Garmin 1242xsv or Simrad NSS12 evo3?

kmarsh724

I'm taking a look at upgrading my Navigation and Sonar system, I made the mistake of upgrading a few years ago and went way too small.  I have a 21.8 CC Sailfish and currently have the Garmin 62.  I'm taking a look at either the Garmin 1242xsv or the Simrad NSS12 evo3.  I mainly drift fish and troll in 100' - 200' around Palm Beach to Jupiter.  Any preferences, pros/cons, advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance! 

John McKroid

I had a Garmin Echo Map 9sv and the down view picture on the older non-side scan Raymarine I was replacing was better.  As a kid the headboats I worked on all had Simrad - loved those old graph units.  My prejudice would be for the Simrad.

JWPB

I'm pretty sure the xsv has the navionics charts they bought a few years ago. 

I resisted Garmin for years and finally switched to the 8612xsv when I could get those maps I like.  If you want super fancy you need 2 transducers to bounce signal around.  I skipped that and went with a 1k thru hull and happy enough. But I'm not picking out holes and ledges like you see in ads.  get the maps you like and make sure you are clear what chirp functionality available with 1 or 2 transducers and what kind of transducer.

Also, with 12 inch you can split screen and also add other data around frame.  Are you going to use navigation screen with depth and other info around it, sonar screen with nav info on frame around, or split screen and both on at same time?   I rarely split screen at 12 inches so maybe a 10 inch screen would serve your needs and then spend the $ on second transducer.

You really should fish someone's boat with each and play with them real time.  Garmin has lots of active captain stuff I also ignore, but others may feel useful. 

CaptJ

I installed a pair of 1242 xsv units and am still in the learning curve. Use one for depth and the other for nav. I have a 1K transducer and compared to my Furuno 587 the Garmin does a very good job of marking bottom and fish. I'm still exploring the many features of these units and am really impressed with the support I've received from Garmin. I mainly bottom fish from 40' to over 1800'. I know, quite the spread, but the options and performance is really outstanding as a bottom machine. The mapping features are extensive as well. Don't know about the Simrad units as I haven't used them, but I think most of the current crop of machines do a great job. Just have to really get into the nuts and bolts of the different functions to tune them to your needs.

Garysmo

I have twin Garmin 1242 xsv units and have had a few issues.  I had them installed with Garmin auto-pilot and radar in my new boat about 1 1/2 yrs ago.  I had a unit fail two weeks after getting the boat.  Replaced under warranty...had another one fail two weeks after that, replaced under warranty. Since then they have worked fine.  

However this is afternoon both units started acting up and would go dark after about a minute.  I didn't have a ton of time to play with them so I'm hoping someone hit a setting when I wasn't at the helm.

I know others who have these units without issue but just wanted to share a few thoughts.

Garysmo

Quick followup...a backlight setting got changed.  I spoke to again support and they explained the issue.  I called this morning and got right through to a person.  Have to say their support was good.

On the positive side the issue caused me to read the manuals again and I found a bunch of things I'm going to start using.

CaptJ

Garysmo said:

Quick followup...a backlight setting got changed.  I spoke to again support and they explained the issue.  I called this morning and got right through to a person.  Have to say their support was good.

On the positive side the issue caused me to read the manuals again and I found a bunch of things I'm going to start using.

I read the manual from time to time and constantly find things I was not aware of, very robust machines. Incredible amount of options.