Hey guys, I am trying to choose between these two GPS units and I want to know any pros or cons to each unit. And if you have been having problems with either of them I really want to hear from you.
My wife has said that I have waited long enough 
So I don’t want to screw this purchase up.
Thanks in advance for any info.
I know the 334 had issues early on. I am not sure if those have been resolved. Wade will probably weigh in and give us the scoop. The 332 is supposed to be a very good unit. It has sounded like some of the early problems with the 334 were related to placement in more obscured settings. Enjoy either way… maybe I’ll get the green light someday 
Chuckles
If you plan on using it out on the ice go with 334I, If not go 332
I have seen the ice riged 334I’s and man do they work good for map,flasher,sonar,combo.
I have been running a 332C for the past 2 seasons. It has never missed a beat.
One thing I like about the external antenna is that I can mount it anywhere in the boat for best reception (mine is right at the stern on the starboard side) and then network that one receiver to all of my units. So, as of right now, I have one receiver that provides data both to my original 332C (now at the bow) and a new LCX25C at the console. A few more connections and I’ll have my X102C at the kicker tied in as well. I don’t know if you can network the iGPS in the same way.
I’ll answer for Wade.
Get the external antenna.
I love the 332c for both open and Ice fishing! I use my 332c in the regular mode and you can litterally tell if you still have bait on your hook! The gps is also right on the nose! Lowrance is the way to go!
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I’ll answer for Wade.
Get the external antenna.
That’s right! We have seen issues with the internal antenna. Lowrance is changing nearly the entire lineup. The LMS-332C will be replaced by the LMS-520C . The price will remain the same. You might as well wait until the LMS-520C is available at this point. It’ll have all the latest upgrades and has a few new added features. I guess the connectors will be red instead of the current blue connectors, and are supposed to be more waterproof from what I hear. The new units will take the LGC-3000 GPS module/antenna. I’m hoping that these new external antennae are shielded better against radar, since these new units will be able to operate the new Lowrance radars. In short, I would wait and get the new LMS-520C when available.
I’ve had a 332c the last year, and before that I had its big brother, the 330c, and they both worked flawlessly. I know a guy who had nothing but problems with the internal antenna, and ended up having it removed. I like Wade’s answer too….Lowrance is always coming out with new and improved items. I think their customer service is GREAT too, I’ve had nothing but good results from Lowrance.
While I really like the 334C when it works, have had more than my share of troubles with it, and so has a buddy. First the gps repeatedly lost position, and Lowrance fixed it and sent it back to me in the spring. Worked fine till about 3 weeks ago, when the thing froze up in Map Page….ie: couldn’t use sonar. Sent it in and promptly received a brand new unit from Lowrance. First time out with it last Friday, and the same problem with gps…lost position dozens of times that day. 
Emailed them last week that I want a different model, unless they can assure me that they have this thing figured out and give me an extended warranty. Havent heard back on that yet, but if they remain true to form, I trust they’ll do me right. Service has been excellent, I must say, and it is my intention to stay with a Lowrance product because of that.
Z-man, I hear you on the internal antenna. I am hoping they have the issues resolved on the 2007 product which will be the LMS-522C iGPS. Maybe they’ll end up exchanging one of those for your current unit. I’m glad to hear the service has been good so far. 
I got a 332c this past spring and am in love with it! I have heard nothing but bad things about the 334. Will the new units work in a network with the blue connectors? I am going to get another unit next spring and want to be able to network.
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Will the new units work in a network with the blue connectors? I am going to get another unit next spring and want to be able to network.
My understanding is that the 2007 units will come with red connectors but there will be an adpater availabel to make them compatible with the blue connector products. All of the new units will be NMEA 2000 compatible, so networking setup will remain the same as the current lineup, and will be compatible.
On the GPS modules, the new 2007 units will come with the LGC-3000. The 2007 units can NOT connect directly with the LGC-2000, but the LGC-2000 CAN supply GPS data as part of a NMEA 2000 network.
This is my early understanding regarding compatibility.
…and the saga goes on. I just heard from Lowrance, and they are sending me another new 334C unit, and extending my warranty period. Like I said before, I do like the units, and hope this third time’s a charm….stay tuned….
Wade Thanks for the heads up. Will Lowrance be dropping the price on the 332c before the 520c’s come out? 
I have also considered buying one of the units with a HardDrive, but I have been told that the maps are all older, not as detailed, and inaccurate. Is this true?
Less than a month ago I purchased a 334 IGPS at Cabelas. Couldn’t pass up the deal at $540 including the Navionics north chip. Installation was easy! I turned the unit on inside my garage several times before I was able to get out on the water and sometimes it couldn’t find satellites and other times it did. I was kinda nervous and I wanted to get out several times since installing it to see how it worked but many things prevented that from happening. Finally I got out last Friday for about 4 hours and it worked flawlessly. 
