Lowrance GPS antenna

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

T-bones 60

T-bones 60

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Threads
12
Messages
427
Location
Orangevale, CA
If any one else is unlucky enough to have a lowrance Baja 540c GPS with a bunk antenna. I have found that the Garmin 17x NMEA 2000 antenna works far better with it then the Lowrance antenna ever did even when it was working. I have the new Lowrance Baja HDS unit with the built in antenna and I feel the older 540C is a much more user friendly unit. So out with the new and back in with the old!

They don't make the Baja 540c anymore and Lowrance customer service is no service at all.:mad: I vowed to never buy another Lowrance product ever again after having problems with the new HDS Baja and the old antenna of the 540c, but I love the old Baja 540 when it worked. So I was releived to find that the Garmin antenna works great with it!

I found that Lowrance had big time problems with their external GPS antennas.

Hopefully this may save someone else all the reserch time I had to do to make sure they were compatable.
 
Thanks T-Bones 60! I'm on my 2nd antenna for my Baja 540C. No shyte about the totally worthless customer service (can't really call it customer service now can we ;))!

I bought my 540C new along with the Mapcreate 7 on DVD. Since you can't transfer the data from the DVD onto a computer and you need the DVD in the drive bay each time you make a map...:mad:...the DVD has a few burnish/wear marks on it now to the point none of my DVD drives will read it.

I assumed, especially since I bought it new and have the receipt, Lowrance would swap it out. Yeah right. I have to purchase it all over again per their customer service words. Fawkers.

But, like you, I really love the hardware form factor. I've not found any other GPS or laptop or tablet to be as easy to use for off-road nav'ing while on the move!
 
New Garmin antenna bumper mount.

IMG_3784.jpg


IMG_3783.jpg


IMG_3781.jpg
 
What problems have you had with the HD. Mine has been doing good. I have had problems with a fish finder. They do suck in the customer service.
 
inthewall said:
What problems have you had with the HD. Mine has been doing good. I have had problems with a fish finder. They do suck in the customer service.
Click to expand...

When the HDS unit warmes up the maps will blank out. I get speed, alt, ect, with a white backround. The picture is a bit better with the HDS (when the maps work) but in my oppinion the 540 is easier to use while driving.
 
Slick job on the mounting. I had mine on the roof, in one of the OEM rack bolt holes. Yours looks better. What did you make it out of?
 
24HOURSOFNEVADA said:
Slick job on the mounting. I had mine on the roof, in one of the OEM rack bolt holes. Yours looks better. What did you make it out of?
Click to expand...

Bought a large 4 inch washer and a foot of 1/16 x1 steel. Wraped and welded the front half top of the washer with the 16th for a rock sheild. Then did the same for the lower half front of the washer around the existing center opening to protect the wire/connection. Drilled 3 additional holes for the mount, welded the washer to the top tube of the bumper, then Krylon.
 
I have a question; I just bought the Lowrance Elite 5 Baja which is the newest version according to Lowrance.
I do agree about the horrible customer service. They are just useless.
Anyway, the reason for my post is to seek some guidance. I am new into Topo GPS systems. I took the lowrance to a trip to the Old Mojave Road and I was very disappointed. The GPS marked my position, but I could not see any of the trails. I called Lowrance to seek guidance and they basically told me that they do not sell maps for their systems and I needed to look in Internet. I could have punched them if they were in front of me, but at this point is would be worthless.
I wonder why you love the system so much. I can imagine that you already figured out how to bring more details into the maps. Can anyone please tell me how to improve the maps? By researching in internet, I was able to download the GPS Babel and convert some routes from Google Earth to Lowrance. However, this s very time consuming and it does not bring the details I would like to see. It just paints a line on the route.
Thanks
 
wampiFZJ80 said:
I have a question; I just bought the Lowrance Elite 5 Baja which is the newest version according to Lowrance.
I do agree about the horrible customer service. They are just useless.
Anyway, the reason for my post is to seek some guidance. I am new into Topo GPS systems. I took the lowrance to a trip to the Old Mojave Road and I was very disappointed. The GPS marked my position, but I could not see any of the trails. I called Lowrance to seek guidance and they basically told me that they do not sell maps for their systems and I needed to look in Internet. I could have punched them if they were in front of me, but at this point is would be worthless.
I wonder why you love the system so much. I can imagine that you already figured out how to bring more details into the maps. Can anyone please tell me how to improve the maps? By researching in internet, I was able to download the GPS Babel and convert some routes from Google Earth to Lowrance. However, this s very time consuming and it does not bring the details I would like to see. It just paints a line on the route.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Aah, good old Lowrance! The Baja 540C I own is a disscontinued model. They USED to sell topo maps for it. They were called 'Map Create'. But I heard those were a #*@% to transfer to the SD card. So I purchased their "Freedom Maps" topo card for the West. Works great. Lots of topo detail, but the roads are 10 years out of date. No worries, got a $100 Garmin for that. Look on Ebay for either the Map Create software or the Freedom Maps pre programmed topo cards. Should work in the new HDS. Mine did. That is of course when my HDS actualy felt like working.
 
wampiFZJ80 said:
thanks for your reply. Do you get nice details thorugh Map Create? do you have picture of how the maps look by any chance? Thanks again
Click to expand...

