Garmin ice transducer

[chop1]

I'm looking for a new ice transducer for my garmin striker plus 5cv. I noticed there's a new one out. It's a bit cheaper but seams to have a wider range 15- 45 deg. Which one 

[DR.SPECKLER]

My garmin striker 5cv ice pack came with the gt8w or something like that.wider angles for shallower water.the gt10w is narrow for deeper.i dont like how you cant use some features that the open water ducer lets you do with the ice ducer like  traditional and clearvu at the same time.

[hardwater diehard]

This may be a nice option ...

Garmin Dual Beam-IF

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/735513/pn/010-13069-00

Does anyone know if mapping can be done while using this transducer ..I am a little naïve to the mapping technology.

[DR.SPECKLER]

Yeah just saw they make a dual beam now..i havent mapped anything with my striker 5cv plus yet.

[hardwater diehard]

Yeah just saw they make a dual beam now..i havent mapped anything with my striker 5cv plus yet.

I have mapped with my EchoMap 43cv ..nice ...mounted on a Genz box via RAM ball mount ..so it can be mounted to my ATV for GPS ..toying with the idea of getting an ice transducer for ice fishing.

[chop1]

This may be a nice option ...

Garmin Dual Beam-IF

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/735513/pn/010-13069-00

Does anyone know if mapping can be done while using this transducer ..I am a little naïve to the mapping technology.

this is the one I was referring to, would it be better for kokanee fishing. Fishing swallow over deep water?

[jbird68]

This may be a nice option ...

Garmin Dual Beam-IF

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/735513/pn/010-13069-00

Does anyone know if mapping can be done while using this transducer ..I am a little naïve to the mapping technology.

I don't think you can make maps with this transducer. I think you also need to be moving. If you're thinking of mapping by hole hopping I don't think it would make a good map. I could be wrong though.

[ggpr]

I am also curious about this new transducer, debating between it (Garmin Dual Beam-IF) and the GT8HW-IF for my echomap uhd 95sv.

The Dual Beam-IF
FREQUENCY                  77/200 kHz
POWER                          500 W
BEAMWIDTH                  45°/15°

GT8HW-IF
FREQUENCY           CHIRP High Wide (150-240 kHz)
POWER                   250 W
BEAMWIDTH           24°-16°
MAXIMUM DEPTH   800 ft. freshwater

Does anyone know what features the CHIRP add?  Will i have better clarity while ice fishing?

I would fish the 15/16 degree when fishing deeper on either unit, does the 24-45 degree beams make much difference for me fishing from say 5-30 fow??

Will the extra wattage on the dual beam IF be necessary if i dont expect to fish more than 200 feet deep ever?  Will it be better for me when i am fishing in 100-150 feet?

The dualbeam IF is about $35CAD cheaper for me.  Any advice appreciated!

[schollmeier]

I recently bought the new Garmin Dual Beam-IF for my old (non-chirp) Echomap, I haven't had a chance to use it yet though.  If you have a non-chirp Garmin unit, you might as well get the dual beam and save a few bucks. I'm sure I'll almost exclusively run it in the 15 degree, I do most of my fishing 10-30 FOW.  45 is awful wide for most ice fishing scenarios, but maybe for fish suspended super high or for sub 10' flats I might try it and see.  15 degrees isn't a bad all around angle if you are going to be pretty much just using a single beam width.   If you run a chirp transducer on a non-chirp unit you'll only get 200khz so you'll only get a single beam width anyway, paying more to get similar functionality. 

If you have a head unit that supports chirp, it is probably worth considering one of the two chirp ducers.  Chirp will run through a range of beam options and in theory should get you better image clarity (I don't have one so I can't speak from experience there).  You can also select a single beam from anything in the range on the chirp ducers too.  Between the Chirp ducers.  If I were mostly fishing less than 30' down I'd probably go GT8, you have 16-24 degrees that's in the ball park of the 19/20 ducers that are pretty common in a lot of flashers.  Being a bit wider could be nice on shallower flats or for suspended fish.  If I were mostly fishing deeper or tight to steep breaks or structure where a narrower beam would reduce the dead zone I'd consider the GT10 (7-16 degrees).  I'd pick based on the situations you fish most often.  You can always get away with a 16 degree beam shallow or deep, it just might not be the most ideal option.

