Topic: GPS Thread

[Jeffy]

Since we haven't had one of these threads, I thought it would be useful.  A quick background,  I bought a GPS early on.  It was a Magellan GPS2000 back in the late 90's.  Then I bought a Garmin GPS III Plus.  After that I bought a Garmin ETrex Legend and soon upgraded to a Legend CX.  Sold those for a Garmin Street Pilot 3610 which I still use in the Jeep.  It has TOPO's for the West Coast as well as street maps for the whole US.

Thinking about upgrading or supplementing it with a better street GPS.  TOPO maps rarely update very much but street maps change every year it seems.  Actually there's a hidden downside to this.  It turns out as they add move roads, they remove some as well.  Not major ones but minor ones.  Especially trails and 'jeep' roads.

In any case, I'm currently looking at maybe trying out a Tom Tom.  They have a Car kit to add a GPS to an iPod Touch which I already have.  ($38).  The app looks like it downloads 1.3GB of maps to the ipod.  ($49).  Seems like a pretty good deal for a SRiF chipped GPS.  Anyone use one or the Magellan kit?

Feel free to add your GPS questions or reviews.

[chardrc]

i have a garmin 76c. works nice for off road trials and snowmobile trails with he mount i got to put it on the handlebars of an atv or snowmobile. my dad has a nuvi adn i love the thing, easy to use, and intuitive (at-least for me). my friend has a tomtom and it falls short of what the nuvi provides. seems to take longer to lock in, and free rooming / scrooling through the map seems to be a pain compared to the nuvi.. but for the price the app / connector the the ipod may not be a bad option. back in the days of Ipaq's we had a sleeve that an ipaq would go into to make it into a roads gps, worked pretty good for its time. would definitely be dated now. if the tomtom for ipod is executed similarly it would be worth the $50 id think (if you have the ipod which you do)

[Torch_Ind]

i have a garmin 76c. works nice for off road trials and snowmobile trails with he mount i got to put it on the handlebars of an atv or snowmobile. my dad has a nuvi adn i love the thing, easy to use, and intuitive (at-least for me). my friend has a tomtom and it falls short of what the nuvi provides. seems to take longer to lock in, and free rooming / scrooling through the map seems to be a pain compared to the nuvi.. but for the price the app / connector the the ipod may not be a bad option. back in the days of Ipaq's we had a sleeve that an ipaq would go into to make it into a roads gps, worked pretty good for its time. would definitely be dated now. if the tomtom for ipod is executed similarly it would be worth the $50 id think (if you have the ipod which you do)

I have got the Garmin 76 Not color but it's decent.. I have all canadian topo map's on it. thats handy!!

also have iphone4 tom tom app witch works good to but not for off road. also have "topo maps" app on my iphone witch is cool as well.  the gamin 76 is alot more rugged for hand held then a iphone..

only complaint about the garmin 76 is the screen is to small for my liking

[Jeffy]

I have got the Garmin 76 Not color but it's decent.. I have all canadian topo map's on it. thats handy!!

also have iphone4 tom tom app witch works good to but not for off road. also have "topo maps" app on my iphone witch is cool as well.  the gamin 76 is alot more rugged for hand held then a iphone..

only complaint about the garmin 76 is the screen is to small for my liking

Have an issues with the Tom Tom App?  What do you like and what don't you like?  It's the same app for the iPod Touch.

[jfrabat]

I have a Nuvi; dont recall the model nomber, but it's the wide screen one with very few bells and whistles. Uploaded the street maps of Costa Rica (VERY GOOD MAP!) and Panama (not so great), and helps me a lot.  I also got the topo map for Panama, but I have not uploadd it yet (I have it on the PC).

[No Luck]

I found they work great in town, not so much out in the sticks. I have a county road next to my house that end just a few 100 yards from my drive way but at one time was one of the main roads around here and went for miles past my drive way. That road has been closed for at least 70 years

Tom Tom still shows that road  that is no longer there, If some one was to use the Tom Tom for any off roading you could be screwed in no time Soon as I leave my drive way it's telling to turn around and go the other way.

[Jeffy]

I found they work great in town, not so much out in the sticks. I have a county road next to my house that end just a few 100 yards from my drive way but at one time was one of the main roads around here and went for miles past my drive way. That road has been closed for at least 70 years

Tom Tom still shows that road  that is no longer there, If some one was to use the Tom Tom for any off roading you could be screwed in no time Soon as I leave my drive way it's telling to turn around and go the other way.

