profall Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 (edited) Hello, I am looking into purchasing a GPS unit. I work as a trek guide during the summer and im used to using the good old map and compass, or most of the time just my pure knowledge of the trails/area. I recently used my friends Garmin Rhino GPS unit while out on a day hike, and now I really want to get a GPS unit for this summer, since were doing some new trails and I know one of my colleagues has GPS coordinates for campsites and stuff he could give me, plus it'd lower the chance I could ever get lost (I've never gotten lost while WORKING, but you don't want to, because if the trek guide is lost the members of the trip aren't gonna be feeling that great). I have gotten lost on a day hike before with friends though, and trust me it is not fun. I will also be using this GPS unit for personal use as well. Requirements: -Needs to be rugged/durable. -Good battery life, I may be on the trail for 5-6 days straight. -Needs to be able to save/mark gps coordinates. -Needs to be under $200, preferably around $150. Please point me in the right direction, and also give me some good dealer links. I have been looking at newegg but they only carry a few GPS units. Thank You. Edited May 7, 2007 by profall Quote Link to comment
+admo1972 Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 -Needs to be rugged/durable. They all pretty much are waterproof and will survive a fall from hand height or higher. -Good battery life, I may be on the trail for 5-6 days straight. Carry lots of extra batteries, and no amount of batterylife should be a problem. -Needs to be able to save/mark gps coordinates. They all can. -Needs to be under $200, preferably around $150. Well taking all that into account, you are probably looking at the Garmin Venture Cx. I bought my Vista at Tigergps.com. The Venture cx is currently about $190 there. Quote Link to comment
+Knight2000 Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 I would suggest a garmin due to the fact that they seem to work well and have great customer service. I have a Magellan and it works great but their customer service is not good. For just what you said, i would suggest the most inexpensive unit from Garmin. The Garmin eTrex. It is durable, has good battery life, waterproof, lets you save 500 waypoints and is less than $100. If you want a unit that can hold topo maps then this unit isnt for you. You would need a better unit. Quote Link to comment
eaparks Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 The Garmin Venture Cx is what I'd recommend for your needs. It has a color screen, operates on 2 AA batteries, uses an expandable memory card (a must for topo maps), Garmin states battery life in excess of 30 hours. Unit is small, light weight, and waterproof. Excellent unit for backpacking. Price will be at the top of your budget but you will have an excellent unit that you won't outgrow as you become more familiar with GPS's. If you shop around online you can usually find this unit for around $175 to $185, just be sure to buy from an "authorized Garmin distributor". You will also need to buy the data cable to connect the unit to the computer... a std. USB cable less than $10.00 and also a memory card...can be bought for less than $20.00. If you want maps you will also need to buy them. Walmart has Mapsource U.S. Topo maps for $79.00 for Garmin units. Take a look at Garmin's website and you can compare different outdoor models and see all of the detailed specs. http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/us/onthetrail/etrexseries This link is for only the Etrex line. Quote Link to comment
tossedsalad Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Hello, I am looking into purchasing a GPS unit. I work as a trek guide during the summer and im used to using the good old map and compass, or most of the time just my pure knowledge of the trails/area. I recently used my friends Garmin Rhino GPS unit while out on a day hike, and now I really want to get a GPS unit for this summer, since were doing some new trails and I know one of my colleagues has GPS coordinates for campsites and stuff he could give me, plus it'd lower the chance I could ever get lost (I've never gotten lost while WORKING, but you don't want to, because if the trek guide is lost the members of the trip aren't gonna be feeling that great). I have gotten lost on a day hike before with friends though, and trust me it is not fun. I will also be using this GPS unit for personal use as well. Requirements: -Needs to be rugged/durable. -Good battery life, I may be on the trail for 5-6 days straight. -Needs to be able to save/mark gps coordinates. -Needs to be under $200, preferably around $150. Please point me in the right direction, and also give me some good dealer links. I have been looking at newegg but they only carry a few GPS units. Thank You. I would recommend that you pick a used unit. You can get them for about half price and they are typically in very good shape. If you want small, the eTrex from Garmin or the Explorist from Megellan or the iFinder GO from Lowrance are all lightweight units. I seem to recall that the iFinder GO is particularly thrify on batteries. They all can be well under $200, are rugged and can mark coordinates. The iFinder GO can be had on eBay for under $60... buy two in case you lose one! I use a Meridian Gold... or I used to until the display died last week. Now I am looking at a PDA for GPS use, not what I would recommend for hiking. Quote Link to comment
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