[chop1]

The dual beam has chirp traditional sonar  the same as the gt8

[ggpr]

schollmeier - Could you confirm if your dual beam IF included a 4 pin adapter cable?  If so could you inform me of what size it converts the 4 pin to?  I need 12 pin for my echomap uhd 9x series.  Thanks so much in advance.  Also if i don't hear back from schollmeier before i can make some calls tomorrow i will update the thread with my findings.

Im feeling a bit more pressure to make a decision on my ice transducer for the echomap uhd 95sv, i would like to do a epic 4 day winter tenting and fishing trip over xmas holidays and hopefully have my ice fishing flasher kit built by then.  Unfortunately only one of my canadian retailer options for the parts i am after have all the items i need currently in stock...  Radioworld has all my potential item choices in stock, but the GT8 ice transducer is priced at $170 (vs $140 at gpscity), and the two other accessories also slightly more expensive too. I could however get the dual beam IF transducer from them for $105 CAD.  I am awfully tempted to go with the dual beam IF transducer to consolidate all my purchases into 1 retailer/shipment and maybe save a few bucks.

I need:

Garmin 4-pin Transducer to 12-pin Sounder Adapter Cable - 010-12718-00
Garmin echo Portable Suction Cup Transducer Mount Replacement - 010-11849-17

And either
Garmin Plastic GT8HW-IF Ice Fishing 4-pin High Wide CHIRP Transducer - 010-12401-20
OR
Garmin Dual Beam IF Transducer - GAR-DUALBEAM-IF / GARICEXD / 010-13069-00

One thing that is not clear, is that multiple websites selling the dual beam IF transducer state that it includes a 4 pin adapter cable for transducer... just no info at all about 4pin to what size? Garmins official website listing does not list any adapter cable included with it... But with so many other retailers stating it, i must imagine it does include one.  I will call garmin and the retailer i am considering tomorrow when they are open to find out more... If anyone happened to know though, i would truly appreciate any info on that.  If it happens to include a 4 to 12 pin adapter it makes that transducer even more attractive for my needs as it could save me a extra $30 on just the cable, as well as on the transducer.

My current line of thinking is similar to schollmeier... whichever transducer i go with i am likely to fish primarily using the 15 or 16 degree beam.  I can't imagine the narrow beam being "bad" for fishing 10-20 feet of water and possibly being at a major disadvantage with only having the 45 vs 24 degrees.  Thank you schollmeier for your thoughts on how the chirp should perform on a unit capable of chirp.  My gut is telling me i should maybe spend the little bit extra for the transducer and 2x shipping to get the chirp transducer...

If the dual beam has CHIRP though... i'm not sure if i could expect similar functionality between the two?  Similar to the adapter cable included, lots of retailers list the dual beam IF transducer as being CHIRP, but garmins website itself, and their transducer guide do not mention CHIRP as a feature on this unit.  The beams on the chirp units to me seem to imply a range ##-##, where as the dual-beam IF seems to imply 2 beam options ##/##.  I am going to call garmin tomorrow to clear this up, will try to post my findings tomorrow evening.

Thanks everyone and any help or advice is very appreciated.

[schollmeier]

ggpr No adapter cable, which worked fine for me.  My older Echomap is a 4 pin on the head.  All that was in the box was the ducer (which has a 4 pin on the plug side), the foam float and the stopper.  If you need 12 pin, you'll need the 4 to 12 adapter. 

