Which GPS for me?

[usmcski]

I am looking for a GPS for use in my 4 wheeler and caching. I need something handheld, fairly large screen, with topo and street maps and it must have "tracking" or "maping" ability.....I ride in Wv and like to explore but hate not being able to back track to get home if I get lost....Oh yeah...being waterproof / water resistant would be a big plus!

 

Waht GPS unit would some of you experts recommend?

 

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Truly "big screen" handhelds aren't out there (yet). In-car units generally are not very water resistant, though they are getting better.

 

I predict that you will be looking towards the Garmin Colorado line.

 

Even with my old eyes, I opted for the Delorme PN-40 which has a notably small screen. Cannot beat the current online prices.

[+StarBrand]

The Garmin Oregon plus City Navigator or one of the Nuvi 500 series sounds about right.

[usmcski]

The screen does not need to be huge......just larger than the one on my rino 110.

The GPS will be in a mount on the dash of my 4 wheeler and I want to be able to see it without constantly having to take it out of the mount.

 

Anyone have any opinions on brands other than garmin? Lorance? Delorme?

Edited December 1, 2009 by usmcski

[NordicMan]

Wow that photo looks like you're having a BLAST in that mud hole

 

Yes along with Garmin, the Delormes are quite good and might be especially useful for you because of the aerial imagry available for your off road running... I'll let Roddy or Cacheman fill in the blanks to that topic

 

Lowrances are also good but right now their latest "Endura" line is still undergoing some new-GPS teething pains so, not sure what to say about that.. One model Lowrance USED to have was the XOG, it would have been great for you! A rugged weatherproof touchscreen (similar to a Garmin Nuvi) and dirt cheap. But it's discontinued now, might be hard to find one.

 

Going back the the Garmins.. do you do much travelling with 4x4 clubs or groups? There's a huge network of people whom love to share their off-road tracks online with each other, and if that's something you might want to do then for that reason you may want to pick a GPSr that's the most popular brand, so as to be in the sweet spot of file sharing. I'd have to say Garmin is top dog in that regard.

Edited December 1, 2009 by NordicMan

[+Chi-Town Cacher]

Oh man this pains me to write this so I'll start off with the painless part and then do something that surpises me. NordicMan mentioned the aerial imagery. That is a VERY nice option that the Delorme GPSr's offers. Basically it's like having Google Earth on your screen and the streets and caches overlaid onto that and labeled. Personally I don't use the aerial imagery for country use, but just in the more open areas of towns and I find it to be a very good feature. I saw somebody else suggest once that for use in wooded areas it's a good idea to get the black and white imagery since those are generally taken during the Winter months when the leaves are off the trees and you can see more ground detail. I haven't tried getting any black and white aerial imagery so I don't know from my own experience, but it sounds like a logical thing to do for country settings.

 

Oh, I just noticed you asked for the experts advice. Seriously I'm a tech dummy so you may want to weigh that into how much credence you put in what I say. I'm just a VERY satisfied Delorme PN-40 owner with no expertise to offer just my own opinion.

 

Ok, now for the painful part for me. I think I'd have to recommend you go with the Garmin, I think it's the Oregon model. Last Friday on the way to Chicago I stopped by Bass Pro Shops with only one thing I wanted to see while there. I wanted to see the much bigger screens on the Oregons that the Garmin lovers keep saying are so superior to the smaller Delorme PN screens. When the salesman showed me an Oregon I literally laughed and he asked if something was wrong. I explained to him that I was under the impression from listening to Garmin owners talk that the Oregon's screen was much bigger and I could now see the size difference was greatly exagerated and it was only a small amount larger.

 

Now I've never been on an ATV before, but I'm guessing by the looks of your picture that you will be doing a lot of bouncing around. Now for use in a car I'd scoff at the idea that the small difference in screen size between the Oregon and the PN would make any difference to the average person. However, if a person is going to be bouncing around a lot then I can definitely see where even a half inch of extra screen size could be beneficial. So I'm thinking that for off roading that maybe the slightly larger screen of the Oregon might be the best bet. If there are any PN owners who do lots of offroading please feel free to speak up and correct me if I'm wrong. I'm basing this recommendation on what I think would be the case and can not say if it really is so.

 

Regardless of which GPSr you buy make sure and save the box and receipt. That way if you decide you bought the wrong type for your needs you can return it and get one that is better for you.

