Which CAR GPS helps with Geocaching?

[ottawastones]

I am using a Magellan Explorist GC once I'm in the vicinity of GZ, but find it useless to actually drive to the cache location.

I'm in the process of looking for a car GPS, and wonder if any models are also helpful in geocaching?

thx

[+mpilchfamily]

Any can be used to get you to the parking location of the cache. But very few do a good job at both car nav and Geocaching. Its best to stick with separate units for car nav and geocaching. The biggest problem is the battery life of the nav units.

[+Tobias & Petronella]

There is no perfect unit out there. Every unit has its drawbacks, every unit has its advantages, and some have a steeper learning curve than others. There are some people on this forum that feel car units are worthless for Geocaching, and then there are others that know how great they "can" be. We started with the Garmin Nuvi 255W and are currently using the Nuvi 1350T. We've been caching for a little over 3 years and have almost 3,000 finds to our credit, and a little over 10% of those have been FTF's. For us, the unit that we are currently using is the best fit for how and where we cache.

 

I can't speak to the quality of the other major manufacturers but I know that any of the newer Garmin units can do exactly what you're looking for. The best thing to do is see if you can find somebody local to you that has a car unit, and either go out caching with them or borrow it for a day or two. The only downside is that since it's not "your" car unit, you (or the owner of the unit) may not know all the subtle tricks on how to operate it for geocaching, which can take time to learn or discover. Of all the features that a car unit can offer, the two things that it must have if you want to use it for geocaching is the ability to switch it to off-road navigation and have some sort of satellite screen that gives you active lat and long coords that will change as you move. Ours also has the ability to switch to bicycle mode, which allows us to use it seamlessly outside of the car when caching.

[+mpilchfamily]

Only one that will really do both is the Garmin Montana ... but for the price I'd prefer (and have) 2 separate units.

Not true. There are many hand held units that have turn by turn navigation on them as long as you have a routable map installed. My Dakota 10 came with a hike and bike pack giving me the Garmin routable street maps. But since the screen size is so small and none of the hand held units give vocal directions its better to use my Nuvi when driving.

[+Styk]

Garmin Nuvi 500/550 all around unit, native geocaching ability including Wherigo, on road, offroad and marine. Not in production anymore though. next best, Montana but you need maps unlike a car unit.

[ottawastones]

thanks for the replies.... i think i WILL try a few units to test their off road capability.

[+davidb65]

I am using a Magellan Explorist GC once I'm in the vicinity of GZ, but find it useless to actually drive to the cache location.

I'm in the process of looking for a car GPS, and wonder if any models are also helpful in geocaching?

thx

 

I use the Garmin NUVI 1400 series for traveling and the Garmin Oregon 550T for caching when I upload the information to the 550 at the same time I upload to the NUVI which will get me close to the cache then switch to the 550 seems to work ok.

Edited November 21, 2011 by davidb65

[+Zork V]

The Garman Montana series Rocks for both car and Geocaching.

 

When its in the car the unit works and looks like a Nuvi and when you take it from the windscreen bracket it switches to Geocaching mode.

 

Works so well I gave my old 1310 Nuvi to the Mrs. :D