Yeah I'm going off Garmin's website (the box the ducer was in), which state the Dual Beam as just Dual Beam and the GT8 and GT10 as CHIRP.  But clearly there is a lack of clarity on labeling if the ducer has a adapter included (which it doesn't) so some of the labeling out there regarding if it is CHIRP or not could be screwed up too. Hopefully Garmin can clarify that

[hardwater diehard]

&index=2

[ggpr]

So i called garmin this morning to clarify a few questions i had with regards to the transducers mentioned above in this thread.

The garmin dual beam IF transducer (GAR-DUALBEAM-IF / GARICEXD / 010-13069-00) does not have chirp.  i am pretty positive on this, bear in mind i made the phone call early this morning and had a hectic day at work, but im 99% positive on this.  Also the transducer does not include a adapter cable, as also confirmed by schollmeier and by garmin.  So the trend appears to be, the garmin website is the correct listing, in regards to chirp and no adapter cable.  The listings at retailers which claim this transducer has chirp and comes with an adapter cable appear to be mistaken.

The explanation on chirp provided to me by the garmin support person basically summed up what we have discussed here.  Higher clarity potential and optional beam selection within the range offered on the chirp transducers.  He also confused me a bit by stating which beam selection he thought would be more ideal for deep vs shallow fishing, but acknowledged everyone has their own personal preferences and to play around with the settings that best suit you.  I believe he was stating that the wider beam would be better for deep fishing, however my take is still that i think i would prefer the narrow beam for that situation. 

I also talked to him about some non transducer related stuff, that while perhaps not relevant to this thread, one thing i will share is that there is a software similar to basecamp (garmins pc software for their handheld gps) for the marine products, it is called "homeport".  The software is no longer being updated, but i am planning to play around with it in hopes that it has similar functionality to basecamp  (planning routes/waypoints etc ahead of time, possibly being able to try and load my topo maps from basecamp).

In a perfect world i hope to find a way to load my ibycus free canada 1:50000 series topo map (in garmin format) on to my echomap uhd 95sv.  The included lakevu map package is nice, and while i am pretty sure they are working with just the free govt issued bathymetric maps (at least in my province), they have at least added extra contours to the maps vs their previous garmin bathymetric map products.  I have the sask lakes map, which i have loaded on my garmin handheld gpsmap, but it is honestly just a copy and paste job of the free sask bathymetric maps (which are for the most part, very limited often not even having contours but rather random depth points in lines across the lake). 

However with just the lakevu map, not all lakes in my province are covered by it, so in the case where a lake is not included it relies on the garmin base map, which is honestly very poor in quality.  In some instances when you go to zoom in on a lake, it stops showing water after a certain zoom level.  Completely useless for those lakes.  I don't know why garmins stock base map cannot at the very least utilize the free canada topo map series that the ibycus guy made up.  I believe garmin sells that information as one of their map cards/downloads.   Really they should be giving that for free as it is free from the govt of canada, and would give their users something respectable to have as opposed to essentially forcing their customers into buying their (expensive) map packages just to get half decent representation of the real land features.  But i digress.

At any rate, i am planning to buy the GT8 transducer at this point as my unit is chirp compatible and for something i already invested a lot of money into (my echomap) it seems worth it to not cheap out on a component i will hopefully not have to replace ever, or for many many years.

[chop1]

Thanks for the info, I just about got the dual beam but now going with Gt8 for sure.
Cheers

[RStock521]

I also debated this, and if your unit is CHIRP capable, I don't think the dual-beam is what you're looking for.  You would want the GT8 or GT10.  I got the GT8 in my small ice kit that I purchased, and it did not come with an adapter from 4-pin to 12-pin.  I called Garmin and asked if they could send me one, but they didn't have any in stock, so they offered to send me a 4 to 8-pin, and an 8 to 12-pin for free.  The 4 to 12-pin was $20 on Amazon, but I'll take free any day.