Street Maps don't work well for offroad in general.  Many trails, dirt roads, paths, etc... appear with TOPO's though.  The problem with GPS's is you really need two GPS's.  One for trails and another for street.  Although my old Streetpilot 2610 does both.  I don't like the 3D video the newer GPS's have since they're not that useful for orienteering.

[Torch_Ind]

Have an issues with the Tom Tom App?  What do you like and what don't you like?  It's the same app for the iPod Touch.

works as good as a tom tom does with the app.  it does have some quirks though.. like they said about the shortest distance and main roads.

I had it drive by my buddy's place to get to his street then back track to his place lol but I was smart enough to turn and have it recalculate it's self !! lol

but overall I must say it's great for being on your multi-use Iphone/ipad

what I like about it I can use my iphone car dock for everything now. music, gps, phone calls lol I was honestly thinking of making a kick plate for my car and having it all work off my ipad/iphone.

[Jeffy]

works as good as a tom tom does with the app.  it does have some quirks though.. like they said about the shortest distance and main roads.

I had it drive by my buddy's place to get to his street then back track to his place lol but I was smart enough to turn and have it recalculate it's self !! lol

but overall I must say it's great for being on your multi-use Iphone/ipad

I almost always check the route they choose to make sure.  Although I also try to memorize the last few details of the destination so I'm mainly using it to stay on route and rerouting.  Using the touch pad on my Streetpilot is a pain.  It's great for showing you an overview of the area, upcoming streets and a few other things though.

I just got Mapsource reinstalled on my PC.  Haven't had to use it other then uploading the maps to the GPS.  I could make my own route for the Streetpilot and not rely on the GPS's auto route.  Only problem is that Garmin doesn't like to update their software to make it easy to use.  It's like using Win95.

I was looking at maybe getting a new Garmin Nuvi 2640 or something.  Lifetime maps and traffic but it's $299.  I'm not sure if it's worth it really.  I HATE the zumo line.  They try to make the Zumo do everything else like Pictures, MP3, etc...  I just want a GPS.  I also carry paper maps with me of the destination area so I can get a lay of the land once I'm there.  But the GPS is great for finding the freeway onramps and other little things.

[Torch_Ind]

lol ya but if your going to spend the time making your own route then why not just figure out were your suppose to be on the map when you get there and used the tom tom or whatever other town mapped gps and don't use there auto route just use your gps to see upcoming roads..  I found it's better to know what area your going to and memorize it so your not relying on the gps to guide you turn by turn

[Jeffy]

lol ya but if your going to spend the time making your own route then why not just figure out were your suppose to be on the map when you get there and used the tom tom or whatever other town mapped gps and don't use there auto route just use your gps to see upcoming roads..  I found it's better to know what area your going to and memorize it so your not relying on the gps to guide you turn by turn

Kinda hard to memorize all of the side streets on a 350 mile route.  I don't use my GPS other the logging where I've been for anything local.

[sharpxmen]

i use oziexplorer with backroads maps which I bought the DVDs for about 5 regions (they have trails, forestry roads and in some cases 4wd trails).

[Jeffy]

A laptop running a GPS would be cool.  I can actually do that now.  Just run Garmin Mapsource and plug the GPS into it with the USB plug.  OR I could use MS Streets & Trips which I also have.  Streets & Trips had a much better interface then Mapsource.

The only problem is I don't have a place to mount a laptop (Rental) a passenger hold it would be a PITA.  I think I'll probably just use my Streetpilot and have some maps as back up.  I'll also print out a Google Maps route which makes for easier reading while driving.

I think something like an iPad with TOPO's and street maps would be a nice compromise.

[sharpxmen]

i used a piece of plywood in the map shelf above the glove box and strapped it both to the handle with a bungee cord.

I find iNav to be much better than microsoft streets and trips, it's smarter on recalculating the path if you miss a turn and has all the major roads features.

For offroad oziexplorer and fugawi are the ones i use, fugawi has 3D map as well and you can download (if i can remember correctly) the elevation files from NIST and use them to generate terrain maps.

[Jeffy]

Well, I was curious enough that I bought the TomTom.  Should be hear before my trip.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get it sorted before Sunday.

I'd like to get a sub-notebook to use as a GPS.  Having a passenger really limits how much junk I can have on the passenger side.  Although I could install a touch screen and have it pivot down from the cage...  Otherwise I could remove the glove box and make a shelf for a sub-notebook there.