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Oregon 450t Maps


simpjkee

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I have a Garmin Oregon 450t. I currently have the maps that come with it (TOPO U.S. 100k). As it stands, I am satisfied with the topographic maps and have used it while out hiking and thought it was fine. The problem I'm having is with the city roads.

 

I live in an area where new roads and freeways are being built all the time. There are a bunch of caches placed in new neighborhoods and stuff and on my unit it's just a blank open area with no road maps at all. Whole sections of new freeways are missing as well. It seems the map was made 10 years ago and all the new roads/highways didn't exist then.

 

So I want to get new road maps that contain all the new roads and highways that have been built in the last 10 years. The most current, the better. I see "City Navigator® North America NT - Lower 49 States" and that seems like it would do what I want, but I don't see a way to preview my area before buying. I'd be really peeved if I bought it and it is 5+ years old and is missing new roads/highways. Also I haven't been able to find if this would also have topo data on par with TOPO US 100k or if it is just streets and then blank spaces outside the city.

 

So my questions:

 

1) How current is "City Navigator® North America NT - Lower 49 States"?

2) Does it include maps for hiking areas that are on par with TOPO 100k?

3) If it doesn't, can I somehow load "City Navigator® North America NT - Lower 49 States" for navigating streets and switch to TOPO 100k while hiking without having to hook my GPS up and switch maps? That seems like it would be a PITA.

4) Seeing as though some of you really know a lot about this, is there a way to accomplish what I want that I obviously don't know about? I see there are sites where you can download maps for free. Is this what I should be doing instead?

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As WaltsHunting points out, if you want current city street info, you will need to purchase CityNav from Garmin. If you do so, choose the DVD option, and for a one time fee, you will receive quarterly updates for your device. No other option is more functional or up to date with your Garmin Oregon GPS.

 

I have multiple Profiles I use on my Oregon 450, Automotive has the CityNav maps enabled to guide me close to the cache I seek, then when I get out of my car, I switch to my Geocaching Profile which enables only topo maps with trail to get me the rest of the way.

 

You can get much better topop maps than Garmin 100k for your Oregon 450 at GPSFileDepot.

 

More info about loading maps and creating profiles is available at the Garmin Oregon wiki.

Edited by BMW JEDI
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Why not try the free Open Street Map US from this site: http://wiki.openstre...Garmin/Download . I use the version generated by Ben Kenroth and it works well on my Oregon 550T. I have found it to be reasonably up to date and accurate, and it is routable. Address lookup is a little wonky. It will get you to the right street, but not to a specific house number.

 

The map is easy to install. Just download, unzip it and copy the gmapsupp.img file to the \garmin folder of your SD card. It is over 3 GB and the server is kind of slow, so the download takes several hours.I download with the direct method (not the torrent).

Edited by alandb
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Why not try the free Open Street Map US from this site: http://wiki.openstre...Garmin/Download . I use the version generated by Ben Kenroth and it works well on my Oregon 550T. I have found it to be reasonably up to date and accurate, and it is routable. Address lookup is a little wonky. It will get you to the right street, but not to a specific house number.

 

The map is easy to install. Just download, unzip it and copy the gmapsupp.img file to the \garmin folder of your SD card. It is over 3 GB and the server is kind of slow, so the download takes several hours.I download with the direct method (not the torrent).

 

OpenStreetMap is also sometimes out of date or inaccurate. It's definitely a viable alternative, and good for routing along roads, but ultimately, if you want up to date accuracy and better address searching and routing algorithms, buying Garmin's City Navigator maps are the best way to go. I only wish that the maps weren't locked to a serial number. Should you buy a new unit or even have to replace one under warranty repair, you'll likely have to buy a new maps subscription.

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On my GPS (Oregon 450t) I have loaded the 100k that came with it, Southwest 24K, West 24K, Central 24K, City Navigator, Snow Ranger for all of Utah's Ski resort trail maps, and some custom maps made in Google Earth. Depending on my purpose of the moment, I easily switch between these maps by going into Setup=>Map=>Map Information Select Map. I see all of the above options listed. I enable the one I want and disable the rest. Easy as pie.

 

 

For the curious, why do I have 24K and 100K? There are differences in what's shown. The biggest difference I have found is in the San Rafael Swell area of Utah, the 100K shows a lot of the old mining roads that were removed in the more recent 24K. I have never confirmed it, but hearsay was BLM or some government agency that provides the data to the map makers does not want people to know about some of the old roads in remote areas for conservation or to prevent access to dangerous areas. I use the term roads to describe these lines on the map loosely. They were once roads but they are only fit for hiking or ATV now. Moral to the story if you ever get a set of maps, hang on to them. You'll learn more my looking at multiple maps of the same area. This applies to trails not city navigation.

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