It found the GPS signals within 2 minutes and never lost them. I may try to get out again this weekend to give it another try before I store the boat for the winter. Hopefully I have one of the good ones. I can say the screen clarity is awesome and I am happy with the unit so far. I did some online research before I bought it and was leary as I had heard bad things about the IGPS. Unfortunately some of the earlier units are poor at holding the GPS signal and you can’t tell by any of the numbers printed on the outside of box the unit comes in when it was made so you don’t know if you have an early or later built model. Not sure what the changes will be on the new models or if they will even work any better than the ones they are replacing. Good luck!
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Wade Thanks for the heads up. Will Lowrance be dropping the price on the 332c before the 520c’s come out?
I have also considered buying one of the units with a HardDrive, but I have been told that the maps are all older, not as detailed, and inaccurate. Is this true?
No, The price will remain the same as they don’t have enough volume to fill current orders.
A lot of the maps on the HD units are not as detailed as what you will find on Navionics Premium or Lowrance Lakemaster maps. The maps for the great lakes are decent, and some of the southern states have pretty good mapping, but again, it’s not the quality of mapping you will find on the Premium or Lakemaster. Whether oone chooses an HD unit or a regular unit plus additional mapping will depend on what waters one fishes. Also, there are additional benefits to the HD units besides the lakemaps. The 2007 HD units will have a 30GB harddrive instead of the current 20GB. The additional memory allows for even more recording of sonar and GPS data. Guys from the Doc Samson school of marine electronics love that sort of stuff!
I swapped my 2nd 334c last month for a 332c.What a world of difference.Instant GPS acquired,vs the sometimes long wait on the internal antennae model.
Not sure what Lowrance tweeked on recent models,but my second unit was not much better than the first one.I always kept the unit verticle.Position error varied wildly,vs a constant one one external antennae.
BTW,what is a good number for position error?I get 16ft on the current unit,had as high as 460ft on iGPS.
I need to get my 334 exchanged, but I’m fishing too much to do it now. Hopefully by the time I get around to it they’ll have it figured out. The unit sounds like a pinball machine about 50% of the time constantly losing and aquiring position. Very Very anoying, and also a big pain when trolling because you don’t know you speed. When I emailed them a long time ago, when I first had the issues, they never emailed me back. Very dissapointing, but if they know there’s a problem, hopefully they take care of me.
Hi every one on this topic. I’m from France and we use the LMS 334. Before we have the 332. We never have problems with those products just before this last Sunday. We were at the start of the sail race “La route du Rhum” from St Malo in Brittany to Guadeloupe. There were around 10,000 boats on the sea to follow the departure, really impresive!! After around 3 or 4 hours our GPS lost is position and say GPS unit device lost??!! We have load the last update available on the Lowrance web site (rev 1.9) but the problem of radar pertubations stills exist. Again we never experiment that type of problems before but in that case there were so many boats around us and could explain the lost GPS position. This race is only every 4 years and we think we can stay like this if append so rarely. In “normal” conditions it works. Hope that the next products (500 series) solve definitely this issue. Hope it helps…
Just a mistake in my previous message but important in this topic. We have a 332c and not a 334!! Previously we have the “black and white” 330 i think.
And here’s the follow-up to my post a couple weeks ago. Received my third 334C from Lowrance, even before sending the second back. Used it for the first time on Pool 4 for 4 days, Saturday thru yesterday, and it worked flawlessly. Locked position immediately, and even maintained WAAS for much of the time. Position error as low as 28 feet, which I’m told is about as good as it gets (?). So I’m a happy camper again. And Lowrance followed up with a letter extending my warranty on this third unit. Hoping this one keeps working…will see. If it goes again, I’m switching to another model. So seems like there’s hope there for those of you wanting to keep the 334C in lieu of exchanging faulty units for the 332C. And I must reiterate that the service received from Lowrance thru my series of problems, has been A-1, so I remain a loyal Lowrance customer. What I can’t quite understand, is that I get only general answers from them when I press them for specific info on the repairs/modifications they’ve made or problems they’ve found, versus the specifics I’d be interested in knowing, to enable me to make a more informed decision on model choice.
Z-Man,
I responded to your original post as I have a 334 also. I never made it back out on the water again but I did turn it on while I winterized my boat on my driveway. It locked on signal almost immediately. I drive my truck around with the boat attached and it tracked my path and never lost it. As far as position I think it should locate you to about 10 feet of your actual position. I think I will look in the manual and see what it says about positional accuracy. When I was out on a lake we went about 30-40 feet along shoreline and it showed us tracking pretty much that far from shore on the lakemap outline. I guess I will have to wait til next spring for the real test. Hope yours continues to work good this time and its nice that Lowrance extended your warranty for you. Will have to do a post in the spring
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