firemrshllbill
New member
Im looking to buy a GPS for snowmobiling, ice fishing, and in the car. What are some good GPS systems out there for around $300. I know nothing about GPS's!!
skidooboy
New member
garmin etrex vista, except no substitutes. ski
I just bought a garmin rino530 it's the top garmin model but it's a little more expensive it retails for 530something but I got it for 375.00.It has a 2 way radio.You can also if you have your buddies programmed in your you can see where his accordance is for example if your riding in the mountains and get seperated you can look up his accordance and see where he is.I guess it all depends what your going to use them for .
sandmanmike1
New member
I would look into the Magellan Explorists 400. I have a Magellan SportTrak Topo and really like it but memory is small. The Explorists 400 has expandable memory with SD cards and will be my next unit.
montynormand
Member
I have the less expensive Garmin Etrex Legend. New $150 or so, I bought mine used for $75. Works well for me
03viperguy
Moderator
I wonder about this around this time each year. what I would love is to be able to go out for a ride, map out the trip and load it on my computer. this way I could either print out the ride, or more likely just be able to load it back on the GPS at a later time and take the same trip if I wanted. any ideas guys??
firemrshllbill
New member
I think I am going to go with the rhino 120 or Magellan eXplorist 400. Anybody have either one and like or dislike?
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flying dutchman
Member
I have the Magellan 400. No complaints. The expandable memory is whatever SD card you install. You don't need the card, only if you want to load more maps and files. Also the 400 has a good battery system. It's some weird "Li-Ion" which has never ran out in one day.
It's easy to download onto any computer.
I saw a 500 the other day on sale at Canadian Tire for $199. The 500 you get a color display.
I believe they are all good, just find one with the features you want and the price you can afford.
I use it mainly to get back to the truck. It's nice to make a round trip instead of riding the same trail back.
Also for trivia, we went for a 50 mile ride last week and it was overcast (no sun all day). I have been in this area before and would swear the direction we needed to go (which was wrong), to get back to the truck. Well the GPS knew the way and led us right to the exact spot.
For me, I never go riding without it.
It's easy to download onto any computer.
I saw a 500 the other day on sale at Canadian Tire for $199. The 500 you get a color display.
I believe they are all good, just find one with the features you want and the price you can afford.
I use it mainly to get back to the truck. It's nice to make a round trip instead of riding the same trail back.
Also for trivia, we went for a 50 mile ride last week and it was overcast (no sun all day). I have been in this area before and would swear the direction we needed to go (which was wrong), to get back to the truck. Well the GPS knew the way and led us right to the exact spot.
For me, I never go riding without it.
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woolyviper
New member
03viperguy
Moderator
anyone know anything about making and saving maps like I was hoping to do? just not at all familiar with gps, so dont relly know the terms, other than waypoints 
flying dutchman
Member
03viperguy.......that's exactly one of the functions of the gps.
Use the gps to track where you have been (a bread crumb trail), including your way points. It will be saved in the memory so if you wish to visit this trail again, it will be right on the screen. Or you can download this info onto your computer, and it will plot it on the map.
Next time you go out, you track your new trail and again, load it onto your computer. Pretty soon you will have all kinds of trails and info that you have collected.
On my 400, I have a couple trips loaded on the SD card, and can reference them at any time.
One thing I do is delete my tracks but keep my special points on the gps. That way if you go back to the same general area, you can use these points as a reference.
The gps will come with a software program, that you load onto your computer, and it will walk you through the steps.
Fastest recorded speed i have is 600mph, flying at 22,000ft.
Use the gps to track where you have been (a bread crumb trail), including your way points. It will be saved in the memory so if you wish to visit this trail again, it will be right on the screen. Or you can download this info onto your computer, and it will plot it on the map.
Next time you go out, you track your new trail and again, load it onto your computer. Pretty soon you will have all kinds of trails and info that you have collected.
On my 400, I have a couple trips loaded on the SD card, and can reference them at any time.
One thing I do is delete my tracks but keep my special points on the gps. That way if you go back to the same general area, you can use these points as a reference.
The gps will come with a software program, that you load onto your computer, and it will walk you through the steps.
