Garmin Nuvi 1300 feedback

[+teamhaynes]

Okay Folks, I mainly geocache with a garmin venture hc and love it... I currently don't have an auto based gps and found I could pick up the 1300 for under a hundred with some credits I have and a current sale.

 

So my question.. Is this a workable GPS for loading up those wonderful roadside grab and go caches.. I recently took a trip out to Kansas to grab GC30 mingo and on the way I grabbed several just off the road caches.

 

It was a pain trying to track them on the venture so I was thinking about using something like the 1300 to load them into so I see them as I came up on them.

 

Will geocaches show up on the map like they do on the venture? Is there a way to have the 1300 alert you to nearby caches?

 

Thanks, any feedback would be helpful

[Ken in Regina]

I don't know about the 1300 so I'll let someone else respond.

 

Re: the Venture HC, doesn't it have proximity alerts? See if you can set proximity alerts for caches. That way it will beep at you whenever you are getting near one.

 

That's not to talk you out of the Nuvi, but it's an option you could consider even if you get the Nuvi for car nav.

 

...ken...

[+teamhaynes]

I don't know about the 1300 so I'll let someone else respond.

 

Re: the Venture HC, doesn't it have proximity alerts? See if you can set proximity alerts for caches. That way it will beep at you whenever you are getting near one.

 

That's not to talk you out of the Nuvi, but it's an option you could consider even if you get the Nuvi for car nav.

 

...ken...

 

Thanks for the reminder on proximity alerts. I haven't really played with them.... I ended up not buying the 1300 and the sale is over... What I am looking for is essentially a good car gps that show local geocaches as well. Something that I could load a bunch of grab and gos (yes I admit I like lame urban micros) without getting the handheld out.

[Ken in Regina]

Apparently the Nuvi 5xx models are quite geocaching friendly. At least that's the claim on Garmin's web site (the only Nuvi models Garmin rate as caching-friendly, I think). A couple of folks on here confirm that they work pretty well for paperless caching without messing about with a lot of "helper" programs. Battery life is "up to 8 hours". They are not widescreen.

 

As for the car nav, well, it's a Nuvi. It does what Nuvi's do.

 

That's what I know.

 

...ken...

[+vds]

I picked up a 1300 and have concluded it's a nice car unit for navigating you to the cache via car but it's lousy for finding it on the trail. I used a GSAK macro to use the 1300 as a paperless geocaching unit and it works nicely for that (with proximity alerts if you set them in the GSAK macro) but it's very painful on the trail. The menus aren't optimized for searching vs. checking the paperless description. There's no live compass. So out of the car my ancient eTrex Legend from 2002 is still what I'm using.

[+teamhaynes]

I picked up a 1300 and have concluded it's a nice car unit for navigating you to the cache via car but it's lousy for finding it on the trail. I used a GSAK macro to use the 1300 as a paperless geocaching unit and it works nicely for that (with proximity alerts if you set them in the GSAK macro) but it's very painful on the trail. The menus aren't optimized for searching vs. checking the paperless description. There's no live compass. So out of the car my ancient eTrex Legend from 2002 is still what I'm using.

 

Great info... I was curious as to if it worked with the macro.