Furuno 1870f Fishfinder Gps

[seasick]

About to purchase a Furuno 1870 with transom mount 50/200khz transducer for trolling Lake Ontario (10' to 400 '). Does anyone have experience using this unit good or bad? Thanks

Edited December 18, 2015 by seasick

[J.D.]

I have the 620, and use the  Airmar P66 50/200 khz. transducer. 4 seasons and I still like it. Check Hodges Marine Electronics, I got my best price there....

[markdaniel]

Very nice unit.  You will be pleased.

[CaptSpike]

I bought this unit for my boat last year. I love the fish finder. The mapping for Ontario was fine but for me some of the lakes I fish local (NH) it left much to be desired. The customer support was exceptional as I complained about the charting on the lake I fish the most and they investigated and found an error in the program. They fixed the error and sent me a chip just of that lake with the fixed chart. I was hoping the 3d charting would be cutting edge technology but I was not that impressed with it. Maybe if I was fishing the ocean it might have more of an impact but for the lakes I fished I didn't see the benefit. Again the FF is unbelievably good. If I had to purchase again I'd look hard at the Si-Tex brand as well. I had Si-Tex FF in the past and they are awesome as well. The Si-Tex unit also uses Navionics or C-Map 2d charts. I miss my Navionics chip. However if your just looking to fish Ontario you'll find the 3D C-map is just fine. It was explained to me that if there is an official Chart of a body of water that is what they use to create their chips. So basically their charts look just like a paper chart for the lake (if one exists).

The only complaint I read about Furuno units it they are not as user friendly. If you know your way around a FF and menus it isn't bad but if you don't it could be pretty cumbersome finding where your suppose to go to set certain settings. There are a million and one settings on this unit.

 

In closing I'm happy with my purchase and when mapping eventually migrates to 3d (if it does), and gets better on the smaller lakes, I'll have a unit already.

 

Spike