, didn't help either.

I've been commercial for 30 years and this unit by far is the biggest POS I have ever bought, you need to reach out to nick on the forum as he is on his 3rd or 4th unit in the last 2 years.

JMO

Widespread Panic

My last 2 have been Simrad, 12” EVO2 and a GO9, on different boats. I have the FMT chip on the GO9. 4 people that have fished with me have swapped to Simrad and a 5th person is looking for a deal on one this week.

For the money, I don’t think you can go wrong. The chart plotter on the GO9 seems to have a little more lag than the Lowrance Elite 5 it replaced. Total Scan holds bottom at 25 mph in less than 2 ft of water, this is the first unit I have run that would consistently hold bottom in less than 5 ft. It took me a couple hours to find one setting to allow water temp to work. I am happy with the GO9, wasn’t sure about touch screen only but no problems so far. 
 
I am a little over half a year on mine. I hope for myself and others that have swapped after fishing with me, that Anumber1 and Nick’s problems don’t start on the GO9s. 

Kapt.Hook

I have a go5 and an iPad... you can remotely control and view the simrad unit from the iPad. with the acceptation of radar the go5 and go9 have the same functions.

Egrets Landing

The 12" units have 2.67x better screen res of the smaller units.  The only exception is EVO3 9" and Carbon 9" which is better but still the 12" is 1.36x better.  If you run FMT imagery you can see the difference with the more capable screen.  If you run any of the other charts  you can't see any difference as the photos are lower quality so the charts will all look virtually the same no matter the screen size.    I think its best to avoid a GO series unit as there is no advantage to having only a touch screen.  It can be prone to response issues in wet conditions and the Go series is also only a single processor.  It's less expensive for a reason.  The EVO2s are the best machine for the money right now if you can find one.  The Elite Ti 9" or 12" are also good choices.

billfshr

I have 2 go 9 with side scan.love it.

Lurchy

love my Go9 with FMT chip.  You can be an expert in an unfamiliar area

Edko

I have an Evo2 with FMT.  Crystal clear even in the high sun and fast. Extremely accurate and more functions available than I use.  Quality product.