Garmin 276c 4Runner Install

[xcmountain80]

I have been using my fathers Garmin 276c with the included auto bean bag . The unit itself is very nice as those of you that use it or have a garmin. I have a 2002 4Runner and space is limited for mounting accessories. I like the clean stock look when it comes to the addition of anything. For instance my on board air is under the hood and utilizes factory threaded holes, and a defrost switch for activation. My cobra cb is mounted in the armrest and serial plug is out of sight when the mic. isn’t plugged in. I get a lot of the ideas from multiple sites such as this one and Slee Offroad. Knowing the unit wasn’t going to be mounted on the dash I picked a better location just forward of the 4wd shift selector .

I started by test fitting the round mount was going to sit on the concave surface, I shimmed it using 2 Toyota shock mount washers with two sided tape. After verifying it would sit level and not wobble I secured it in place with small self tapping stainless hardware.

I then picked a good spot for the ext. antenna. I though about mounting it on the hood, using a sticker under it to prevent chaffing the paint. Then an even better spot presented itself just in front of the drivers side windshield wiper. I used a piece of 3M super 2 sided tape and used my clevis hitch plug to weigh it while it was bonding.

I then routed it through the firewall and re siliconed it to prevent interior driver side floor flooding as is common with 4Runner’s if the firewall plug hasn’t been siliconed after installation of aux. Item requiring power from under the hood.

After checking my connection I used the supplied speaker/ power unit so turn by turn is audible. I had a hardwired connector but no audio device, this also keep the device slightly more portable. I love it and it looks good and works very well.


Aaron

 

[crawler#976]

Well done - very clean!

My Lowrance 3500C is in a somewhat similar position, and works well for slow speed use. I've found that for highway use it's too far down for complex manipulation - it's below my peripheral vision for safe driving. It does fine for checking simple items like bearing/distance or similar data tho.

Mark

 

[xcmountain80]

Yes I agree, low speed safe, high speed requires operation by my navigator "Wife". I rest my hand on the 4WD shifer and allows me to feel the buttons w/o having to look at it, since it has turn by turn directions it makes finding things not a huge issues once programmed in.

Aaron

 

[teotwaki]

I've got mine in a RAM-Mount above the dash off of the windshield. Currently have external antenna and will hardwire the power sometime soon. The 276c is a great unit.

here is a fuzzy photo


I like this mounting spot as I can watch the display and the road.

 

[Willman]

Nice install!!!

I still need to hard-mount mine on my dash somewhere???

:sombrero:

 

[xcmountain80]

I did think about a dash install, but just couldn't come up with a feasible spot. I remeber when I was using the bean bag thing it did block just some of my view, nothing catastrophic but I like where it is, since it has the voice nav. it is no problem to just listen, looking down for reference isn't a issue.

Aaron

 

[xcmountain80]

I ran into an issue when engaging 4-LO. I though this might happen and there is a quick fix. The mount cannot be moved any further forward, by doing so would move in on the space where the power speaker cig plug is. So since in 4-LO does not require any great amount of speed nor should it, you simply un plug the current location of the speaker power cig plug and re-plug it in one of the other two outlets. Then you loosen the adj. control knob on the side of the mount and pivot the screen up unitl it is out of the way of the shifter. You can still easily see the screen and engage 4-LO. When your done with 4-LO just re-adjust your screen angle and your off!

Aaron

 

[TxRider]

I've got mine in a RAM-Mount above the dash off of the windshield. Currently have external antenna and will hardwire the power sometime soon. The 276c is a great unit.

here is a fuzzy photo


I like this mounting spot as I can watch the display and the road.

Ditto, I have mine mounted with two sided tape on the garmin marine mount that came with it, it sits as tightly below the rear view mirror as I could stick it. Basically 1/2" below the rear view, no external antenna as it picks up just fine there.

I used the tape because I thought it would be temporary and I wanted to see if I liked that mounting location.

