lowrance Lowrance 7ti or hds 7?

[Cootz]

Hello everybody! I currently am deciding between two graphs they are the new lowrance TI 7 or hds 7 and I want to know what you guys would pick for some better thinking, at this point I'm more or less going to get the ti7 because of its newer technology and it comes with a slimmer trannducer (more or less the structure scan ducer) the hds 7 is $100 more and if I were to get that I would have to buy structure Scan ducer seperatly ($300 ducer) but it comes with a lake card please leave honest and helpful feedback -Conner

[eddallen]

The Elite TI series is a repackaged/reconfigured HDS Gen2 Touch. Designed as a Stand-alone feature packed,value priced unit. The HDS Gen3 is still your latest technology and fully networkable. You can order the HDS Gen3 without a xdcr and order the TotalScan xdcr to have it all in one xdcr. You can not share sonar data with the TI units. So if you had 2 TI units for sonar you would need 2 transducers.

[190sxchamp]

I debated between the HDS 9 gen3 with 3d and the Elite TI 7 for the past month. In the end, I'm just a weekend angler and I personally was having a hard time to justify $2800 for the HDS unit. I've always been basically a bank beater so I didn't use my old fish finders to the best of their abilities. I do want to try this year to get away from the bank and catch more offshore fish so I wanted to upgrade my electronics. I like the larger screen and the 3d for sure of the HDS 9. Wish they had an Elite TI in a 9" screen.  I don't know that I would ever use networking so that was not a concern. I did recently upgrade to a Xi5 with gps TM so I wanted a unit that would interface with that. I like that the TI7 can do chirp, downscan and sidescan out of the same transducer. I don't think you can use chirp and downscan at the same time???  Regardless, my Elite TI7 showed up today so that is what I deemed best for me. Really looking forward to the GPS and sidescanning. 

[WIGuide]

If you want to expand on your system, stick with the HDS, if you think the stand alone unit will be all you'll ever need, then go with the Elite.

[oomph]

Another deciding factor is the size boat you plan to put it on. For example, I plan on buying an Elite 7TI for the simple reason that it will be used on my 15 FT Jon Boat and NuCanoe Kayak. 

I plan on mounting it with the magnetic transducer mounts from http://www.fishfindermounts.com/

This way I can easily move it from my Jon boat to my kayak. A 7 inch display is about as big as I want to go on my Kayak and it works great on my Jon Boat, which also has a networkable Motor Guide Xi5 trolling motor.

[The Commodore]

On 5/17/2016 at 6:24 PM, oomph said:

Another deciding factor is the size boat you plan to put it on. For example, I plan on buying an Elite 7TI for the simple reason that it will be used on my 15 FT Jon Boat and NuCanoe Kayak. 

I plan on mounting it with the magnetic transducer mounts from http://www.fishfindermounts.com/

This way I can easily move it from my Jon boat to my kayak. A 7 inch display is about as big as I want to go on my Kayak and it works great on my Jon Boat, which also has a networkable Motor Guide Xi5 trolling motor.

Does the Xi5 hook up to a Elite 7TI?  I thought it only synced with HDS Gen 2 and up.

[190sxchamp]

On 5/21/2016 at 0:42 PM, The Commodore said:

Does the Xi5 hook up to a Elite 7TI?  I thought it only synced with HDS Gen 2 and up.

Yes it does. I hooked mine up over the weekend. Have not had it on the water yet but the TI 7 does have SmartSteer to work with the Xi5.

[Dangerfield]

How can you connect the Elite Ti 7 to an HDS7 unit? MY FIL just bough a Tracker V20 and it came with 2 Elite Ti 7 but we already have a HDS7 unit from the previous boat. The TotalScan transducer was added but from what I've read you can 'sync/connect' these 2 units. I'm pretty new to this stuff, if you have a link or another thread, please send em my way.

[iabass8]

2 hours ago, Dangerfield said:

How can you connect the Elite Ti 7 to an HDS7 unit? MY FIL just bough a Tracker V20 and it came with 2 Elite Ti 7 but we already have a HDS7 unit from the previous boat. The TotalScan transducer was added but from what I've read you can 'sync/connect' these 2 units. I'm pretty new to this stuff, if you have a link or another thread, please send em my way.

The only way to connect a TI unit to an HDS is via NEMA network. You can ONLY share waypoints through this. TI units do not have ethernet capability so you cannot share mapping, transducers, etc. HDS units are ethernet compatible and can share everything between themselves.