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Does anyone have an idea as to why they refuse to listen to their customer base? I would like to try the tri beam on my two vex units. I’m not impressed with the proview on my flx28 so I actually swapped that one with my fl 18 ducer.
i like how they slap a chinese led light on a 1990 tech flasher and figure they can charge similar to a helix or lx7. brand loyalty is a powerful thing apparently!
https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Flasher-Family-Manual-2020-FINAL.pdf
Not sure why people are so pissed off about this unit considering its brand new and very few if anyone have had it on the ice at this point. Vexilar has always been about quality, simplicity, and ease of use with flashers. Key word being flashers.. Seems to me Vexilar is listening to their customers with the 30BB. Everyone loved the FLX-28 but didn’t like the Pro View ducer, not a huge fan myself. Lots of complaints about Vexilar getting rid of the Tri Beam. With this new unit Vexilar basically said heres an FLX -28 with a new ducer/head unit that gives you seven different cone angles at the push of a button instead of three like the tri beam, without the goofy external toggle switch. You also get a Lithium battery which is much lighter and lasts longer, extra zoom zone, more IR settings and some deeper water settings. For some these extras will be useful and worth the uprgade and for others they wont. If its for you pick one up if not don’t. If you want a GPS style unit there are some good options on the market. Grab one. Who cares if it says Vexilar, Garmin or Hummingbird on it. Maybe Vexilar will make units like that in the future but right now they make Flashers. That being said its very expensive given that currently its only offered on the Ultra Pack. I don’t agree with that decision. Vexilar should offer it on the Pro and Genz packs from the get go IMO. Personally I think the Ultra, Pro and Genz packs are getting a bit long in the tooth and need some updates. Vexilar could make their own but much better version of the Marcum shuttle as an example.
It’s not being pissed off about the new unit. It’s about what they have done to the units they’ve had out to customers. I’ve been happy with the simplicity of the units and the durability and longevity. They work just fine. No update worries or that kinda stuff. Was very happy with them.The problem is when they took away the dual & tribeam options for the older units. It turn the older units into being a joke because you can’t change the cone. There is no reason that a person should have to sell an old vexilar unit and have to upgrade to the latest vexilar just to have multiple beams. When they had dual and tri beams that worked for the units.I’ve been running a lot a vexilars out of my wheel house. If you take the ability away of narrowing the cone. U end up with multiple lures on the people’s screens which sucks. With the dual or tri beams you can drop them all to the 9* or 8* and keep the other persons lure off your screen in deeper water. Or if shallower run the wider cones. A pro view transducer is NOT 9* we tried multiple pro views and it does not narrow up like it should. It also does not widen out like it should without a mess on the screen. What’s upsetting is vexilar made the choice to downgrade/take away the option on older units for no reason besides forcing a customer into the situation of having to upgrade to the latest unit for that option....which is total bull. The following are the units I run.....FL18 tri beam genz packFL20 dual beam ultra packFL22HD tri beam pro packFLX28 tri beam double vision
There will alway be plain jane flasher guys that dont need all the really expensive panoptics Or other Units to pull of fish thru a hole in the ice.Guess i dont want to move as fast as the world tech wants me to go.i like simple things in life.my next vehicle will be another 80s dodge truck because the were built to last and i can still work on them unlike the vehicles made today where you cant find the battery,anyways i got off track but i catch fish without multiple beams although i have all the ducers vexilar makes and i think they will make another tribeam some day.Im happy with my low tech vexilars and its all i need to put fish topside.
Every tri beam they made had to be replaced at least once, many multiple times. They just plain didn’t work. They finally found a company that made them not crack or leak but the cost was not at a justifiable price point but they bit the bullet and replaced the bad ones for their customers. That’s an exceptional company not a hide and run one. Vexilars work year after year unlike the newbys. 3 deep breaths techy’s and buy whatever you want.
At the end of the day its a business decision. No company produces and supports every product they’ve ever made indefinitely. For whatever reason the multi beam ducers were on the chopping block unfortunately. Likely they were not selling enough of them to justify the production and warehousing costs. Honestly I’m surprised Vexilar still sells and supports the FL-8’s and 18’s now that they have gone in the direction of the FLX series. Those units are 20+ years old. At most companies if you called customer service for a product you bought ten years ago you’d get hung up on. Look how often we upgrade cell phones, computers and tablets. We’ll spend a $500-$1000 on a new phone every 2-4 years and not think twice. Even Apple phases out software updates to devices after five years or so. Its not unreasonable for a company to want/force you to upgrade to their newer offerings every so often. Right or wrong Vexilar is saying that if you don’t currently have a multi beam ice ducer and want one, you’ll need to upgrade to the new unit. We can’t demand that Vexilar “get with the times” and have cutting edge tech with one breath and in the next demand that they continue to build, sell and support outdated product lines. Tough to remain viable that way.That being said, IMO Vexilar has product line/pricing problem. Too many models, some being old and outdated with price differences between models that don’t make much sense. If I were running Vexilar the FL-8 and FL-18’s wouldn’t be produced or sold but would still be serviced. The entry level unit would be the FLX-12 then 20, 28, and 30BB. I’d also update the cases with the mods people are doing to them once they buy them like lights, charging ports, etc. Slim down the flasher line a little and start working on a Vexilar panoptix or livescope type unit.
Vexilar is not a “tech” company nor is anything they’ve brought or developed cutting edge. They will never be cutting edge. Simple, durable, and solid is what they are. Which is fine....If you can’t get the simple sonar and options...well there is no need for them.
[quote author=Iceassin link=topic=377940.msg4096039#msg4096039 date=My 1st fish finder was a lead weight on an alligator clip; 1st auger was a spud. That was over 50 years ago. I've come a long way "tech" wise. I'm good. Lol , and the alligator clip had a dual purpose 🤪 my first unit was a hondex man that was like leaving the Stone Age 😉
If you have a Proview and there is too much clutter, you must have turned the gain up to widen the cone too much. Turn it down and it will be a narrow beam, turn it up and it will be a wide beam. Med setting will be a med beam. There ya go TRI BEAM!
For the record, I was kidding about the ProView. I'm well aware you can't adjust the beam. I hated my ProView. Vexilar is a great company with a great staff. Great marketing minds to....
the 2 proviews we've used either have caused a ton of clutter in shallower sub 10' water when trying to widen the beam out even just a bit. turn on all the modes we could and we are just staring at this thing like certainly its an us problem. sure enough a buddy shows up with his 28 and its the same thing. we could fish still we agreed it was not ideal. i'd rather fish a single beam 12 or 19 than ever use that again. we fish too much dirty shallow water i guess. in deeper water it seemed to work as intended. one 28 was sold and the other got a 19 deg ducer slapped on it.
Here's my 2 cents. I got my FLX30-BB yesterday. I'm excited about the frequencies to control the beam and be able to tune in the mark sizes. I like everything about it but one thing...the battery/charger. They went with Lithium Ion instead of LifePo4, which means I can't charge it with the same charger I charge all my other batteries with. I will probably swap it for a LifePo4 just to simplify my life.Other than that I can't wait to get that thing on the ice!
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Topic: FLX 30 BROADBAND (Read 10525 times)
