My Garmin Vista HCx hit the road at 45 MPH and still works!

[+Chi-Town Cacher]

After finding our last cache of the day I apparently set my GPSr on the roof of the car while getting things squared away inside the car. As you can guess from the topic I forgot to remove the GPSr from the roof before driving off to go home. I drove about 2 miles through town making 2 turns and it stayed on the roof of the car. As I was accelerating to get on the interstate I'd guess I was up around 45 MPH (maybe slightly more, but I'm not sure) when I hear this loud noise like I'd run over a large stick. Instinctively my eyes quickly went to the rear view mirror to see the stick I'd run over and I see my nice new Garmin Vista HCx bouncing off the trunk and flying through the air on it's way to hitting the pavement. Needless to say I slammed on the brakes, backed up and retrieved the GPSr and I can't believe what my eyes see. It still works just as good as it did prior to my brain fart of leaving it on top of the car before driving away. Yes, the plastic casing has a few scratches in it, but it works! Amazing is the word I'd use to describe this. While I'll never be the type to badmouth Magellan GPSr's since that's what I started out caching with I do have to admit that after what happened today I think I can safely say I'll be a Garmin user for life! Just in case there are any new cachers wanting to know which GPSr's are good I figured I'd post this as proof that Garmins can take a lot of abuse. I wouldn't recommend anybody try to recreate this situation, but I'm happy there was a happy ending for me even though I did such a stupid thing that I didn't deserve a happy ending. Happy caching!!!

[+EraSeek]

You got me beat. Did the same thing to my Garmin12 years ago at 35MPH. Still works great and not even a scratch.

[hbdgaz]

I can't match 45 miles an hour but I did drop my Oregon yesterday on to concrete from my backpack. It hit on the plastic casing on the front then slid along screen side down for a foot or so. I can see why Garmin put a good amount of plastic casing around the screen now - there are a couple of minor chunks missing for the plastic but the screen is thankfully totally unscathed. It still works fine too, which is impressive considering that sort of drop would probably have obliterated a mobile phone, even though they're much lighter.

[+BlueDeuce]

I drove 17 miles, 60+ mph with my Garmin on the roof of my car.

 

Fortunately it was still there when I realized where I had left it. Whew!

 

Edit: Yes, it was up against the luggage rack thingy.

Edited March 19, 2009 by BlueDeuce

[+coggins]

As I was accelerating to get on the interstate I'd guess I was up around 45 MPH (maybe slightly more, but I'm not sure) when I hear this loud noise like I'd run over a large stick.

You can check the tracklog in the unit to see the speed. I buddy of mine used to throw his eTrex like a baseball and then check the MAX speed to see how fast he threw it.