#%#% LX7 soft case POS

Venting. I love my LX7. Soft case…not so much. What a joke. The unit pushes forward in the case. Well today it finally happened. It fell out of the soft case and hit the ice hard. Broke the base. Unit went black. I cussed way too much for an educated adult. After I calmed down I checked connections and realize one was loose. Now the naysayers will say I should have known better. I say Marcum’s soft cased is a piece of s#%%. They need to figure a way to strap it to the handled on the unit. Any others have this experience?

It took me a while to get used to mine. The problem I had was when I put my hand in the carrying slot, the battery wire would pull off the terminal.

Last week I had the same issue and finally took it out of the case. Today I had in back in there so I would “protect” it. So much for that….

I cut small holes in the side of my soft case and put big fender washers (larger diameter, small hole) washers on the outside and pinching the case between the thumb screw and hard mount. Then u don’t have to dig to get to the thumb screws to adjust the screen cuz they will be on the outside of the case. Works good so far!

Question is…if my unit would have “broken” due to this inferior design (in my opinion) would Marcum have replaced my $700 unit because of a $30 soft case?

Im gong out on a limb here and say NO

I store my lx9 in a clam flasher bag. Stores the camera great and the panner fits nicely in the base. When fishing, I just set it on the ice with no case. The marcum case sits in the man room like new. The Velcro not sticking well is why I don’t bother with it.

I have an LX-9 and I agree with you. The plastic on the strap handle has broke and using the grab handle does occasionally knock a battery wire off. A more balanced case would make this unit more hole hoppin friendly. The unit itself is the best I have ever used!

Maybe Shane123 should make a CNC’d base of billet aluminum and someone else should come up with a kick ass cover for storing it. I’d buy one for my LX-9.

Imagine a clear plastic dome fitting over the entire unit and fastening to the base. Rear of unit would have plug ins for camera and power cords and a hinged front door to access transducer and buttons. Thumb screws would extend to both sides and allow external adjustment of angle. Entire unit would be placed in a soft non marring sack to keep the dome crystal clear.

+1 here… Absolutely love my Lx-7, but have never been fond of the case either. Biggest problems for me are knocking battery wires loose, as previously stated. And, due to the forward lean of the unit, my transducer has fallen out of the spot for it a few times when walking from hole to hole and banged the ice pretty good. Hasn’t caused any issues so far tho…. (knock on wood).

Judging by some of the posts regarding sled modifications and such, seems like we’ve got some pretty savvy individuals on here. Would be interested to see what people could come up with instead of the soft case. I’ve seen lots of guys with their units mounted to buckets and was considering trying to come up with something like that myself, but I’m not the most mechanically inclined…

Well i have a showdown and the strap on the case was ripped IN THE BOX when i opened it. Thread and needle fixed it. But…..

wow, didn’t know of these issues. I always tuck my front flap underneath the handle when im fishing for easier mobility. gonna have the wife put on some Velcro the to the bottom of the unit and the case now.

Just for info, the case for my new Vexilar is in the garage drawer also. I just cant think of a reason why they are needed unless it’s really bad weather.

Agreed about the case. Absolutely awful. I can’t see how any of the marcum field testers had anything good to say about it, but yet they keep making it.

I will try and come up with something better in my spare time. Probably start with a whole new base. These are the days I wish I had stayed in the machining trade, to have access to all the equipment, though I’d probably have gone crazy from all the stress.

The case leaves something to be desired, Velcro sounds like a good idea. I just pack 2 small tackle boxes in the side. Not only does it keep the unit secure, it adds convenience for hole hopping and sitting in the shack

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Crazy idea here, has anyone mounted their LX7 to a Genz box or one of the Vexilar cases?

I have the LX-6 and while I rarely use it, the neighbor I fish with has been using it when we go. The carrying case is disappointing. I have to futz with it to get it closed and am never certain the Velcro is really secure.

PikeFishman wrote:

Crazy idea here, has anyone mounted their LX7 to a Genz box or one of the Vexilar cases?

I’ve got an LX7 on a propack II. It fits in the gimbals OK, but still won’t fit into a bucket and has limited adjust-ability if you go that route. I cut the gimbals off and used some RAM hardware. It fits in a bucket and is adjustable enough to get the head unit up and out of the bucket if desired. I can leave the unit in the bucket lashed to the side of my snowmobile and use it without unloading if desired.

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I posted this same thing about a year ago… Mine dumped out on the ice just like yours. I also have the connections come off all the time. Seems when you grab the built in handle it disconnects the terminals.

looks like a good simple and cheap fix.