ggpr, you are right in that choosing which frequency to use is kind of confusing.  What the Garmin rep told you is kind of right.  Lower frequencies technically do travel further than higher frequencies, but also have a huge cone angle and provide less precise target separation.  The problem with the huge cone angle is that you pickup a lot of stuff that isn't near you, and increase the likelihood of "dead zones" if there are any large rocks or drop-off's in the cone.  The GT8 has a CHIRP cone angle of 19 degrees, which is what I'll probably using my unit at most of the time.  I fish mostly 40' and under, so the GT8 will suit my needs better.  Previously I had a Lowrance and used the 22 degree transducer at over 100' depth.  It wasn't ideal and I had to turn the gain up pretty high to see my jig, so I figure for the seldom times I fish that deep, I can get by with my GT8.  If I frequently fished deeper than 40' or so, then I'd probably get the GT10 for the narrower cone angle at those depths.

[RStock521]

My post above might not be correct about a chirp cone angle of 19 degrees.  I was just going off of my 73SV and the setting that says "CHIRP" and it's 19 degrees...Garmin posted a good ice webinar on YouTube, and around 4:30, they start talking about the 3 different transducers.  In the webinar, they say that the GT8 chirps at a range of frequencies.  Video here: 

[kpd145]

I bought the fatter transducer for ice, GT8?. I did not get the dual beam.

Its running on a 73SV and I did need a pin adapter also. I believe it was a 4 pin to 8 pin.

I do like how I can fine tune my cone angle, it is not just set to a preset number, I can go from 16 to 17 to 18 to 19 on up to 24 i believe. Some Cone angle have Chirp while others do not. I usually only adjust cone angle if I am getting interference or if it is slow and I wanna see if anything maybe lurking higher in the water column.

[JoeLansing]

Thanks for that webinar!  I ordered the Dual Beam IF a few days ago (Called GT6 in the webinar?) and was thinking it didn't support CHIRP.  But in the webinar they say it does support CHIRP, but only at a couple of frequencies.  Well, since my Striker 4 does 200/77 frequencies I should be good.  This is what I ordered.  https://www.hodgesmarine.com/gar010-13069-00-garmin-dual-beamif-ice-transducer.html  And funny/sad.  In Hodge Marine Q&A they say it doesn't support Striker 4. 
- Joe

[TIBS]

The GT8HW only uses CHIRP on 1 frequency, at 19 degree cone only.  Something to keep in mind.

[ruckuss]

I ended up buying a Striker plus 4 Ice bundle, and now I feel I regret my decision and should have went with the 5.   I plan on using this in summer and winter.    On the webinar, the slide with the striker 4, states it can be used with ClearVu sonar.   That PDF is still on their site.. however, it is incorrect.  It is NOT compatible.  I have confirmed this with their support.    Its a nice unit, but, I feel like I just purchased something that was advertised for features I was looking for.. and now I'm stuck with it.   

Does anyone know if the GT6 Transducer will work with the Striker 5?  Also, can you but dual screen, flasher and graph with it?

Thanks!!!

[TIBS]

On the webinar, the slide with the striker 4, states it can be used with ClearVu sonar.   That PDF is still on their site.. however, it is incorrect.  It is NOT compatible.  I have confirmed this with their support.    Its a nice unit, but, I feel like I just purchased something that was advertised for features I was looking for.. and now I'm stuck with it.   

For the Striker plus 4 or the Striker plus 4CV, they’re different models.  The CV unit uses clear vu. 

[desmobob]

I think Garmin hurt themselves by lumping their product descriptions together for the Striker Plus sonars.  It's not that obvious which features which units have - and don't have, and in some instances the descriptions are misleading, and that leads to some disappointed buyers.

It's also not obvious which transducers work with which units, whether or not you'll need an adapter, and what features each will provide.  You have to spend a lot of time trying to figure it all out.  That's not ideal for the consumer...

I've been a long-time Garmin hiking GPS user, car GPS user, and marine chart-plotter/GPS user.  And I just bought an ice unit (Striker Plus 5cv).  I am impressed with their quality, capabilities and value.  They just need to tune up their marketing a bit, I think.

Bob