[usmcski]

Nordicman....was a blast till I got stuck! Thank you warn for making a quality winch!

 

 

 

I guess I will have to do some internet shopping for the right unit.

[+brslk]

Just a thought but, wouldn't any unit you like do in a protective clear case?

Bruce.

[NordicMan]

... When the salesman showed me an Oregon I literally laughed and he asked if something was wrong. I explained to him that I was under the impression from listening to Garmin owners talk that the Oregon's screen was much bigger and I could now see the size difference was greatly exagerated and it was only a small amount larger...

 

MC were you looking at an Oregon or a Dakota? The Oregon screen is nearly an inch larger compared to a PN-40 and that's a huge difference considering the PN screen is only 2.2" diagonal. Also the Oregon has 96000 pixels compared to just 38720 on the Delorme. You really didn't think that difference was noticeable or worth considering?

[+Chi-Town Cacher]

... When the salesman showed me an Oregon I literally laughed and he asked if something was wrong. I explained to him that I was under the impression from listening to Garmin owners talk that the Oregon's screen was much bigger and I could now see the size difference was greatly exagerated and it was only a small amount larger...

 

MC were you looking at an Oregon or a Dakota? The Oregon screen is nearly an inch larger compared to a PN-40 and that's a huge difference considering the PN screen is only 2.2" diagonal. Also the Oregon has 96000 pixels compared to just 38720 on the Delorme. You really didn't think that difference was noticeable or worth considering?

Hello again. The salesman told me that it was an Oregon I believe the 300 model. Maybe I'm blind, but no I really thought it looked only a touch bigger than the Delormes right next to it. Who knows maybe I'm the only one that feels that way, but to my eyes it definitely was deserving of a little laugh since I'd thought it was going to be a good 50% bigger than the screen I saw last Friday. So no for me the difference in screen size is very negligible, but who knows maybe I'm the only one that feels that way.

 

After the Spring thaw I'll get with a local Oregon user and let them show me the ropes of their unit. I doubt that I'll be changing GPSr's anytime soon, but I would just out of curiosities sake like to see first hand what folks are buying that's different than what I ended up with.

 

The good news is that there are enough different manufacturers out there that most of us can find something to our liking. Well there's a cache I've DNFed twice in the last week or so that was just found again so I'm off to see if maybe yesterdays finder might have moved it back to it's original coords. Happy caching everybody!

[NordicMan]

Technically the Oregon screen IS nearly 50% bigger than your PN-40 screen, and has almost three times the pixel count. When you were looking at the GPSr's were they "off" (blank screens) or were they running with actual active screen content?

 

..I don't think anyone is trying to convince you to switch brands lol.. but to suggest the Oregon screen not really much better than the Delorme screen,, that seems like a bit of tunnel vision to me.

[+Chi-Town Cacher]

Technically the Oregon screen IS nearly 50% bigger than your PN-40 screen, and has almost three times the pixel count. When you were looking at the GPSr's were they "off" (blank screens) or were they running with actual active screen content?

 

..I don't think anyone is trying to convince you to switch brands lol.. but to suggest the Oregon screen not really much better than the Delorme screen,, that seems like a bit of tunnel vision to me.

Hi. I'm sorry I didn't get my thoughts expressed clearly in my last post. I do realize that an inch bigger would be close to 50% bigger than the PN-40. What I was trying to say (and I did so very poorly) was I thought the Oregon screen would have been about 50% bigger than the size it turned out to be. Hopefully that makes more sense.

 

None of the GPSr's on display were turned on and Bass Pro Shops was doing a pretty brisk business since it was Black Friday so I didn't ask to see them powered up. Basically I didn't want to use up to much of the salesmans time since I recognized it was a busy day for them and I didn't want to keep him from helping paying customers.

 

Sorry I'm not a tech savvy person so the talk of pixel counts is flying over my head, but I think from you mentioning it that bigger numbers must be better. I suppose you're right, but I think my screen is pretty awesome even if the numbers are smaller.

 

I am looking forward to going out next Spring with a local Oregon owner though so I can have a better appreciation for what the Garmin line of higher end units have to offer. I don't expect to change my preferences or that of the Garmin owner, but maybe we will both be able to learn a little something about how a different group plays the same game.

 

Sorry for my earlier miscommunication. Happy caching!