tuber

I haven't owned a GPS before, and wrestled with which route to go. I was pretty much settled on the fact that I would probably end up needing 2 units - a one for street navigation, and another for the trails.

As things turned out, an excellent deal on the 255W a month or so ago prompted me to buy it. It works great for street navigation, and I've actually found that it works pretty darn good off road as well - at least for recording where you've been and to follow your route back out. Keep in mind that I haven't used a more trail dedicated type unit - so I can't make a comparison - just making a comment on the functionality.

It then it got a real workout a couple weeks back on a fishing trip in the south east region of BC. It was astonishing to discover the detail of the data it contained, and it worked great on a lot of the forestry roads. One lake I went to involved about 6km off road, and the unit had data for some pretty rough goat trails - but the information was there!

After the trip, I exported the waypoints of where I had been to Google Earth, and also into Mapsource. Now I have the trip saved, and next time I can follow the routes that I have created.

Now I'm thinking that I might get a small netbook or tablet PC to connect the 255W to - and get some 3D topo software for the trails - and forget about a dedicated trail GPS.

Bottom line - the 255W has exceeded my expectations

opdsgt

Good to hear, nuber. I actually wanted the 255W, but wound up with the 205W instead. Both are great units, particularly for what you can pick them up for these days. GPS with features like these would have cost double what we paid just a year ago.

OoPEZoO

Did the 255W come with Mapsource? That was always my beef with most of the available car GPS's......they were never compatible with Mapsource. Has Garmin changed that?

opdsgt

Thought you guys might like to see the installed Garmin nuvi 205W (widescreen) I bought. I'm very happy with it. I hardwired it for quick placement or removal in/from the JK. I bought the Southwest TOPO maps (UT, CO, AZ, NM) too. Easy to use, easy to read, re-draws maps quickly, a ton of detail and features, what's not to like?

Time for a cold one, mods are done for tonight.

rwamf

Wrong! The ZUMO and Street Pilots series, Quest and most Nuvi's ARE NOT GOOD OFF-ROAD GPS's, They do not do tracks, Imported tracks are a must for any off-road GPS, They will record a track and you can download it to a computer but you can not share the track like a Garmin GPSMAP series GPS, The ability to import tracks is a must in any Off-Road GPS
Tracks are much better than Routes, The tracks files you can download is amazing and some great off-road trails are available in track form that are not on any Topo maps, It is very nice to have shared tracks when you go to an unfamiliar area and have tracks that are easy to follow, My Moab file has 72 diff tracks in it, I can load the entire file into my Lowrance XOG GPS, it is like having a better more accurate map. Garmin Gps Map series only allow 15 / 20 saved tracks. which is ok for most,
Garmin 60/76 series, 176/276/376 series have saved/import track function.
The Zumo will let you import tracks but you must convert them to a route to view them, ( you must also turn off "Back on Track" function or it will recalculate the track.)
The Street pilots and Quest series will not let you import a saved track file unless you bring it in as your ACTIVE TRACK, which sucks .
Until you use one with the tracking functions you just don't know what you are missing. It is the most important feature for the off-road user.

Soopurman0

i rock the magellan Tritan 1500.. no complaints...but has 0 capability for on road stuff.. (cell phone fills the gap there)