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Does anyone have an opinion on the Lowrance LMS-480. It looks like a pretty nice little unit for the price. How are the maps for it (Nolin, Barren and Rough)? Just need a little info on this unit before I buy one. Not interested in paying 1K for a unit.
JUNK!! My brother has had 2 and neither have worked. Professionally installed too. A buddy of mine bought a boat with one on it, and we tried to load the card into my brother had for a trip to Guntersville....didn't work!!! Just my .02!
I've had one for two years now. Not a single problem. The units lake maps are just the basic outlines (shoreline). The lake map chips are just ok. I bought the Navionics Hot Maps Premium chip. I thought that all of the lake maps had the (HD) 1 foot contour details. Not so.
I should have read the fine print a little better. Only certain lakes have that detail. But the unit itself is great. I still have to learn all it can do!
Those two posts really helps ya out!!! Can you make a decision now?
I might need another opinion or two??!! Anyone else? What do you guys suggest if not this unit?
I have used one for two years and have had no problems at all once I learned how to use it. Laoding the maps is easy once you figure that out too.
What Map Chip do you guys suggest?
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-06 AT 10:44PM (EST)[/font][p]I looked at the lms480 when I was shopping around for a combo unit. I intended to get premium navionics chip to put on it, but had the sales person install that chip on lms480 and changed my mind. The contour lines were too hard to make out on the monochrome screen when showing a high detail lake. Then he put the chip in an lms332c, the detail on the color screen was excellent to say the least. I bought the lms 332c and installed on my console , liked the color so much I bought another one for the front deck. The first unit cost $649, but when you use the lowrance network that comes with the unit the second only cost $449 because you do not need a second gps antenna hence the $200 savings. AS far as the chips are concerned, if the premium chip has your lakes in high definition it can't be beat for detail. If not , I would go with the hot maps elite chip and wait for your lakes to be scaned in high def. You can see if your lakes are in hi def at navionics.com You can buy these units in any configuration (w/wo gps antenna,trolling motor or skimmer xducer) at cabelas.
I have Fish Elite 480 from eagle which is close to the same. I like it fine. I've always had Garmin before so I'm having to learn it all over. As far as map cards the Hot Spots have worked for me on Garmin and Lowrance/Eagle. They are 5 foot intervals I don't think I would want 1 foot intervals there would be to many lines for me. I do like Garmins software Mapsource better on the computer. Lowrances Map Create is not as easy to use IMHO.
I love my LMS-480.