Fish Finder Thoughts Needed

[YakDout]

You should have no problems getting a gen 2 HDS 5 with warranty out the door for less than $500. And you will love it.

[2-Stix]

Thanks fellas, great info...
I am watching the sales at West Marine...and on the hunt for a finder.

My next question is...I have a Hobie Outback...should I buy the Hobie Fish Finder III set up? Or build my own wiring/battery/charger set up? The battery and charger at West Marine was going to be about $250 before parts and wire. Lets call it $300 out the door. The Hobie set up is like $125. Much smaller battery which is great for weight. I put in at 6:00am and fish till 4:00 most of the time. How good or bad is the Hobie battery/charger set up? If is fished a few days in a row will it charge over night?

Thanks.

[Hunters Pa]

250 for a battery and charger? What kind of battery? I get 12 volt that last me all day from a local electronics place if you can't get to OEX

[radastaff]

use to buy the cabelas 12v battery, 9 amp I think
but after one got puffy on me,
last one I got was from amazon
12v and 10.5 amp
around 25 bucks
chrome brand
still going strong

http://www.amazon.com/BATTERY-10-5AH...036166&sr=1-17

the more amps the better
but size was/is an issue for me
has to fit in my box I bought from Fry's

this is the charger I have been using for some years now
works ok for the car too

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender...battery+tender
battery tender about 28 bucks

found this too
might be relevant...

http://slickdeals.net/f/8094462-mono...-free-shipping




with the plus 2 year plan
if the finder is over 400.00 at west marine
and past the 1 year manufacture warranty
they will want (you/them not sure yet)to send the unit back to the manufacture
rather than just replace in store
its in the small print at the back of the brochure
and what I'm in the process of dealing with

also
register the unit as soon as u can after purchase
they could not find my upc item no.
because I waited to0 long and they had puter issues since my purchase
year and a few months ago

there was some confusion with my issue
now I have to wait a few days for a call back
after making two trips to west marine
emailing them copies of my receipts
and a lengthy phone call to Texas

ugg

P

oh yeah
the issue was it loosing bottom while in auto mode
supposedly a firmware flash should fix
but I was having probs getting the card slot in the finder to see the card
and thinking that the corrosion it got might be the cause