So I am looking at purchasing navigation mainly for offroading. I don't really care about turn by turn directions. Is anyone using this to find trails or roads that aren't well marked?

 

I am waiting for the new Delorme PN-40 to come out in about 4 more weeks.

 

If you compare Garmin to the Delorme systems you will find that the Delorme software is far superior to Garmin. It is not as user friendly but they have quite a bit more detail available from their mapping software that is available both on the computer and on the GPS unit.

 

So which software is good for offroading?

 

For off-road the Delorme allows you to have topo maps with everything that is mapped by the BLM (trails for off road driving, hiking, camp grounds, etc...) they also allow you to overlay sattelite images over these for a hybrid image. It can be handy in areas where sometimes the trail may be difficult to see because then you can see refrence points as well. It can also do the bread crumb trail. If you like to take pictures you can also tie them into your GPS and map where each picture was taken. They sell the mapping software on it's own and it is quite popular and since then they have made a GPS that uses it as well. I am waiting for 10/15 for the new GPS units to come out from them because they are much faster than the previous ones, and can handle and SD card up to 20gb.

 

Sorry GARMIN does not make the best software, there Topo sucks, It is getting better but it can not compare to the Topo from Delorme or Lowrance,
The Jeep Trail guide is very lacking for off road use also, it is a Garmin Quest and the suck for off road, You can not load tracks into it and it's receiver is not very good compared to the Garmin 60/76cx series. Garmin is coming out so many new units that you can hardly keep track. Garmin makes too many, and most are dumb'ed down and are losing real GPS features for off-road use.
Here are Screen shots and as you can see you can't see roads worth a damm on the Garmin



I will getting the Delorme PN40 as soon as it is released, you can have Topo maps, Sat images, aerial photos, and USGS quads, all down loadable for a yearly subscription of only $30, very cool, and Delorme GPS's are the only ones where the maps look the same on the GPS as they do on the PC screen.
I wish it had a larger screen.

so It won't be on the dash of the Jeep but it will be with me, for now I will still use my Lowrance XOG,

 

cool!! Thanks for the input.

 

i to am running the xog. Just got it about a week ago and its perfect. cant wait to get the mapcreate7

 

I've got a PN-20 and I can agree with the people above. Delorme maps are so much better then Garmins maps. My PN-20 is awesome, I can't imagine how amazing the PN-40 is!

 

Right now they only make 2 GPS's the PN-20 and the Soon to be released PN-40, yes they are handhelds but they do 1000 times more than any NUVI, If you want a street unit then get a NUVI , they SUCK for off-road, The whole NUVI line is a dumbed down GPS, too much foo foo and not enough substance for the real off road user.