... it's VHF only.

It does VHF only very well.


But it's VHF only.


FM activity around south Florida is actually pretty decent and there is ~50/50 split between 2m and 70cm.


Sell outright or do a "trade plus cash for TM-V71A"


What do I do? I like the 75w option

the 71a is the dual-band to have IMO, but if you can afford to keep the ICOM-do

+1.

If you HAVE to sell or trade the ICOM, OK, but definitely go for the Kenwood.

If you want to explore D-STAR in addition to having a great dual-band FM radio, then consider the ID-5100.  There are LOTS of D-STAR repeaters in FL and you'd have access to the world.  If you can't tell, I'm becoming a D-STAR fanboy.

V-8000 is a work horse of a radio. I have that in my truck. I'm using an ht for UHF but there are some times I would like to have more.
Problem is changing would give up 75 watts.

I feel your pain.

I own five v-71's and three IC-V8000's and I can say that the V-71 is my favorite. The difference from 75 watts to 50 watts isn't that big of a deal on repeater use, however simplex the difference can be heard. However a good antenna like the Diamond SG-7900 mounted correctly will make the two radios almost the same on simplex.

Good to hear.  I had gone all superhero and drilled my roof.  Larsen NMO270SH on a Larsen (IIRC) NMO mount.

Always get great reports, even when I had the HT (RIP) pigtailed into it.

Post it up for sale on ARFCOM & QTH classifieds, and buy the dual bander you like.

( if you post good pics, it will sell faster  )

the difference between 50-75 watts is negligible

I like the Kenwood or Yaesu 2m/70cm rigs

Does MTC do trade ins?

I would not give up my 2900. Output is not everything but it helps sometimes. My 2900 put out 102 watts stock. Most do put out more than 75.   I have a FT746 with amps for 440 and 2 meter SSB and FM


I need either a 440 unit or dual band FM

Your Icom is a workhorse. They are great radios. I'd keep it and get another dual band rig.
Yaesu FT-8800R are on sale for $369 right now. I like my TM-V71a but would buy FT8800r for a vehicle. Yaesu comes with a free separation kit and I like their microphones a whole a lot better than the one on my Kenwood. My wife can't hold the Kenwood's microphone with one hand for more than 5 seconds. The spring on the PTT button is too strong for her. I took the microphone apart and cut shortened the spring but she still does not like it. I let her use my old FT-2800 instead.
Having a cross band capability is very nice. I use it all the time with my TM-V71A. It works fine except that my audio is weak when the radio is used as a cross band repeater.

Ft2900 are great little radios but they are not designed for high TX duty cycle. The radio has no cooling fan and does get very hot after several minutes of TX at high power. It's not a defect. I used to have a Kenwood TM281 and it would get very hot too. My FT2800 is the same.
This is why I always recommend to buy a radio like an Icom V-8000, with a build-in cooling fan if someone likes to talk a lot on the radio.

Yes, they do. How much are you looking to sell it for?

Here are the two radios side by side.
And like I said in a previous post in this thread the V-71 is my favorite for repeater use by far.
However simplex use the ic-V8000 edges out the v-71 a little bit, but not much.
The V-71's big complaint is the power selection, it's 5,10,50 watts with no 25 watt selection.