I thought the 3M two sided tape would fall off after sitting in the hot Texas sun for day, it's been there all summer and if anything it's grip has gotten tighter. It held on through a two week western states tour going to places like Carson city and Animas flats ghost towns in Colorado etc.

 

[Off-Grid Engineering]

I have been heavily contemplating purchasing the 276. How is it for offroad navigation. I assume it provides on road navigation fairly well form the way you guys are talking. What dou ya think... good choice for my first GPS?

 

[TxRider]

It would be good if you can get one cheap. It's a bit old in the tooth these days.

The 276 is actually a marine chart plotter, but it shares it's line with aircraft GPS as well.

It does great offroad, I use mine in my 4runner, and it has seen even more use on the handlebars of my dual sport bike. Tough as nails and hasn't given me any grief, even been down in a few water crossings with it on the bars as well a numerous other minor offroad falls.

The screen has excellent non glare, and is nice and bright even in direct sunlight. Seems every little feature on it right down to exactly what data show up at each zoom level is all custom configurable. Arguably still the best offroad GPS for the money today with combination topo maps and street maps. The USGS topo maps are pretty old though and haven't been updated in years, I would say 80% accurate on showing remote roads/trails though.

It also has a big lithium battery built on so you can use it handheld, or take it inside a restaurant to make routes etc. that a lot of the newer Garmins don't have.

It has two downsides though....

First you have to buy maps for it, meaning buying street maps set, and topo map set which aren't so cheap. Maybe a couple hundred bucks before it's said and done.

Second it uses Garmin proprietary memory, the largest chip you can buy is 512MB. They aren't cheap either.

Not really big downsides, but you can't load the whole U.S. street maps on one card, much less the topo maps. I end up getting about 4-5 states at a time both street and topo maps and keep my laptop along to load other maps if needed.

The newer Garmins are starting to come with preloaded maps, and Garmin seems to be moving to using standard SD card memory.

I got my 276c a few years ago, and it was the best then, and is among the best still. But I'll be getting a new GPS as soon as they put one out that is as tough and configurable as the 276 and has SD memory.

I don't regret buying mine one bit, several folks I know have bought them after riding long offroad trips and seeing mine. If I was GPS-less today though I might wait it out and see if Garmin puts out a unit like it with built in maps and SD storage though, maybe grab a 276 if I saw a good deal on a used one.

 

[Off-Grid Engineering]

Thanks for your reply and I hope I didnt highjack the thread. I figured it might be a question others might want answered. I heard that the replacement for the 276 was the 376, 378, or 478. Are those any better? Do they have the same antiquated technology as the 276?

 

[cshontz]

Thanks for your reply and I hope I didnt highjack the thread. I figured it might be a question others might want answered. I heard that the replacement for the 276 was the 376, 378, or 478. Are those any better? Do they have the same antiquated technology as the 276?

I wouldn't necessarily consider the 276 to be antiquated - yet. The other models generally use the same technology, but include more built-in features such as XM weather and more comprehensive basemap data.

I'd strongly recommend the 276C as a do everything GPS. It is at home on the dashboard, on the boat, on the handlebars, or as a carry-along. A little bulky for a hiker, but you could. Its a very outdoor-friendly unit.

 

[TxRider]

Thanks for your reply and I hope I didnt highjack the thread. I figured it might be a question others might want answered. I heard that the replacement for the 276 was the 376, 378, or 478. Are those any better? Do they have the same antiquated technology as the 276?

Those are not really replacements in my book, they are really the same GPS with a few more features to me. I can tell you my perspective, from the standpoint of a long time 276 owner looking for when to upgrade.

The big differences are the 378 and 478 come with pre-loaded street maps in internal memory for the U.S., Saves buying the map set for ~$100 for the 276 and saves having to buy a memory card if you don't need topo maps, and leaves the whole expansion card open for topo map use.

