Best Offroad GPS unit

mcieplinski

Adventurer
Hi All,

I am looking at purchasing offroad GPS unit and was hoping to get some recommendations.

Thank you!

Best,

Michal
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
this is liking asking "what is the best 4wd?"

Are you using it in the vehicle only or will you hike with it also?
Do you already own a netbook, tablet, smartphone or such?
Are you looking at USA only, or will you go to Mexico & Canada?
Do you do mainly daytrips & weekends on established 4wd trails or week plus route finding fun?

I have owned and used it all...handhelds, laptops, netbooks, and Ipads...and have another tablet Elmer coming when they ship in August.

Currently I use an Acer netbook with 12vdc adapter running OziExplorers for USGS topo maps and Delorme Topo which is great for streets and most off road stuff.

Lots of options...tell us more so we can tell you more.
 

RobRed

Explorer
Lowrance globalmap baja 540c
dont piddle with apps on a tablet

haha that's pretty funny...I'm assuming by your statement that you're not up-to-date on tablet technology, or Lowrance for that matter. The buggy 540c is gone and replaced. Lowrance makes a fine product if I was say fish finding, needed some radar or even ocean going navigation but for 4x4? better options now exist.
 
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robgendreau

Explorer
Yeah, we do need to know more about your needs.

There are SO many options, and one of the first things you need to do is figure out what maps you want, since much of the hardware is basically the same when it comes to receiving GPS; it's the mapping that distinguishes them.

You also need to consider battery life, whether you need to broadcast your position, PLB options, weatherproofing, storage, whether you need turn-by-turn directions, whether you want to interface with your photos, and on and on. I'd wanna get something that is upgradeable as far as possible; both content, software and hardware is changing rapidly.

IMHO in the western US the best maps are the USFS topos and the USFS recreation maps. I think Avenza's PDF Maps app does the best job with the latter, but it isn't ideal for navigation on the go. I haven't used the Garmin or other proprietary mapping units in quite a while, although my friends do. I prefer the USFS stuff because, sad to say, you need to know the most current restrictions on the ground, and their stuff is usually the latest. Perhaps because they've had to complete all those road inventories.
 

bigreen505

Expedition Leader
haha that's pretty funny...I'm assuming by your statement that you're not up-to-date on tablet technology, or Lowrance for that matter. The buggy 540c is gone and replaced. Lowrance makes a fine product if I was say fish finding, needed some radar or even ocean going navigation but for 4x4? better options now exist.

Care to enlighten us? I'm having a hard time finding apps that are worth the effort and really work well offline. MotionX used to be pretty good. I could almost get excited about Avenza if it would move you from map to map. Gaia is next on my list. I started looking at hardware GPS units, but the cost seems really high for what we need.
 

verdesardog

Explorer
I have a friend that uses "I hike" on his tablet, he likes it a lot.

I have a couple of Garmins that I like a lot.....
 

CUMMINSDIESELPWR

New member
i have a lepan tc970 10" with back country navigator with downloaded offline maps of carious forms even topo. cheap too and built in gps.
 

off-roader

Expedition Leader
To the OP, what are your specific needs? Basic trail riding? Exploring unmapped regions of South America? That info as others have noted is relevant.

I'm using a 3G iPad 2 (w/out an active cell plan) mounted in my rig using a RAM mount. The GPS chipset is pretty effective and the number of mapping apps is vast. I use the TomTom app for for road navigation or I break out either my phone or if I need traffic alerts, I use my street gps...

For off road navigation, the ipad is hard to beat because it has so many mapping solutions. For most trips I've used Scenic Maps but I also have Motion X. I've tried other solutions but these are the two I went with.

What you choose for your solution really depends on your needs though which you need to mention.
 

RobRed

Explorer
Care to enlighten us? I'm having a hard time finding apps that are worth the effort and really work well offline. MotionX used to be pretty good. I could almost get excited about Avenza if it would move you from map to map. Gaia is next on my list. I started looking at hardware GPS units, but the cost seems really high for what we need.

Bill I've been using the iPad for nav since May of 2010. I have used all of the available nav apps - seriously like 25+.

It's unfortunate that MotionX is no longer offering the map selection it once had though the original open cycle maps it had at v1 still work well. They may bring them back if they can get the licensing squared up. Gaia is nice and getting nicer. GPS Kit is pretty good as well and has a broad selection of map types.

What makes the tablet solutions so compelling is that they are constantly updated for features and bug fixes. the hardware based units (including Lowrance) are not well serviced with only occasional updates and service releases.

For others interested I wrote an FAQ on the iPad topic http://forum.tlcfaq.com//viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26
 

mosovich

Observer
I to have the question which is best.. I'm looking for more dirt roads, and exploring roads and trails... I don't have a iPad, and really don't want to invest in one, I'd rather go with something like a Garmin.. Recommendations?
 

bigreen505

Expedition Leader
For others interested I wrote an FAQ on the iPad topic http://forum.tlcfaq.com//viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26

Great info, thanks. I'm looking into Android options because I know nothing about them. My interest in the hardware based options is that in my experience, they just work better and more reliably, but the cost on those units continues to rise while their advantages shrink. That said, I have never had a single failure with my Gamins and the things that show up on the base maps constantly amazes me. I can't say the same about the iOS apps I've used. I used Trimble on a 1,200 mile trip through the Utah backcountry with detailed waypoints and notes. The program locked up and I couldn't recover any of the information.
 
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off-roader

Expedition Leader
One thing that concerns me about the Garmin unit is that some of their latest models are nearly as expensive as a tablet and the Garmins are single purpose devices while even a $200-300 basic tablet is far more useful...
 

MrGrimm

Mall Crawler
Here's my take on the GPS. IPad are probably great and all for offroad navigation (I don't use ours for navigation).

I use a Garmin 62stc. I like the fact that I can hook it up to my laptop and use google maps for navigation (I cache the area I will be going to before I lose the wifi). For large areas I create overlays using .JPEG's so regardless of having that area cached, I will have a map of the area I am in.

I can also take the GPS out of the truck and use that on foot if I had to. It also takes AA batteries so I know I can just throw some new batteries in there if it dies. If the iPad dies when you are on foot, now what?

Just my .02 on the issue.
 

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