430N head unit any good as an expedition tool?

[fjatl]

Wondering if anyone has the 430N in your Jeep and has experience using the Garmin GPS for anything other than finding the next place to get a cold beer? I keep it on screen when roaming around, but have an iPad mini and MotionX GPS HD that I use predominantly. Just wondering if anyone found it useful or had any tips/tricks

 

[fjatl]

Either I'm the only knucklehead with this damn thing, or no one finds it useful except for finding Tilted Kilts...

 

[kojackJKU]

it is only useful for on road navigation. There are no topo maps available and the off road roads are very limited. Its great as a media unit for your Jeep tho.

 

[fjatl]

it is only useful for on road navigation. There are no topo maps available and the off road roads are very limited. Its great as a media unit for your Jeep tho.

Well good thing it's my DD and I'm always thirsty!! Guess I'll just have to keep multiple screens staring at me...

 

[sonofmdlbldr]

I save the coordinates of all my stops on the trail in my 430N so I've built a database of custom waypoints. You can also enter specific longitude and latitude coordinates as well. There are others out there (google search it) that have figured out how to load multiple coordinates from a USB stick as well.

It also contains about 90% of the trails in the So Cal Desert.

As far as topo…there are different shades of terrain which denote changes in terrain. Not 3D like the larger 430N in the Chrysler 300 but still pretty good.

.

 

[kojackJKU]

Our maps cut off just outside town here. and most places just off highway.

 

[Timgco]

While I think the 430N is a great NAV unit, I don't look at it as a substitute for a hand held GPS unit.

 

[kojackJKU]

It would be nice if jeep would get garmin to load the latest topo mapping in it for the jeep vehciles. Or give us the option to load using a dvd we could purchase so we could have on road and off road mapping.

 

[fjatl]

It would be nice if jeep would get garmin to load the latest topo mapping in it for the jeep vehciles. Or give us the option to load using a dvd we could purchase so we could have on road and off road mapping.

In a roundabout way, this is what I was getting after. Wasn't sure if anyone had figured anything out. If you have the 430N or 730N, you've already got a great sized screen it would be awesome if we could take advantage of that. I guess Chrysler wants to look at it as a potential revenue stream instead.

 

[GetOutThere]

I always found the 430N and most Chrysler nav units to be not worth the paper a regular map is printed on.

Maybe they're worse up here in Canada. I was provided Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep units almost exclusively for years at work, and the nav was always garbage. This is the specific reasoning behind the bare bones head unit in my Rubicon. For on road I have a Tomtom or iPhone, and for off road I'll grab a handheld.

My 2c.