After having USGS Topo in my GPS doing back country riding on my KTM in many states, I don't go out in the back country without it, even though the maps are a little old.

The 378 and 478 both also have have XM radio and satellite weather display but you have to pay for a subscription that's too costly IMO.

Garmin has started using a new compression for their street maps which has allowed them to preload them on more units like the 378 and 478, though I hear it's at the expense of some POI information such as gas stations, lodging, repair shops etc. that there are lot of in the old maps, but not having them side by side to compare it could just be rumor.

I also understand that they combined the detailed street map with the lakes and water maps in the 378 and 478 and that it's not route compatible with the PC software to make routes. Meaning it will recalculate all routes you upload to it before using them which could or could not be an issue, sounds like it would be just an annoyance though.

You would still have to buy the Garmin memory stick for loading topo maps into the 378 or 478, but they wouldn't have to share the card with street maps like in the 276 and I also hear Garmin has a brand new 2008 topo map set out that uses more memory so you would need that extra space. I would think you could still get several states worth of topo on a 512 card though. The 512MB card alone is about $130 though there are smaller ones for less and the units may still come with a 128MB card.

Those are the reasons I've decided to wait another year to upgrade my 276, or longer. It does all I need, I've already bought the maps, and I'm waiting for them to upgrade all the maps (which it seems they have done now) and offer a larger memory option for topo maps or preloaded topo maps.

The street models with touchscreen are out, as I'm wearing armored dirt bike gloves half the time I'm using it, and dirty gloves would tear up a touch screen pretty fast, as well the 276 has a lot better visibility on the screen being made to be in direct sunlight in a boat plus many of the street models can't use the topo map set.

For me the XM and weather are worthless as I'm not going to pay that much every month to use them, and there's really not much other difference for me between the 276 and the newer models outside of that. If they dropped the subscription down a lot I might reconsider though.

I'd really like to stay in the 276, 378, 478 line up. They are really good GPS units. Maybe next year they will preload USGS topo as well as the street maps.

Anyway that's my take on the 378 and 478 as I looked at them and decided not to upgrade.

 

[TxRider]

I wouldn't necessarily consider the 276 to be antiquated - yet. The other models generally use the same technology, but include more built-in features such as XM weather and more comprehensive basemap data.

I'd strongly recommend the 276C as a do everything GPS. It is at home on the dashboard, on the boat, on the handlebars, or as a carry-along. A little bulky for a hiker, but you could. Its a very outdoor-friendly unit.

Yup, I've used mine for all the above except for the boat, I put a limit on the number of money pits I'll deal with and the boat didn't make it.

The battery will last a good solid 8-10 hours if you cycle it every now and then, and it's removable so I guess you could carry more than one if you wanted. I figure if I had to walk out of somewhere the battery would be enough to get me out to civilization if I only turned it on when I needed a position and direction fix. Most street units have no battery.

But you do have to plan for ~$130 for detailed street maps, another ~$100 for topo maps, another ~$130 for the data card. Maybe a little extra for a mount from ram-mounts.com for a groovy mount and your all set.

A 378 or 478 would save you the ~$130 for the street map and leave more data card storage for topo, but they cost more than ~$130 over the 276 so it's up to you if it's worth it, it wouldn't be for me unless you intend to pay for the XM radio or satellite weather.

You couls also take a look at the 76CX or 76 CSX. They are a very popular handheld unit, but they do take microSD cards for a much wider map storage option. My eyes are too old for a little handheld screen these days though so I haven't looked into them.

 

[Off-Grid Engineering]

Thanks for all the replies!!!.... even though this is not my thread (sorry, tell me to stop if you want to) You both gave very good info. I am definitely going with the GPSmap series, I just have to figure out what is important to me. I like the fact that the 378 comes with the street maps and I would also use the XM services. Another thing I did not mention is that I would like to use this in my patrol car as well (Im a deputy sheriff). I think it could help alot. I'll probably have to get two car kits. Any more advice is welcome!