Vexilar FL-18

[Lip RIPPER!]

Has anyone tried the new Vexilar FL-18? Just wanted to hear the pros and cons about the new unit.

[BLACKJACK]

Lipper, you may have better luck posting this in January when the hard water season is in full force. But by then you won't be able to find and FL18 in the stores I'm also curious to see what people have to say about them.

[Pherris]

Are these in stores yet? My local Gander Mountain said 2-3 weeks yet. If they are what are the prices? According to vexilar they will retail from $339-$499.

[Lip RIPPER!]

I don't know if they are in the stores yet but I saw them yesterday on the net at vexilar.com.

[Duck-o-holic]

LipRipper--

I happened to see the FL-18 in action LAST year on the ice. At the time though, there was only 2 made, and this was only one of the two prototypes. It was being used by none other than Dave Genz. He was very down to earth, and explained how the unit worked. It was GREAT for hardwater applications. Showed great detail of the bottom 6 (?) feet that he was fishing. I would assume that what he was using as a prototype was not too far off from what is now available to the public. Sounds like quite a few out there have either gotten, or are planning on getting the new unit. Pretty fair price it seems (if you can find them)!

Good luck...

Duck-o-holic

[Dave]

Question, why does anyone need better seperation than what a FL-8 already has? I mean, I can see my split shot sinker and jig in 30 feet of water already. I guess I don't get it.

[hunt4food]

I'm with you Dave,
I would be hard pressed to let go of my good old FL-8. You never know though! It would not be the first time I found myself digging back into my wallet to upgrade my equiptment.
Just when I start to feel that I have everything I could possibly need for icefishing, somebody has to go and improve their equiptment again. Oh well, I wil continue to wait for good reports on the new Vexilar. I almost got suckered into an Aqua-Vu when they were going for $1500.00. Now look! they are much more improved and you can get one for around $400.00. I am still not sure they are worth it, but it is the only weapon left for me to complete my arsenal!
Have a good ice season!

[Dave]

hunt4food,
My brother has an Aqua View. They are pretty neat to play with, especially when ice fishing. Too bad they don't come equipped with a sports channel, too. Just incase there's no fish to view. Hey, I think I just hit a million dollar idea

[Insp Gadget]

Dave -

Just get yourself a picture in a picture tv, plug the aquaview (not sure, is aquaview hard wired to the monitor? Vista cam is not!)camera into one video jack, put up the antenna for the sports channel, and watch both! (we do!! )

Gadget

[hunt4food]

There you go Dave! I guess you had better go get a new TV for your shack! Does the spending never end???

Good thinking there Insp-gadget!!!

[Dave]

Ya see, that's why us guys have to stick together and exchange ideas; about new toys. *Drops the shack TV on floor from waist height*

*Walks into the house from the garage bumping into da wife* "Ah, dear, I'm running to Best Buy to get a new TV for the shack. The kids accidently bumped the old one off the garage work bench".

I guess there goes my million bucks but thanks Gadget for the solution.

[slick2526]

eh, if any of you are looking to upgrade let me know if your other one is going to be for sale and how much you want for it. thanks

[Guest]

The idea with the new FL-18 is to get more watts to the bottom thus increasing the sensitivity. This will show a more defined bar when fish are laying on bottom. The current FL-8 shows the bottom as a wide bar, any fish on bottom will blend in with this bar which cant be seen. This new unit will help with targeting walleyes and perch on bottom. It will also target fish better with a wider cone in deep water..

[minneman]

Dman, do you own one ? or will you be ? I've considerd it but they seem to be getting alot for a few upgrades, so far im not sold, are you saying that the line your looking at that is a fish on the bottom would appear narrower than the current slt fl8 would show, along with your jig ? and possibly in the zoom mode it would appear as the fl8 normally does?? if you follw me..?

Slick.. Lets chat,E me!

[Guest]

Yes you will see a more defined bar separation on bottom than the current FL-8. The unit will also show better targets because the cone will be wider with the zoom. What they are trying to achieve is to basically copy the effects of a LCD pixel graph.

[Insp Gadget]

Guys,

I can't take full credit for the idea of having PIP in the shack. Mrs. Gadget is mostly responsible. You see, we and the couple we partner with in the shack were up last new years weekend. The wives got tired of us flippin back and forth between the football games and the vista cam. 2 weeks later the 4 of us went out for dinner and the wives gave us boys a gift cert for our b-days for the PIP tv! Have we got great ladies or what!! Good luck!

[Skeets]

D-Man,
The FL-8 comes with a 19 degree ducer,
the FL-18 comes with a 12 degree ducer.

Dosen't that make the FL-8 have a wider ducer cone in deeper water?

Fleet Farm has the FL-18 Pro Pack in stock for $399.99. The FL-8 Pro Pack is $309.99.
That is quite a difference in price.
I think I will stick with my FL-8.

Skeets

[Dave]

OK, looks like I need to withdraw my thanks to Inspector Gadget and send it out to Mrs. G. THANKS for costing me a million dollar idea.

