Garmin NUVI 750 4.3" touchscreen GPS

[Rupe]

I have never used a GPS and I'm starting to look at them. I've always been a map guy. So my question; Is the Garmin 750 a good GPS? What I want to beable to do is set it up so I can go from point A to B then turn left on C then right on D etc etc until I get to the point I want to end up. This is for Offroad use 90% of the time. I do alot of exploring new areas and roads that I have never been on before or places I have never been to before. So can this unit do that? You can see I don't know anything about them, I don't even know the terminalogy for using one. If I put in point A (starting point) will it take me to point B (ending point)? Say from Camp to an old ghosttown without me knowing which road or offroad trail to take to get to the Ghosttown? It will be used in the vehicle windshield mounted. The reason I ask about this one is because Costco is selling them for $199.99 at the moment, which sounds like a good deal and it seems like it does what I want it to. But not knowing GPS stuff I don't know. I don't want to spend more then $250. on a GPS because I want to spend more on other things for my Jeep. Can anyone explain this to me or maybe there is another one out there that would be better for the price? Like I said I want it for offroad driving and Navigation mostly. Thanks for anything you can tell me.
Rupe (Self admitted computer stupid):mixed-smiley-030:

 

[ThomD]

Short answer: probably not going to work for you.

Garmin's Topo maps are not detailed enough to include turn by turn routing in an "off road" aka trail environment. They do offer more detailed maps for National park areas. These do include some unpaved roads, but not a lot. Os, on road, turn-by-turn routing works very well. For trails and remote areas, not so much. Garmin GPSes take Garmin maps only.

I saw the low price on the 750 and did a quick bit of research. I found inconsistent reports of very slow sat acquisition times; there were many questions about which GPS chip set that series has. The 750 series specifically is not recommended for that reason.

 

[Rupe]

Great thank you for the info. I will scratch that one off my list.
Do you have any suggestions on one that would work for me? rupe

 

[James86004]

Lots of info at http://www.gpsinformation.net/

My short list is:
Nuvi 500
GPSMAP 276 or 376
GPSMAP 60 or 76 Series
Oregon Series


I am at a quandary because me and GPS's don't get along. I bought a 76S and lost it 2 months later. Bought another one and it was stolen 2 years later. So, I am reluctant to spend a lot on the third one, but I want all the features of the mapping units.

 

[ThomD]

Great thank you for the info. I will scratch that one off my list.
Do you have any suggestions on one that would work for me? rupe

Since the limitation is that Garmin maps do not do routing well in the scenario you described, you'll have to look at other companies. I'm not sure any of them will.

 

[Rupe]

So none of them will do turn by turn off road? Or Showing me the way from point A camp to point B Ghosttown off road? rupe

 

[ThomD]

So none of them will do turn by turn off road? Or Showing me the way from point A camp to point B Ghosttown off road? rupe

I would not expect it work well enough to make you happy. The main topo map set is only 1:100k. The Garmin Topo maps for national parks are higher res, 1:24k I think. So they do have enough detail to route. I have done it once for fun in a NP. I did it in the Maze in Canyonlands NP - where the unpaved roads are well established. The real problem is that many people report that lesser roads and trails are often missing on the Garmin map set, so you just can't expect it to be reliable.

Having said all that, I see that garmin now has 1:24k for the rest of the US, in a set of 4 maps because of the size of the data. That might do what you want, but maybe not. You can look at any garmin map set on their web site to see how it compares to a known area.

 

[Rupe]

Thanks I will take a look, hopefully I will know what to look for. LOL

rupe

 

[ThomD]

Well, I did some more looking on the Garmin site. They do not have the on line viewer for the 1:24k topo maps, so you won't be able to evaluate them.

 

[Rupe]

Thank you ThomD, So what is the one everyone uses for offroad navigation? I looked threw that sight but there are so many of them, I'm not sure which one is the better of them. One I can load the best maps into, which sounds like USGS Topo's and National Geographic maps. Please correct me if I'm wrong on these maps. Now your seeing why I make the claim of computer stupid ( which includes, cell phones, GPS, bluetooth, and clocks on a VCR.)

I guess I'm asking for something that hasn't been invented yet, but is there anything close to what I'm asking for? rupe

 

[crawler#976]

If you like Garmin, check out the 276 model. Highly detailed topos, and you get to do the navigation, and that's the fun part of the experience anyway. Turn by turn off highway would be pretty dang boring to me...

 

[Rupe]

I will check it out thanks crawler, rupe

 

[Bergger]

For the past few years I used my hand held Lowrance Ifinder Expedition C as my vehicle nav system. Just this past August I bought a Garmin Nuvi 660 and now the Lowrance is used strictly for hiking. I love the Garmin. I have loaded the Topo maps on it and they are quite good. I am suprised at some of the things I find on them. The Lowrance seems to have a bit more detail in Topo mode but it is just not a user friendly system especially when driving. If I need more detail once I get to the general area I'll just use my paper maps. I am curious about the new topo software they have coming out. 1:24k would be very nice. The Nuvi has a nice large screen and is very easy to operate. The city nav software works very well even on some forest roads but when I want more detail and don't want the turn by turn I'll switch it off and use the topo software. The Garmin is so user friendly compared to Lowrance I highly doubt I'll ever buy another brand.

 

[ThomD]

Garmins 1:24k only cover the western US, not that there's anything wrong with that. $99 each maps set and most sets cover 2 western states.

 

[Fjamming]

Here's what the TOPO U.S.-West has to offer.

* Includes topographic coverage of California and Nevada.
* Provides detailed digital topographic maps, comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps.
* Contains detailed hydrographic features, including, coastlines, lake and river shorelines, wetlands and perennial and seasonal streams.
* Allows you to search by points of interest, including cities, summit, lakes, campsites and more.
* Provides elevation profile on compatible Garmin devices so you can estimate terrain difficulty.
* Contains many routable trails, rural roads, city neighborhood roads, major highways and interstates.
* Displays national, state and local parks, forests, conservation areas and wilderness areas.
* Includes points of interests such as parks, campgrounds, scenic lookouts and picnic sites.
* Displays BLM Township and Range Section overlay as well as USGS quad name overlay.

US TOPO 24K National Parks, West

* Includes topographic coverage of national parks, national forests and major state parks in the western United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New MExico Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
* Provides detailed digital topographic maps, comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps.
* Contains park amenities, including park boundaries, visitors centers, camping and picnic areas, wilderness campsites, ranger stations and more
* Allows you to search by points of interest.
* Provides elevation profile and DEM shading on compatible Garmin devices so you can estimate terrain difficulty.
* Contains many routable roads and trails.
* Displays USGS quad name overlay.
* Includes MapSource, computer software that lets you plan trips on your computer and transfer waypoints, routes and tracks between your computer and your Garmin device.
* Allows you to load data to MotionBased.com, where you get in-depth analysis of your activities, view tracks on a variety of online maps and share routes with others.

I'm in the same process of picking a GPS and a map. Just looking at the specs, I can't decide between these 2 maps. I plan to use the 750, but that's not listed as a supported device. I've heard others say that it will work, but why would Garmin not include it in the website?

Does anyone have first hand experience with these 2 maps? What's the benefit of choosing one over the other?