What does everyone use for GPS?

R

rra640

New member
I have been looking around for a portable GPS unit and I am pretty disappointed.

I want a unit that has more detailed topo capability than the consumer units that find all the Burger Kings and shopping malls.

I came accross this the Baja 480C from Lowrance. Prices are less than $500 for this unit, which is pretty resonalble. Not interested in voice commands, mp3, etc.... just good old fashion mapping.

http://www.lowrance.com/automotive/default.asp

I want to be albe to track all areas as I do a lot of back country driving, but also would be nice to have city maps available. Kind of a combination of detailed professional topo model and consumer around town model.

I always liked the quality of Garmin, but don't really see a comparable unit.

If anyone has the lowrance, how did you mount it in your 4runner??
 
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I'm running Garmin StreetPilot 2720. Best unit I ever had!!!
I had many Garmin units, Magelan and Lowrence. Garmin has best software and they extremely friendly to use.
 
AlexJet said:
I'm running Garmin StreetPilot 2720. Best unit I ever had!!!
I had many Garmin units, Magelan and Lowrence. Garmin has best software and they extremely friendly to use.
Click to expand...

How is a unit like this off road? Does it show trails and terrian? My thought has always been that the street versions do good in town, but lack once you go off main road. Do you have experience with this?
 
rra640 said:
I have been looking around for a portable GPS unit and I am pretty disappointed.

I want a unit that has more detailed topo capability than the consumer units that find all the Burger Kings and shopping malls.

I want to be albe to track all areas as I do a lot of back country driving, but also would be nice to have city maps available. Kind of a combination of detailed professional topo model and consumer around town model.
Click to expand...

I have a Garmin Quest. It's the only gps I've owned, but the more I learn about them, the happier I am with how it fits my usage. It's small, portable, 20hr battery, holds 10,000 track points, and works very well on and especially off-road. I've hiked with it many times and it's tough and waterproof. It has voice commands for on road but you can turn them off. To get topo, all you have to do is buy Garmin Topo and put it in, but from what I've heard, if you're looking for professional level maps, you may be dissapointed. It's a great bang for the buck but a little light on memory -- 115MB. The Quest 2 holds much more but they're both sealed units without memory cards. I get by just fine, but if you traveled cross country, you'd want to bring a laptop to make sure you could load maps where you were. My brother is in the market for a gps and I was helping him shop a little. I was stunned to see how many Garmins don't handle tracks. Large track handling is an absolute must for me. I wouldn't live without it.

If small size and a battery is not necessary, check out the Garmin GPSMAP series. The Garmin <a href="http://www.garmin.com/automotive/compare.jsp" target="_blank">comparison</a> <br />page is very handy. Just remember to look for units that handle tracks.
 
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rra640 said:
How is a unit like this off road? Does it show trails and terrian? My thought has always been that the street versions do good in town, but lack once you go off main road. Do you have experience with this?
Click to expand...

It holds all my needs on and off-road. To get better maps off-road with trails you have to buy Topo software. I used that software on my friends unit and so far I like it. I'm, personally, like my Garmin unit, because it has voice prompt, turn to voice feature and never get me drive in wrong directions.
 
I have a Garmin Map76CSx (Same as the Map60CSx). I have it mounted on my dash for use in the 4Runner and it's hand held for back country use. It has 1GB of storage on a uSD card which currently holds most of the US street maps and all the topos for the western US.

I have owned several GPS receivers over the years and I can't say enough about how much I like ths unit. With the improvved SRIFF chipset, it has extreme sensitivity and even gets multi sat locks inside my house. I have never lost a signal outside, even in deep canyons and under heavy tree cover.

When hiking or four wheeling, I am always amazed how accurate the track logs are when I get home and upload them to PC based mapping software (National Geographic Topo). My tracks always directly overlay the roads or trails I followed.

Here's another great site to learn about GPS units. Just look under the "GPS Units and Software" section.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/
 
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jharris2 said:
I have a Nuvi 350. You might head over to GPS Passion for information on lots of units.
Click to expand...

I've got the same and it is great for on road driving, but not too many features for off pavement. It has same great built-in features though including MP3 players, audible book player, picture viewer, translator etc.
 
Tucson T4R said:
I have a Garmin Map76CSx (Same as the Map60CSx). I have it mounted on my dash for use in the 4Runner and it's hand held for back country use. It has 1GB of storage on a uSD card which currently holds most of the US street maps and all the topos for the western US.

I have owned several GPS receivers over the years and I can't say enough about how much I like ths unit. With the improvved SRIFF chipset, it has extreme sensitivity and even gets multi sat locks inside my house. I have never lost a signal outside, even in deep canyons and under heavy tree cover.

When hiking or four wheeling, I am always amazed how accurate the track logs are when I get home and upload them to PC based mapping software (National Geographic Topo). My tracks always directly overlay the roads or trails I followed.

Here's another great site to learn about GPS units. Just look under the "GPS Units and Software" section.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/
Click to expand...

Man, that looks interesting. I checked it out at Garmin.com. At not much more $$ than the Quest, that's a serious bang for the buck. If I were in the market today, that would be my benchmark.
 
sharp4runr said:
I've got the same and it is great for on road driving, but not too many features for off pavement. It has same great built-in features though including MP3 players, audible book player, picture viewer, translator etc.
Click to expand...
Right, but gpspassion has forums for lots of topics besides the Nuvi, including off-road software.
 
AlexJet said:
I'm running Garmin StreetPilot 2720. Best unit I ever had!!!
I had many Garmin units, Magelan and Lowrence. Garmin has best software and they extremely friendly to use.
Click to expand...

Agreed!

I have used a Garmin Quest for several years now. I like the fact I can remove it for hiking and camping trips and does not have to be pluged in. The software "mapsource city select" is easy to use.
There is also a tracking feature, it is easy to update, and my personal favorite.... everything you look at mapsource you can select it and then click view in google earth.

I recently bought a magellen roadmate for my Girlfriend. After using it for a day I returned it and got her a Garmin streetpilot c330 and couldn't be happier. It works great. I almost want to upgrade mine to a newer garmin unit now but keep telling myself that it works fine for me.

My opinion is go with Garmin.
 
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I second the Garmin 76CSx. This is my second receiver, having had a Garmin Etrex Legend previously.

I love this unit, infinitely expandable, just buy more or larger microSD cards, quick sat lock with the SiRF, and stays locked even under fairly heavy cover. The screen is color, and pretty decent in size. It's rugged, waterproof, and has an altimeter and a digital compass built in, plus routing capability, if you want to use it for navigation.

The Garmin Topo product is pretty decent at 1:100,000, and they have a 1:24,000 product now too.

When I got mine, Garmin had a 100.00 rebate, I think there is a 50.00 one now.

--Mike
 
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Mr. Lambdebois said:
Never knew you could get them online! Man that makes it easier. :bigok:
Click to expand...
Yeah, I saw how they did them at the local AAA office, and let's just say that it made me really glad you can get them online. (They were doing them manually by looking at the maps....)
 
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