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Been looking into the possibility of buying a GPS unit of some type. Need some info on brands and types to look at. I would like to use it to for my deer hunting and 4 wheeling trips so I'm thinking something a bit portable but still use it in my Jeep. Also been reading alot about geocaching http://www.geocaching.com/ sounds like a good thing to combine with my Jeep interest. Any suggestions on brands ,feature and types of units.Need to be a bit budget minded as well. Thanks
Im biased towards Garmin products but thats a personal opinion. My wife and I also Geocache. Weve got two Garmins. One is a Garmin 12 and the other is an Etrex Legend. The 12 is an older design but is almost indestructable and the controls are easier to use, while our Legend is newer, smaller and lighter. If you plan to mount it in your Jeep, you will probably want a mapping GPS, the Legend has this feature. The screen size is the only drawback of mounting the Legend in a vehicle but its all a compromise if you want something portable.
The Legend is a good starter GPS unit that can be had with a nice accessory kit for less than $200. It has most of the features of the more expensive portable units with the exception of a color screen.
Dont rule out the Magellen and Lorance units. They all make good products and have similar features for similar prices. You need to pick these units up and play with them and have someone show you how they work to know which one you feel more comfortable with. Your final choice of which unit you like will probably boil down to how easily you find it to navigate through the screens and information. The mapping software is a little different from one manufacturer to the next so keep that in mind also.
I wish I could tell you that one GPS unit is better than another, but like most things, its not that simple.
I absolutly LOVE my tomtom 300. Its honestly the perfect solution to anything i need it to do. I deffinatly reccomend it. Especially in conjuntion with the perminant mount kit they offer. You hook it up and it gives instructions over your cars speakers and mutes your music while it does it. Really cool stuff.
I use Garmin as well. If you are looking for one that you can carry/mount with maps I think it is the best bang for the buck. Mine is a Foretrex wristop but I don't use it for city navigation. Though I do now have one for my PDA!
oh i just re-read that.. So you arent looking for somthing purely street based. I would go with the garmin in that case. I thoguht you wanted somthing for pure city/highway navigation. In which case the tomtom totally would have worked.
For non road areas or for a mix of both grab yourself a garmin.
Its probably not a bad unit and will function fine for Geocaching and basic navigation. I think if you plan to mount it in your Jeep and use it on trips and so forth, you will kick yourself for not getting a GPSr that you can download detailed maps into. The basic database will show interstates and major roads but not much detail. You can also get Topographical software to download that will show terrain relief, water features and trails. That would be useful for hunting. Its really about how much money you can spend. You can grab a basic GPSr for less than $100 or spend twice that and get mapping capability.
Its probably not a bad unit and will function fine for Geocaching and basic navigation. I think if you plan to mount it in your Jeep and use it on trips and so forth, you will kick yourself for not getting a GPSr that you can download detailed maps into. The basic database will show interstates and major roads but not much detail. You can also get Topographical software to download that will show terrain relief, water features and trails. That would be useful for hunting. Its really about how much money you can spend. You can grab a basic GPSr for less than $100 or spend twice that and get mapping capability.
Something to consider, at least it was for me, is that most handheld GPSrs is that the data port doubles as an external power port. So if you plan to take this GPS on a trip and use it to navigate or just keep track of your travels, you will want to plug it into the cig lighter. If you get a GPS without data download ability, it also wont have external power ability. The basic Magellan Explorer doesnt have a port.
I use the Magellan Meridian Color. I like it for a few reasons. I like the way the map scrolls rather than refreshes when you reach the edge of the screen, it uses a standerd SD card for memory so you can upgrade it as big as you like and the card can be removed and put into a laptop for faster/easier upload downloads. The port for the charger/download cable is the same port but my cable has two ends so I can be in the cig lighter socket and still be hooked to the laptop, color, must have color, menus, compared to the Garmin I liked the Magellan menu system better, portable, its small enough to stick in a pocket or walk around with in your hand comfortably.
Things I don't like, uses a serial port for PC communication. My new laptop doesn't have a serial port so I have to use a USB adapter. Not a big deal though as I usually remove the SD card to download to the PC. But if I wanted to do real time tracking on a laptop the cabling would be rather cumbersome. Also the color screen burns thru 2 AA batteries rather quickly. Again not a big deal as 90% of the time its mounted in its cradle in the Jeep running off of the cig charger.
My advice is to find a shop that sells many different makes and models of gps units and has them on display to try out. That is what I did. I researched the net and decided on a Garmin unit that had everything I wanted. But when I got to the store they had many models on display and after trying a few of them out I found that I much prefered the Magellan unit. Its just a personal preference and you have to try to figure out what you like.
