Did I make a wrong purchase?

[Lknot]

Hello, I am new to the world of GPS so please forgive my n0ob-ness. I bought a Garmin 250W from Costco but have found that it may not be what I am looking for.

 

I travel off road often and one night I got lost. The unit was not displaying the dirt road I was on and when I did finally find a road that was mapped, it would lead me to a locked gate. ( I know, the maps won't tell me the gate is locked)

 

I think I understand that this unit will not load topographic maps such as for national forests. I would, at least, like to have the back roads I travel mapped as they are already numbered by, I guess, the forest service.

 

Are there maps that include hiking trails and 4x4 off road trails?

 

Thanks for your time.

 

**edit - oh yeah, the other night the GPS kept telling me to turn right but Safeway was just to the left of me at a large shopping center.

Edited November 17, 2007 by Lknot

[gratefulHIKE]

no map maker makes the making of the merky offroad roads and trails or their trailheads that I am aware of

[Lknot]

no map maker makes the making of the merky offroad roads and trails or their trailheads that I am aware of

 

 

Well, a lot of the logging roads are numbered. I even found a house near the end of one. I wish I could travel along unmapped roads and enter it into the GPS.

 

Thanks for replying.

Edited November 17, 2007 by Lknot

[-Oz-]

no map maker makes the making of the merky offroad roads and trails or their trailheads that I am aware of

 

 

Well, a lot of the logging roads are numbered. I even found a house near the end of one. I wish I could travel along unmapped roads and enter it into the GPS.

 

Thanks for replying.

not sure if you can load them on that GPSr but the topo maps have many dirt/logging roads, especially the forest roads. not routable though.

[+embra]

Well, a lot of the logging roads are numbered. I even found a house near the end of one. I wish I could travel along unmapped roads and enter it into the GPS.

Delorme Topo USA has a lot of those back roads, and their TopoQuads USA product (scanned USGS maps) are dated, but pretty thorough for their time. Both maps can be brought into Delorme's PN-20 GPS.

 

If the roads are not on the map, you can make a track on the GPS, load it into the mapping program, and generate detail maps that include the roads.

 

The drawback for car use is that the routing engine in the GPS needs some work. But for hiking or off-road use it's pretty good. I'd describe it as great maps on a fair GPS.

 

If you wanted to give me the coords for your area of interest, I can post a screenshot to show you what the coverage looks like for your mystery road.

[Lknot]

I was hoping for a GPS that can do it all. I mean a strictly GPS. I don't need nor want to play music or bluetooth. I just want to be able to navigate city and national forest back roads without getting lost.

[gratefulHIKE]

U.S. Topo 24K National Parks..............is the closest thing you will get on garmin units

[Lknot]

U.S. Topo 24K National Parks..............is the closest thing you will get on garmin units

 

thank you * edit - none of the topo maps are compatible with nuvi250w or nuvi650

Edited November 21, 2007 by Lknot

[gratefulHIKE]

I really dont understand that.........I think the website lies, because under the supported maps for the 60csx it does not list metroguide NA....only canada, but it does support metroguide NA

[+uttrout]

Contact the field office of the National Forest. Ask them if they have a topo map of the area you are hiking and four wheeling. Some offices might have some free maps and others will sell them or not have any maps available to the public.

[Lknot]

I bought a GPS because I have trouble reading street signs at night and reading maps is even worse. I need lasik surgery but I don't think that will solve the issue with low level light. I'm at the "age"

[+Chuy!]

I'm thinking Garmin Topo may load into any Garmin unit. It may not autoroute, but they're just images like the detail maps. If anyone wants to send me their Topo, I will try and load it into my work's Nuvi 660 and StreetPilot 2720.

 

For off-roading, if you can't get Topo, get a GPS that supports tracks. It may not get you through a road, but at least you'll be able to retrace your route back. The Quests, StreetPilot 2820, and all the handhelds support tracks. Tracks are recorded and viewed in your map screen. You can change the color for better viewing.

 

On another tread, I read about the Magellan Crossover; it comes with both detailed street maps and topo, and it features tracks. It retails for $399. It's main drawback is a 7-hour battery life for the rechargeable batteries.

 

I tell folks the handheld units are the best all around. The handhelds make a better dash unit than the dash units make a handheld unit. The handhelds lack voice prompts, but they have caught up in just about every other category. My Vista HCx remaps/recalculates routes just as fast as my work's Nuvi 660 or StreetPilot 2720. With removable storage, you can load the whole US on a 2gb card with plenty of room to spare for POIs. So, I can't load mp3 files. Well, I can, but I can't listen to them via the GPS .

[seldom_sn]

U.S. Topo 24K National Parks..............is the closest thing you will get on garmin units

 

thank you * edit - none of the topo maps are compatible with nuvi250w or nuvi650

 

There's a fix, but it involves homemade Garmin Maps.

 

I suspect that the the National Parks and Topo2008 maps can't be made "transparent" so that two maps can be viewed at the same time.

 

I have done this with a 60CSX and a Nuvi660. I have loaded the 60CSX with CityNavigator 8 (the Nuvi comes loaded with CityNav8 or its equivalent. With the Nuvi, I then used MapSource to load homemade TRANSPARENT topos to an SD card. I added the same transparent topos to my 60CSX mapset in MapSource and made a standard MapSource transfer. In both cases, you see the topos (generally more detailed than Garmin's) transparently overlaid on the CityNavigator map.

 

A good tutorial can be found at http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm.

Another is at http://rwsmaps.griffel.se/.

[+whitecrow]

I really dont understand that.........I think the website lies, because under the supported maps for the 60csx it does not list metroguide NA....only canada, but it does support metroguide NA

 

The reason is Metroguide NA does not do autorouting without a work-a-round, the Canada version does.

Edited November 24, 2007 by whitecrow