RT-9 Trade-up Program

make you wonder just how many RT-9 units they are sitting on…

Link below doesn’t appear to be working, check it out at Marcum’s website

RT9 Trade Up Program

Link on the website worked for me. I dunno. Perhaps its your browser?

That is interesting, must be their thought to get people into them because they are so expensive. If I saw some people actually using them on the ice or on TV I might consider it if the price comes down but yet you never see any of the people the Marcum sponsors actually using an RT-9. Wonder why?

They’ve gotta realize that got 1,000$ less you can buy a hummingbird Helix 7 ice… And get basically the same thing. For $1,700 they should be damn near putting the fish on the ice for you. Look at the Garmin panoptics. You can get one of those setups for 1800$ which is crazy expensive but it’s groundbreaking also. So I can see why no one is buying them for that price. You’ve got to be a pretty diehard Marcum fan to spend an additional 1000$ on something that does the exact same thing as a competitor. And based on personal experience, I see more guys selling their lx5, 6, and 7s to get Helix units than ever before. Facebook is full of guys looking to trade their lx 6 and 7s for Helix 7s. I’ve been looking for an lx6 or 7 but have to go take a look at the Helix units now.

Just shoot the horse and move on. Companies swing and miss sometimes as this clearly was. I’m not sure I’d trade my new FL12 for one.

It missed its release window and the Lowrance Elite & Helix ice series basically do the same thing nowadays for 1/2 the price.

Plus most guys used their phone/navionics for GPS at the time…

phishingruven01 wrote:

thing looks awesome. Why is it bad?

Nothing bad about it, it looks like a great unit. But with a price tag that outrageous, it just doesn’t have the features or advantages to warrant spending an extra thousand dollars on a unit.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

It missed its release window and the Lowrance Elite & Helix ice series basically do the same thing nowadays for 1/2 the price.

Plus most guys used their phone/navionics for GPS at the time…

I agree on most accounts but those other units you cannot use a camera. The RT-9 you can, so there is a bit more possible with it. If it would have came out about 5 years before it did, it would have been the meal ticket, but a little too late and other options popped on the scene that this one really doesn’t separate itself enough from them to make it worth the higher price.

That is one thing I have constantly bitched about to any Hbird rep is why they do not have a video in just for hooking up a camera. Lowrance does in there 8`s gen 2 and up. My Marcum LX 8 screen is worthless in sunlight, they claimed sunlight viewable my as-.

Tom P. wrote:

That is one thing I have constantly bitched about to any Hbird rep is why they do not have a video in just for hooking up a camera. Lowrance does in there 8`s gen 2 and up. My Marcum LX 8 screen is worthless in sunlight, they claimed sunlight viewable my as-.

My guess is that by not having the port it then limits the amount of time and effort they would need for supporting the Video-In functionality and perhaps even paying royalties to use the port? Remember Humminbird used to have the Video-In port on their older 8,9,110 series units before removing it. I don’t know any screen that is visible in direct sunlight, but my LX-9 works better than other displays I’ve had…

why on earth would someone trade in an lx9 for an rt and still pay $600 when you can buy an rt9 retail for $775????? Marcum is insane

Hey Joe…..
Now that Marcum threw us that 4 1/2 year old LX9 update (basically the leftover LX 6/7 update), would you take the lead on starting a new campaign to get one more final update from them…..before these units become so obsolete it won’t matter? It will take them about 1/2 a decade to offer up even some scraps……so we should probably get on it?

rickwalley wrote:

Hey Joe…..
Now that Marcum threw us that 4 1/2 year old LX9 update (basically the leftover LX 6/7 update), would you take the lead on starting a new campaign to get one more final update from them…..before these units become so obsolete it won’t matter? It will take them about 1/2 a decade to offer up even some scraps……so we should probably get on it?

I spoke to a Marcum tech a month or so ago, he said they have no current plans for releasing any LX series updates this ice fishing season…I explained how disappointing that was and he claimed they limited resources…We talked about what enhancements I would like to see and everything I mentioned he said already existed in the backlog of enhancement ideas..So they have the enhancement requests we want, they just won’t prioritize doing the work…

I really think Marcum is taking a beating from the Helix ice series and is in a state of limbo in terms of what to do with their existing product lines (Seriously, what NEW products have they released in the past 5 years? besides the Shuttle? and failed PanCam?)…My guess is they have a whole new platform in the pipeline that they are putting all of their resources towards as a last ditch effort to try and win back ice fishing electronics share and become relevant again…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Seriously, what NEW products have they released in the past 5 years? besides the Shuttle? and failed PanCam?

The Recon 5 with his blue screen of death is a soaring success.

I forgot about the Recon, but imo mimicking what Aquaview had released years earlier is hardly a new product..

Again, I think Marcum has a good product with the LX series, I just wish they fully supported it (with frequent software updates/enhancements) like they promised…

Being a happy Vexilar owner, I can honestly say marcum definitely pushed the envelope as far as technology goes. Compared to vex, they were willing to take a chance and create products with much more added value than vex ever did.

Unfortunately as it was already stated, I also heard they had very limited resources for software and programming. Very limited as in one subcontracted guy. That’s just a rumor but it seems to make sense. For this reason I never bought in to the “fully updatable” “always have the latest technology with your existing unit”. Either marcum needs to stick with the traditional flasher like vex, or their days are numbered. They’re just not going to compete with Lowrance, Bird or Garmin on sonar/chartplotters in time to save the ship. Not without bringing the software/programming in house.

Today I use my FLX-28 about 1/2 the time and my Lowrance HDS-7 the other 1/2 but my Lowrance is ALWAYS with me for the chartplpotter.

Marcum and Vex both perfected the flasher and ice ducers. Marcum has cameras too but they both should probably stick with what they’re good at. Either that or partner with one of the big players.

Can you tell me where you can buy one for $775.55

donkoehne wrote:

Can you tell me where you can buy one for $775.55

Do a simple google search, I found some even cheaper.