Street Pilot Iii Topo?

[+SearchRescueDog]

Ok I have never before had a desire to have a map based GPS unit. I prefer to find my coords and plot on a paper 1:24k topo while in the woods. However, I am now in the market to put a unit in the Jeep.

 

I am looking at the Street Pilot III. Does anyone know if I can load topo maps into it? The whole reason I am looking at the unit is to be able to mark trails off-raod and be able to identify a trail at an unmarked intersection. I know I could pull this off without mapping but it would make my life so much easier to be able to get a visual on where I am and what is coming up.

[+TresOkies]

You can use any MapSource product on the SP3 but you won't get any of the benefits of autorouting using the TOPO maps. The Garmin TOPOs have very little POI information or road names, so you will mostly be driving down "Road", rather than SH58, I-40, E1280, etc. The Garmin TOPOs show a good degree of road detail although they are based on 1:100000 scale.

 

I live in rural Western Oklahoma and MetroGuide USA version 4 has very nice detail where I am. It also supports autorouting on the SP3. MG4 shows a lot of oil field roads and double-track lanes made by pickups going through fields. Unfortunately, MetroGuide version 4 is no longer available commercially, but you can pick it up on eBay pretty cheap. MetroGuide version 5 does not do autorouting, so don't get it if you are using the SP3.

 

-E

[+SearchRescueDog]

I can live with that.... Now the question is (assuming enough memory is available) can you switch between the base map and topo on the fly?

[+TresOkies]

I can live with that.... Now the question is (assuming enough memory is available) can you switch between the base map and topo on the fly?

You can put both sets of maps on the same memory card. You go into the MapSource setup screen and you uncheck the maps you don't want to see. If you have TOPO and MetroGuide installed on the same card, I think you have to turn off the Metroguide maps before you will see the TOPOs.

 

BTW, Garmin dropped the price of their memory significantly last month. I got a 128MB data card for $74 from gpsdiscount.com.

 

-E

[DARC]

Yes you can add topographic maps to your SP3.

 

With 128Meg of memory, you can add street and topo maps of an entire region.

I fit all of new england, part of New York, New Jersey, and Pensylvania Topo & Street in mine.

 

The screen is big and nice to look at with good detail visable.

 

You can flip between street and topo with a little bit of gear shifting in the map menus. Not easy, but not tediuos either.

 

The downside is that you only have about two hours of battery life.

You can improve this by dimming the display but plan on bringing at least 8 double-A alkaline batteries with you for each trip.