Non Gps Speedo's?????

[speedaholic]

Wondering about the accuracy of some of the better quality non gps speedometers. Are they close to the real speed? Typically how close are they? I've got me a Cougar that is supposed to run 92 mph. I personally dont care if its 88 or 96. Really makes no difference to me. I would like to have a way of knowing if a prop change has a positive effect or not. I have a hard time justifying $500 for a gps speedo. I can get a Gaffrig speedo with the pickup for less than half. Even if its off by a couple of mph as long as its consistent then it would suit my needs. What do you yhink? Ray

[time warp]

You can get a handheld GPS for less than $100 that will tell you your speed much more consistently than any pitot tube speedometer.

[Techno]

I think they are fairly accurate to your speed. I'm remembering what people said several years ago though.

Unless looks are the issue you can go with a hand held GPS for less than the squirt tube and its holes in the transom. These are a small step up from gps speedos, which only tell you speed.
A dash mounted portable gps or a permanant GPS.
The real gps units are nice in the direction, waypoint features.
They also will tell average speed, top speed and other trivia. But what I like is you can change the layout of the display for super sized output of speed.
So a GPS, a real mapping type GPS is pretty cheap considering you get more than speed out of it.

[speedaholic]

Thats interesting! I would love to get some kind of a gps map setup. Wonder if they make them small enough to fit in a dash? Having some kind of map or chart plotter would be great at night when seeing the channel markers can be tuff. Thanks for the imput! Great idea....Ray

[dynobo]

Thats interesting! I would love to get some kind of a gps map setup. Wonder if they make them small enough to fit in a dash? Having some kind of map or chart plotter would be great at night when seeing the channel markers can be tuff. Thanks for the imput! Great idea....Ray

A buddy of mine had a Garmin GPS a few years ago that he downloaded some program( blue water navigation or something) and it was very accurate on buoys etc. We fish the Gulf near Panama City and many times we came in with fog and just used the GPS for direction and never had a problem.

[Techno]

Even without the downloaded maps you can set way points and follow them back into the channel. you can also reverse course too. I figure on setting the way point idea for the 3 inlets I plan on using just because I can.

The GPSs come in dash mount and permanant. The dash mount means its portable, has its own battery while permanant is hard wired and may have a seperate antanne you place where you want. The permanant is dash mounted on those ugly mounts you see for fish finders and such or tacked onto a panel. Mine has screws so you can back mount it. I didn't like any of those options so I flush mounted it and bezeled it.
http://i11.tinypic.com/4mlngy0.jpg
The Kandy faded so I removed it and polished the aluminum again, its just naked aluminum now so don't comment on the pink color please.:p
The hole is big but built a 'bridge' behind the hole it sits in. This bridge was needed anyway to mount the GPS unit to. If you do flush install one of these you'll need to glass a bezel for a trim peice. Or make one out of luminum. Usually these would be mounted on a bracket on top of your dash area like a car.

Not counting the depth finder these 2 instruments are all I need. The top one does everything for the engine.

[MODXR6]

I won't have another regular speedo. This works great.........

[flabum1017]

Thats interesting! I would love to get some kind of a gps map setup. Wonder if they make them small enough to fit in a dash? Having some kind of map or chart plotter would be great at night when seeing the channel markers can be tuff. Thanks for the imput! Great idea....Ray


The Garmin 478C is a nice unit. It is portable, battery powered as well as vehicle powered, has Charts and available street maps (so you can use it in your boat, kayak, bike and car), is WAAS capable and very compact. They go for $1000, but worth it.

[bigcoupee]

Go to the Nordskog website http://www.nordskogperformance.net/products/marine/gps/detail/hgd200.htm

Its an awesome unit, forget the junky pito tube. You won't regret your purchase, very smooth unit not jumpy what so ever, volts, direction, top speed recall and looks great. Lifetime warranty, leave the handheld gps for your camping trips.

[TD]

This is all you really need. 99 bucks at Cabelas.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o304/dragally/gps.jpg

[j_martin]

A buddy of mine had a Garmin GPS a few years ago that he downloaded some program( blue water navigation or something) and it was very accurate on buoys etc. We fish the Gulf near Panama City and many times we came in with fog and just used the GPS for direction and never had a problem.


Minnesota officials are complaining about people hitting rocks and points trying to navigate with GPS. I think the trouble is that they mark waypoints on their cheep handheld, and don't have a navigation map to go by or don't know how to read it. Then they run over something trying to bee line to the waypoints.

I got a cheep Cobra on special I saw on their site when I was looking for a handheld marine/weather radio. It keeps a record, so if you have a good visual line going out, you can always retrace your tracks coming back. You just have to keep track of near misses and close buoy turns, at least in your head. My kids help. They scream when I'm about to do something stupid.

John

[tj309]

I have a chartplotter - Standard Horizon CP175 - 6" display - and it cost the same as a quality GPS speedometer ($400). It will also give me speed. I have found that my Livorsi in dash pitot speedometer is rarely more than 2 mph off.