[Guest]

In the lower limit water cone from bottom to six feet up the FL-18 has a scan of 9 feet in 25 feet of water v.s the FL-8 has only 5.

[minneman]

something isnt making sence to me, I figure at 19 deg. in 25' your cone angle is going to be about 9' so at 12 deg. it has to be less do you have your #s mixed up??

[Guest]

yes true with the old fl-8. This is why new technology is so fun.. Basically when you improve watts from the bottom, just like on a LCD graph your cone will spread. No one thing to remember we are talking about a true cone.

[Guest]

The old FL-8 had either a 9 or a 19 deg transducer, depending on the unit or if you had a split feed with two transducers.

I have used the NEW FL-18 since late last winter (nice to know product reps Eh) and find it a deadly unit on the river or on the ice.

The classic FL-8 was very acurate in target separation, this new unit is even better with greater target coverage and less adjustment problems on the whole.

A very good unit, if not the best on the market. If there is one better I have not seen it!

[This message has been edited by Backwater Eddy (edited 10-06-2001).]

[Guest]

Beings your on the subect I have a ? Has anyone ever had the brushes replaced on thier veliar. I have the fl-8 and it seems that the brushes must be worn cause at times the screen gets dark as if the battery is going dead. Is this the brushes? Does anyone know what they charge to get them replaced and do I have to sent it in or could I do this myself? Also has anyone tried the new blue colors instead of the orange and green?

[Guest]

I have had the brushes replaced on my oldest FL-8 (I bought it in 1988). The symptoms were just as you described; looks like the battery is going dead. When they did that, they also replaced either the whole motor or a major component of it (I can't remember). They strongly recommended that it be replaced because of the age of the unit. The whole repair came to about $90.

Take it to Vexilar in Bloomington to have it done. I really don't trust the other repair outlets in the cities based on previous experiences. I wouldn't do it myself. My FL-8s are treated like family members, and I wouldn't do an aptendectomy on my kids

[Guest]

FL-18's are stacked to the ceiling at Galyan's... It does have a narrower cone angle than the FL-8 to give more precision at the bottom of the water column. In the AZ (auto zoom) mode it splits the screen in half. The right side is the entire water column gradiated from 0-20. It functions like normal and can be set for 1x, 2x, 4x. The entire left side is the bottom 6 feet of the water column spread over half the screen no matter what your multiplier mode is set at. So basically at any depth over 12 feet the FL-18 will give you better separation on the bottom 6 feet and is more of an advantage the deeper you go.

Bottom line is if you are a serious walleye chaser it has a big advantage. Panfish guys will probably not benefit near as much.

Like I said Galyan's has got stacks of all the Vexi's:
FL-18 pro pack - $399
FL-8 pro pack - $299
FL-8 value pack - $269
FL-8 no battery - $239

Cool thing I noticed there is the battery and charger that was $35 last year is $20 this year...

Pray for cold...

[fireman182]

I picked up a ProPack FL-18 at Cabin Fever in Victoria, MN. for $379.00 a few weeks ago. They are listed for $399.00 but if you ask the owner, Jeff, to drop the price a bit he probably will.

I took it out in the boat last week and tried it in a stationary position to get the feel of the Auto Zoom for ice fishing and it worked great. The brightness of the flasher is incredible. With the sun at my back it was still easy to read with no shroud to block the sun. Just waiting now for the hard water.

[Scoot]

This question may have already been answered, but I'll ask it anyway. I have a high-speed transducer for my FL-8slt and I am wondering if that same transducer will work for the FL-18?
Scoot

[Dennis]

Scoot:
I have been using the FL-18 for a while I'm using the old puck style transducer on the bottom of my trolling motor. It seems to work fine. The rule of thumb for electronics if the transducer plugs in it will work. Eccept on some of the Zercom Pro units some had 150 mhz and some were 200 mhz. I don't hear to much about the dual Fl-18 in the Pro pac this is the unit that seems to make the most sense for the extra $20 you can use the narrow cone angle for deep water and the wide one for shallow. These new units are not affected by the bright sunlight in the least. I have been fighting that problem with the Fl-8's for the last 25 years.

[Piker]

Dennis, your right on the money. On the FL-18 demo video it says that all the accesories from the FL-8 work on the FL-18.

[Bogie]

Ok Guy's
I do not get out fishing as often as I like but see the need for a flasher. The question of the day - Would I benefit buying the FL18 or be better off starting out with one of you guy's used FL8 when you upgrade (buy the the way I have never owned a flasher yet)

[Dennis]

There will be several good used units on the market soon. I have sold a few in my store already this fall. Some things to look at on used FL-8's to determine the price. The first thing I look at is to see if the have a 20 or 30 ft. screen. The 30 ft. ones won't bring as much money. Check to see if they have the I R on them. I sold a 2 year old with IR and 20 ft. screen Pro Pak for $200 and the older style 30 ft. will bring about $150 to $175 depending on the condition. If you do most of your fishing inside or in low light conditions it is hard to justify the cost of the FL-18. Personally I switched because I fish outside a lot in the winter and also use the unit on the front of my boat. I will some used ones coming in late next week give me a call. 507-362-8929