Fastest recorded speed i have is 600mph, flying at 22,000ft.
Venom
Member
I know a fair bit about GPS units and how to use them. I've been using mine (Lowrance H20) faithfully for over 2 1/2 years now for driving, boating, hiking, ATV'ing and snowmobiling. My wife laughs at me everytime I take out my GPS. You can say I'm alittle obsessed with it, lol.
Two things you need in a GPS:
1) Mapping capability
2) SD capability
You have two types of memory in a GPS:
1) Internal memory
2) External memory (SD card, microSD card, etc)
Internal memory is just memory in the GPS that you can't take out. It was good enough years ago but when mapping came out, it wasn't enough anymore. So alot of the companies have gone to external memory. External memory is great cause you can get SD cards in different sizes to store less/more trails, waypoints, etc. I always go with the biggest SD my GPS can accept. Yes, some GPS untis only accept SD cards up to a certain size. 1 gigabyte seems to be plenty for today's mapping.
Usually what I do is schedule a run with someone who knows the area, then make your GPS follow you (like bread crumbs), then when you get to the turn around point, save your trail you just made to the SD card. When you turn around, your GPS will still follow you home. But you say " I only saved half the trip to my SD card, how come?"
Well, all you need to do is load the trail from the SD card and reverse it. Some people will say, don't listen to him just save it when you get home, you don't need to fool around with saving to an SD card when you're out in the trails, but I disagree. One main reason I always save at the turn around point, is that sometimes if the ride is long enough, you'll start removing your beginning points. Think of it as rope on the ground, grab one end and start walking, eventually the other end of the rope will leave where it was and start following you. Now you just lost the beginning of your trail. This is true, it happened to me last winter. Good thing I could still see my trail and it was daylight. I wasn't aware of this and it kinda scared me. It's very important to know the limitations of your GPS!
If there's no turnaroud point, I usually save every 4 hours. If you save at 4 hour mark, then later at the 8 hour mark, you can always go back and delete the 4 hour trail from your SD Card. Just be careful and make sure that your 8 hour trail has the whole trail (starting/ending points) before you delete the 4 hour trail.
If you need any info, you can PM me if you like.
Cheers.
Two things you need in a GPS:
1) Mapping capability
2) SD capability
You have two types of memory in a GPS:
1) Internal memory
2) External memory (SD card, microSD card, etc)
Internal memory is just memory in the GPS that you can't take out. It was good enough years ago but when mapping came out, it wasn't enough anymore. So alot of the companies have gone to external memory. External memory is great cause you can get SD cards in different sizes to store less/more trails, waypoints, etc. I always go with the biggest SD my GPS can accept. Yes, some GPS untis only accept SD cards up to a certain size. 1 gigabyte seems to be plenty for today's mapping.
Usually what I do is schedule a run with someone who knows the area, then make your GPS follow you (like bread crumbs), then when you get to the turn around point, save your trail you just made to the SD card. When you turn around, your GPS will still follow you home. But you say " I only saved half the trip to my SD card, how come?"
Well, all you need to do is load the trail from the SD card and reverse it. Some people will say, don't listen to him just save it when you get home, you don't need to fool around with saving to an SD card when you're out in the trails, but I disagree. One main reason I always save at the turn around point, is that sometimes if the ride is long enough, you'll start removing your beginning points. Think of it as rope on the ground, grab one end and start walking, eventually the other end of the rope will leave where it was and start following you. Now you just lost the beginning of your trail. This is true, it happened to me last winter. Good thing I could still see my trail and it was daylight. I wasn't aware of this and it kinda scared me. It's very important to know the limitations of your GPS!
If there's no turnaroud point, I usually save every 4 hours. If you save at 4 hour mark, then later at the 8 hour mark, you can always go back and delete the 4 hour trail from your SD Card. Just be careful and make sure that your 8 hour trail has the whole trail (starting/ending points) before you delete the 4 hour trail.
If you need any info, you can PM me if you like.
Cheers.
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03viperguy
Moderator
fantastic answers guys, that actually helped me out a LOT! so what makes the expensive ones different from the cheaper ones? whats a decent price to expect to pay for a nice unit? thanks again!