• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

New Radar-Sitex or Furono? What is a Black Box Unit

wurzner

Member III
I am heavily favoring the Furono 1832 VX2 chart plotter/radar set up likely with the 22 inch radome versus the 18 inch. i'm deliberately staying away from Raymarine because I despise their fixed cost repair approach.

With the mount that I purchased on Ernie on this list, I plan on having a rear facing backstay swivel setup installed.

I would appreciate hearing from others who have or are planning radar installs in the near future.

thanks
shaun
 
Last edited:

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
I have settled on Furuno as well. After looking at the other gear it all pales in comparison to Furuno. That and when I head down to the docks, any of the docks, all I see in Furuno gear on the commercial boats. To me that speaks volumes.

I have settled on the 1724 or if we can swing it the 1824 chartplotter/radar unit. We already have a mast mounted 20yr old Furuno radar unit that still works great, must want to have it all at the helm. The 18" radome is okay with me, thats what we have now and it works fine. My wife is a GIS manager and CMap is the only choice for her as they are the only company that will provide the end user with source data so that you can see exactly where the information came from.

Currently I am looking for a local supplier for the Furuno gear. I would like to negotiate a deal on the equipment and installation. I am pretty sure I don't want to try a mast mount radar install.....

If not I will go with the best deal off the web and wing the install.

RT
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
As mentioned elsewhere here, I managed to install my own Furuno 1715, with the antenna mounted on a stern pole. A friend did his own install from scratch for a model 1623, also with a stern pole. The installation is a matter of following the instructions, and spending a lot of time on routing the cables with appropriate anti-chafe and plentiful supports. Not difficult from a technical view, just time consuming... the kind of thing you do *not* want to pay someone else $70./hour to do for you!
:rolleyes:
Furuno makes one of the sharpest resolution displays that I know of.
(YMMV)

Loren in PDX
 

MarkA

Please Contact Admin.
I heart Furuno

I spent 1977 through 1981 commercial fishing in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska on two boats. We only used Furuno. Of course, they were monocrhome CRT, and had black boots for daylight viewing. It was antique technology, but they saved our lives. This was before chart plotters.

I love furuno. But I think I'm buying Raymarine for my sailboat.

Talk me out of it -- I would appreciate that.
 

wurzner

Member III
The only reason I would not go with Raymarine is their repair policy I mentioned above. You can drop by their website and look at the fixed costs...they are very high. Having owned enough electronic stuff over the years, it will fail sometime or another. Sometimes the failures are very easy to repair and dropping $900 or more for a simple repair is too much for me. Certainly larger failures would warrant higher costs, but the one size fits all doesn't align well with me hence looking at the other systems. Also, The Furuno VX2 systems have all had excellent reviews and seem more completively priced that Raymarine.

I'm not knocking Raymarine though, but they won't get my money!

Shaun
 

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
I have a Furuno 1622.

I have a Furuno 1622 LCD monochrome with the stern pole. I did the install myself over two days at the dock. When I was looking at small Radars only JCR & Furuno were affordable to me. The JCR's were cheaper but the Furuno had a stronger transmitter. I paid less than a $1000. for the 1622 which came with the dome and enough cable to go above the spreaders on my E-27. I went for the pole install mainly for accessibility for maintenance. I have had this set up for about 4 years with no real problems aside from having to add another deep cycle in parallel. When I only had one deep cycle drawing power the radar used to shut it's self off. Now with the two batteries it works fine. I have run it for several hours at a time. I later added stays to the radar mast for extra support since the mast mounts on top of the transom. This unit has been very easy to use and has been a great comfort crossing the shipping lanes in the fog here in the busy San Pedro Channel. It has a 16 mile range but I usually have it set for four miles or less.

Total cost with pole was about $1450. I know they have gone up in price and the 1622 has been replaced with the 1623.

See Pics.
 

Attachments

  • P1010004_8.jpg
    P1010004_8.jpg
    51.8 KB · Views: 74
  • P1010006_8.jpg
    P1010006_8.jpg
    54.8 KB · Views: 86
  • P1010007_8.jpg
    P1010007_8.jpg
    61.8 KB · Views: 69
  • P1010007_20.jpg
    P1010007_20.jpg
    53.7 KB · Views: 73
Last edited:

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
If someone gave me a Raymarine I would sell it and by a Furuno! Put a Furuno side-by-side with any other manufacturers product and the difference is obvious. Furuno is always more robust looking. Raymarine and many of the others have lots a whiz-bag geegaw crap like 3D viewing, aerial photos of marinas, etc. That stuff is worthless when you are stuck in an unexpected squall and the gear isn't tough enough and fails.

I asked Furuno a question via email since I was considering purchasing a new Furuno radar/chartplotter unit. The Furuno tech called me and spent over an hour just discussing the pros/cons of different systems. Furuno still maintains/services 20+yr old systems without a ridiculous fixed rate fee setup. I don't even own Furuno yet. The people that have them love them, the commercial use speaks volumes and the customer service have all sold me.

RT
 
Top