Garmin Nuvi off-map

[+GeoMutts]

It looks like there are quite a few folks who use their car GPS for geocaching.

After reading a few reviews and some comments here, I think that between the TomTom Go 740 Live and the Nuvi 765T I'll go with the Garmin. Hear lots of good things about both, but the Garmin has lifetime traffic and a larger user community in the US, or so it seems.

 

Question 1:

Since custom POIs can be used on both to tweak them via GSAK for use for geocaching, is there a compelling reason anyone can share for why should use one over the other?

 

Question 2:

With the nuvi (sorry wont let me search forums using nuvi, too few letters), can I go waaaay off map?

Reason I ask is that we are taking a cruise to Caymans and Mexico and some private island. There are caches in all three of the locations and I can't pass up an opportunity to get international caches.

 

I'm guessing that it should get a satellite fix no matter where in the world I am as long as it has direct view to the sky, but will the nuvi operate in a manner that still lets me navigate to and use the satellite page for homing in on the cache even though my maps dont even come close to covering that area?

 

Note: Buying both a car GPS and a handheld GPS is not an option right now, I've used a bluetooth and my PDA for years, but it died and we've really wanted a car GPS for a while.

 

Thanks in advance!!

The Geomutts

[scotthsi]

Your GPS will receive satellites and work (with a clear view of the sky, of course) anywhere in the world, so that's not an issue.

 

The Nuvis will work in "off road" mode, but they are FAR from being a good hand held outdoor type GPS. The are FRAGILE. No weather resistance, either with exposed USB, SD card ports, slots, etc. The screen and case aren't shock protected in anyway and will very likely break (especially the touch screen) if dropped outdoors. The Nuvi 500 series is supposed to be a crossover type GPS for auto and outdoor use, but I have no first hand experience. From what I've read, they just seem to be a "tough" Nuvi and still lack serious outdoor/hiking/caching type features. That is a problem with most car GPS units.

 

I know you said it's not an option (not sure why with the cruise, money doesn't sound like an issue), but I'd really, REALLY get two separate GPS units. I have a Nuvi and a Garmin 60CSx and they are a GREAT combo. The 60CSx will even do turn-by-turn road navigation, same as the Nuvis, but it won't talk. You can even buy road maps for Mexico.

Edited September 15, 2009 by scotthsi

[+nojoplusplus]

I'll take a stab at question 2. With my nuvi (270) you can actually disable the map all together. To me that means that no matter where you are even if you don't have a map it should still be able to find your position.

 

You also may be able to actually load some maps of the islands on there for free. I recently ran across a forum topic in here that linked to a download site that had all sorts of maps for the nuvi. They particularly pointed out trail maps. While I was on the site though I noticed that you could grab street maps and topo maps as well. The only limitation from what I saw was that it was user generated content. So you are limited to what people decide to upload. So you may or may not be able to find maps you can use.

 

I will see if I can find the forum topic again. or maybe someone else on here knows what I am talking about.

[+GeoMutts]

I know you said it's not an option (not sure why with the cruise, money doesn't sound like an issue)...

 

LOL, one would think, but with baby #2 on the way and other assorted things forum readers don't much care about, $300 over and above what we spent on the cruise is pretty much our cap for a while and we leave on Friday for the cruise. I found the nuvi 765T for 300 bucks out the door.

 

We'll be driving from our house (a few states away) to Florida, so we will definitely be using that nice new feature to get caches along a route! But we really want to pick up a cache or two in each port.

Long term, we'll definitely get an outdoor GPS, but just for this trip, we want something that will do both.

 

nojo, don't want to forget about you.... That is awesome, if you find that thread or a link or something, please post it. I'm all about free maps!

 

Thanks!!

Edited September 15, 2009 by GeoMutts

[+nojoplusplus]

I may have it bookmarked on my home computer. I won't have access to that for another 3 hours though. I will try to see if I can post something tonight.

 

Have you already checked out this site?

 

http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html

 

It is someone who has put in the work to make paperless stuff awesome on the nuvi's. I am a fan of how much the nuvi can do but unfortunately you will find quickly the annoyance of a nuvi for geocaching which is the update speed while walking. I passed quite a few caches because it didn't update fast enough while walking.

 

I ended up just buying a cheap handheld off of craiglist that has made my experience way better. It isn't anything fancy but it gets me from the car to the cache.

[+nojoplusplus]

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

 

this may have been the site. looking around it may not have much for out of the country.

[+Teamcameron52]

I've used a nuvi for caching for several months now, and it works fine. Granted, I do mostly suburban caching and have not taken it into the back country or anything. Also, the gpsfiledepot site has a lot of great resources too.