Lowrance XOG Crossover GPS

[Ryanmb21]

Surprisingly, I have read very little about this unit. The baja units have tremendous following on this board and this crossover appears to have many of the same Features. It's described as a blend of road/trail/marine, for $250 or less you get road, trail and some marine and there is an option to download detailed topo's and satellite imagery.

here is the company link:
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products/Automotive/XOG/

and here is some discussion I have found on internet:
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98703&whichpage=1

Here is a person's review:
http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=71435

And here is on Cabela's for $220:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...ode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=lowrance+xog&noImage=0

I have only used garmin, but this all seems like a pretty incredible package, does anybody here have any experience with this unit?

 

[Ryanmb21]

anybody? would lowrance users give this a shot if they were in the market?

 

[playhard]

I have had a XOG for a few months now. When my Eagle AccuTrail lost it's display, the XOG looked like it would do a little bit of everything and would be a good choice for my next GPS. I have not been on any road trips with it yet and I have not downloaded any maps to it yet. I will be giving it a good test in Red River, NM next month. I haven't used it very much, but I am happy with it so far.

 

[playhard]

I just returned from my trip to Red River. Over all, I am pleased the the XOG. I used it the my pickup for the 10 hour drive out there. We used it to find the Subways and Pizza Huts in all the little towns along the way. I have no complaints for the highway use of the XOG. Once in Red River, I moved the suction cup mount to my Jeep. Before leaving for Red River I downloaded topo maps for all around RR from the Lowrance website. I was very happy with it. It help me fine the road up to Goose Lake. I did 3 rough and bumpy trail and the XOG never moved. When I zoomed in really close, the topo map got a little blurry. that is to be expected. The other think that bothered me a little bit was the screen size. Driving down a bumpy road, the screen was a little difficult to read. It was not as easy to read as the larger screen on my AccueTrail, but much easier to read than my hand held Garmin. Below is a picture of the screen coming down Old Red River Pass.

 

[playhard]

let's see if these is a better picture.

 

[playhard]

I give up. Try this link if you want to see a better picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwreeves05/2585237029/

 

[nwoods]

Let's see if this link worked:

 

[nwoods]

Looks like you might want to change your track settings to pink or some other high visability color, but otherwise looks okay. Seems more detailed than the Magellan Crossover that it shares electronics with.

 

[Rattler]

I was kicking around getting a Garmin 76C or a Delorme PN-20 but I think I will end up with one of these. I have read a lot of good about them.

 

[1speed]

Very timely discussion for me as I still haven't replaced the Magellan Crossover. My mind bounces around between a 540c (really big for my LJ) to the 276c to the PN-20 (too small for driving) combined with a cheapo turn by turn for the road portions of the trip.
I looked on Garmins website at their TOPO maps and was't really excited about them. I Have Delorme paper maps for all the areas we're going to this year and I love them.
I have not seen the Mapcreate7 maps. I guess my biggest hesitation on the XOG is it seems to be very a similiar product to the Crossover, probably still apples and oranges but the Crossover was a big disappointment.
Looking forward to more feedback.

 

[RonL]

I like my XOG...

I bought my XOG for $219 and it has done everything prefectly. It got us from Chicago to Kansas to Denver and back to Kansas.
I have not download any topo maps but the Sat. images are great.

The battery life is short, but when in the Rover I have it plugged in.

I have not done a true offroad trip with it yet, but it has worked great on our road trip so far.

It has not "locked up" and it is ready to go within 20 seconds of turning on.

The POI list is big. Give me a name of a place and I will tell you if it is on the list.

If someone has a MAG Crossover, send it to me, I will due a side-by-side report of them. I looked at the Crossover, but the $280 was more then I wanted to spend vs. $219.

 

[nwoods]

Very timely discussion for me as I still haven't replaced the Magellan Crossover. My mind bounces around between a 540c (really big for my LJ)....
I have not seen the Mapcreate7 maps. I guess my biggest hesitation on the XOG is it seems to be very a similiar product to the Crossover, probably still apples and oranges but the Crossover was a big disappointment.
Looking forward to more feedback.

I have both the 540 and the Crossover. The PC software for the Crossover is retarded. I keep looking for the Unix command prompt....

MapCreate 7 is better, but not like Mac verses PC better. It is similar in some aspects, but far more robust. I don't have much time on the 540c yet, because Lowrance is not terribly user friendly in their set up. You need to buy the proprietary $100 MapCreate, then you need to buy the proprietary $50 card reader, that does the exact same thing as the $10 card reader you probably already have, except that it adds a serial number to the MMC or SD card...
anyway, the MapCreate software database appears to be quite robust, but I won't know for sure for a few weeks until my card reader arrives and go attempt to go somewhere off the map.

I debated about buying the $150 setup verses the $80 pre-loaded cards. Ultimately, with MapCreate, it's a lot easier to enter in waypoints, POI's, routes, etc...

My Crossover has locked up a couple of times in Outdoor mode, but never in Nav mode. It did not ever lock up before the recent software update, so I am hoping it's something that might go away with the next patch/update. The built in maps in the Crossover are not too bad, I have had many of the trails displayed in it. Far more than others in my group with various flavors of Garmin's, but the detail could be better.

I have found that using the eraser end of a pencil to be the hot ticket when entering in data on the touch screen. The system is very speedy and allows me to tap in data quite rapidly when using the eraser end. I have no idea why.

The 540 fits in the LJ okay by the way: