HDS7 or HDS9?
 

Rigging a new PA14 360. Can’t decide between an HDS7 and an HDS9. Fearful that the 9 is too large and will get in the way. Looking for any insight. Thanks guys!

Pa 14 is a big boat. 9" will give you more options and real estate. Fish finder big is better.

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I wish I was having that problem, but here's my $0.02. It depends on your age (eye sight) and budget. What is not big on a PA? I say go BIG or GO HOME!

The PA is a huge platform, used the 9" on it without any interference, put the 9" on the outback and it was a little in the way, but the fishfinder is a major part of the experience for me. Even when nothing is biting, if I am seeing, I am entertained, and it's motivation to keep trying. Go Big!

The all important question
 

How long will you be on the water? The 7" draws 1.7 amps max which is huge compared to a HDS gen 2, and .5 amps more than the HDS gen 3 carbon. .5 amps increase is pretty significant. IMO. The 9" draws minimal 2.0 amps and a max of 2.9 amps draw rate. Right now I am running a 7" live and pretty much had to upgrade my battery because a 15 amp battery was not cutting it. It would not even handle the HDS 7" carbon for a full day of fishing. I would imagine that you are willing to buy a LIPO battery correct? Unless you are gonna carry a 20 lb SLA battery? My 30 amp LIPO is coming in at under 9 lbs. The battery dimensions are reasonable also. I have it installed in a nylon bag mounted behind the center hatch. Batteries should always be secured somehow from flying around, needless to say. One other draw back with going to a 9" screen I could think of is the wind coefficient. The 9" would probably be like a sail. Being able to run a quad split screen with a 9" would be way easier on the eyes. But at what cost? If we were on a boat, I would say go for it. But take a serious thought about some of the real world drawbacks before pulling the trigger. Again, some of this might not be so significant if you are only fishing for short periods of time. But personally, I spend 8-10 hours, sometimes 12 or more hours on the water in search of that prize yellowtail. Hope this was helpful.

That's insane consumption, I was all day on a 17ah lithium for my 9" Garmin with juice to spare. When a FF consumes at that rate, brightness management is key(keep the screen on the dim side at all times).

What I have found it's not just the size of the screen, but the additional electronic capabilities and most of all is the huge transducers, especially, total scan that SUCKS UP the juice. I think if he can afford a 2020 PA 14 360 and whether to buy a HDS 7" or 9", what type of battery or how many batteries is irrelevant! GO BIG.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. While I spend up to 12 hours on the water, power is not really a concern. I fly remote control aircraft and use the batteries between my two hobbies. Based on 2A draw @ 12vdc (24 watts) and 25.2 watt-hours worth of battery, I can run for around 10.5 hours. BTW, the pack and set up weighs in at under 4lbs. If I forget to turn down my screen brightness, I can always swap out batteries midstream. Again, thank you very much for the thoughtful insight. The debate continues...

Battery Pack
 

My power set up using RC aircraft batteries.

the 7 inch is just fine, nine might be in the way.

Pretty cool to multi-purpose the high-end lithiums. Ever try any of the blue bricks off ebay? Must be using a different battery than the one in the photo or keeping the brightness super low. 10A @ 2A/hr = 5hr battery life.

10Ah battery (at 25.2 v)
 

Haven’t tried the blue bricks, but have to look into them...thanks! The battery in the photo is a 6 cell, 10 ah battery. Each cell charges to 4.2vdc, so a total of 25.2 vdc. This gives a total of 252 watt-hours. Plan to step this down to 12 vdc. With about 96% efficiency on the voltage regulator, this will give me around 242 watt hours. At 2 amps/hour, this should give me around 10 hours (242 wh/12 vdc/2 amps/hour = 10.08 hrs). Thinking about building a 441 watt-hour battery using 33, 35a-h 18650 Li-ion cells. This should give me around 16-18 hours on the water.

Final Decision...
 

Thanks you all for the input you provided. Went to West Marine with my old graph for a side-by-side comparison. The 7 was just a tad bit larger than my old head unit, while the 9 wasn’t that much larger. However, I felt like the 9 had significantly more screen real estate, especially with 4 screens displayed. But was it worth the additional $850? In my opinion, the answer was yes. In the end, the HDS 9 won out. Thanks again!

55
 

Yep, eye sight was a consideration. Went big...thanks!