I just bought most of the Western US states on SD (MapCreate 7) from a guy in SoCal that does this service. Long story but like you I recently experienced Lowrance's now legendary sucky customer service. They don't support the map systems that make their Baja series work as intended :rolleyes:. So essentially I had to buy MapCreate twice :mad: I see your Baja unit has switched to microSD card. You might ask the folks below if they can provide the data on microSD and whether or not the map data is compatible with your new unit.

offroadstuff: 562-427-8177

Anyway other than being a recent purchaser of the topo MapCreate maps on SD I have no relation to the above vendor. I will say it arrived and works as expected.

Regarding the look of the maps: As T-Bones 60 mentioned the MapCreate 7 topo maps look and feel like other topo maps (National Geographic). And as he stated the highway info can be inaccurate as far as Hwy #'s go. But generally the off-road trails are accurate with the exception of nature's reclaimed trails that really don't exist today but are still shown on the old topo based data map files...

Dan
 
thanks, I just bought MapCreate 7 from a guy in Ebay. I called Lowrance again and asked them if this would work and they said yes. I am not sure I understood your comment about byuing Mapcreate twice. Are you saying that it does not work for Micro SD Cards?
 
wampiFZJ80 said:
thanks, I just bought MapCreate 7 from a guy in Ebay. I called Lowrance again and asked them if this would work and they said yes. I am not sure I understood your comment about byuing Mapcreate twice. Are you saying that it does not work for Micro SD Cards?
Click to expand...


I originally purchased the MapCreate 7 on DVD (all states)...brand new still had the receipt and everything. Eventually, because the data can not be accessed without the DVD in the drive bay (and won't allow downloading of the same data to eliminate the need to have said DVD in the drive bay) it eventually after 3-years of use couldn't be read by any of my computers (3).

So I had to buy 1/2 the states again on SD card...

I'm amazed how companies can survive while treating their revenue source (us!) with such disregard.
 
wampiFZJ80 said:
I forgot to mention that i also bought the Topo USA from Delorme. I am hoping I can download the maps and transform them with GPS Babel to make them work with mine. I will let you know if it works.
Click to expand...

Please do. I purchased the western half of the country on SD directly from Lowrance when they used to sell it. I heard nightmare stories of problems people were having trying to transfer the DVD info to an SD card. If I remember corectly you had to have a special "card reader" from Lowrance for it to work.

As stated above, i will never buy another Lowrance anything! My 540C works great right now and hope it continues to do so with it's new Garmin antenna..
 
Yes you have to have their special card reader to be able to move data from the DVD to the SD card.

Like you: Overall I like my Baja 540C...I hope it just keeps going and going and going and...
 
Sorry guys for not posting earlier. I have been traveling and I finally came back home.
Anyways, I still haven’t been able to install Mapcreate. I found out it does not work with vista. Supposedly, there is a patch you can download from lowrance’s webpage, but the thing still did not work. I called lowrance again and they were going to send me instructions to install in vista, but I am still waiting after 4 days.
I also tried t install the software in my old computer with XP and the software was installed, but the card reader is not recognized. Tomorrow I will call them again to see if they can help me for once.
I was able to do trails with delorme, but I haven’t been able to download maps into the GPS.
I also have been continuously sending emails to complain and I finally got a call from someone last Friday. They guy tried to convince me that this GPS is used by baja racers with no maps and that this GPS is not meant to have topo maps. I almost insult him right there, but I made it clear that I was not stupid and I have read several Baja racers forums where they all said the love the previous version of this GPS with the maps.
Anyways, he mentioned that he was trying to find out if the baja maps they sell for the Elite have some details for California. He mentioned that Lowrance stopped producing maps. So basically, we are on our own since Lowrance refuses to take responsibility.
I am still trying to have someone in charge to call me. I will not give up until they provide a solution. I think this is ridiculous and the worst rip off I have experienced.
 
Thanks for the update. What good is a GPS w/o maps?! Freakin Lowrance! They used to sell all kinds of maps, albeit outdated. That is one company that is way over due for a going out of business sale!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom