Garmin lakevu vs g2 bluechip

[daiwaguy]

Does anyone know why one chip is 179.00and the other 199.00, the specs seem the same to me? Anyone using garmin I would appreciate some insight.

[Wayne P.]

I don't use Garmin stuff, but the map coverage is different.

US Lakevu is US inland lakes and blue charts are offshore marine (ocean stuff) with world wide regional coverage.

US Lakevu is 149 and US Lakevu Ultra is 199 for the same coverage. Ultra has more features.

There are several versions of each. Do a web search for each of the two. 

Salty stuff cost more than fresh stuff. It is more expensive to collect data for marine charts.

[Tom18xs]

I think the difference is inland lakes vs saltwater.

[Tom18xs]

LakeView Ultra is a major upgrade (72 lakes, top fisheries) vs. lakeVu HD.  (6700 lakes)

Ultra MaDef has features like Dynamic Lake Level Adjustments - If the lake is supported you can adjust the map to new water levels if they it's a winter draw down lake.  All maps default to fool pool references.  With Ultra Maxdef if the supported lake drops 8' and you have 6' humps you can make that adjustment on your Garmin and all countour lines and land marks are adjusted to the knew depth levels.  Let's say there is  6' hump defaulted to pool levels,  it  now appears on the Garmin Mapping as a 2' Island.

Depth Range Shading:   You can target a specific depth range 10-14' and that contour depth range everywhere on the lake map will now be color coded for your reference.  This is quite helpful when targeting fish. I use it all the time.

Auto Guidance:   mark any waypoint or destination on the lake and LakeVu Ultra will draw a route away from shallow water hazards and land marks (islands) safely to that destination or waypoint.  I Use it all the time.  Works as advertised.  Garmin has exclusivity for this feature.  

I live in Alabama and 11/12 major reservoirs have Ultra Maxdef support.   This mapping is so advanced I switched away from a happy Lowrance experience and after one plus year have not regretted the move because of the mapping.  

Note:  You will have to research Garmin for supported lakes in your area.  As of right now there are 72 lakes support nationwide on one SD Card.  I think in 2016 it goest to 100 plus lakes.  

Here is the Garmin Website for lakes supported my LakeVu HD and LakeVu HD Ultra Maxdef.

http://lakes.garmin.com

[roblo]

Good info Tomxs, I recently got a 73dv, going to get the 93sv for the console. I will have several questions I'm sure, but the biggest one now is, can you get a boat lanes chip for the Garmin

i fish two lakes, Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend in Texas, curious to if or how I could use a chip from boatlanes.com 

thanks

Rob

[Wayne P.]

The boatlanes chip is just GPS data--waypoints and tracks. It is not map data.

There is a Lowrance version and Humminbird version. All you have to do is translate the Lowrance version to Garmin format and load it to the unit's memory. You can do that with GPSBabel.

You can buy the loaded chip or download the files to a memory card on-line after purchase.