Garmin Nuvi

yamahaguy_83

New member
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Messages
19
Age
40
Location
Flint, MI
I've been thinking about trying out a GPS on my sled this year. I have a Garmin Nuvi 205w that I use in my car but I was wondering if anyone has tried one (or similar) on a sled. I hate to spend another couple $$ on another GPS.

Also I noticed on the michigan.gov/dnr site maps they have links to gps downloads. Has anyone tried to do anything with those? Do you need to download all the links for an area? Not sure how to load those into a GPS.

Here's a link to the maps so you can see what I'm talking about:

http://www.midnr.com/Publications/pdfs/ForestsLandWater/SnowmobileTrailMaps/iosco_snowmobile.pdf
 

I don't think you'll have a problem. I ran an old lowrance iWay250 last year and only froze it up once in off trail conditions when it got covered with snow. I just downloaded MN maps to a Sd card and loaded that way.
 
Give Super1c (Chris) a bump he's using a Garmin and made a nice mount set up for his sled. I'm sure he'd be able to answer your question. He's also from your side of the mitten! Gil
 
I really do like my garmin. Went with the nuvi 500, its water, shock, ect resistant. I just got my maps from vvmapping and they look great. Played with them for a bit last night. I have no snow time yet but it looks like it will be really nice. Its dead on in my truck. Another reason i like the nuvi 500, i can use it all year round. I will be posting my findings as i get to use it. Chris
 
Thanks for the input guys. I found a "waterproof" handlebar mount that is intended for a motorcycle on ebay that I think I'm going to try. It's only around 20 bucks so if it don't work out I'm not out much.

vvmapping.com and gpssledmaps.com seem to be popular (from what I've read) anybody used both to have a comparison on the two?
 
Not sure about the other companies but vvmapping is a local MI company and al from this site helped map out a lot of it. Very happy with it so far. And if in a hurry when you buy it it is available for download as soon as you pay. I got the sd card so i dont use up internal memory when im not using it in the summer, or this winter even. LOL!
 
And I have GPSSledMaps.com maps for my Garmin. I haven't used them much but I used the free version for my Lowrance last year. I found them to be very accurate for my MN trails. The only complaints I had were with my old hardware and the fact I didn't have POI's. This year we paid for the maps so we get POI's and turn by turn on the Garmin. Glad I got the WI and MI maps too since I have a feeling that is the only place I'm going to get to ride this year and I have never been to either one (except a little around Hayward 15 years ago).
 
Well the handlebar mount is on its way and I downloaded the maps from vvmapping tonight. We'll see how it goes. So far the maps look really good. If we could just get some snow I might get to try it out. Thanks for the input guys. :letitsnow
 
Just an update, I tried out the GPS yesterday and was really impressed with the detail and accuracy of the maps. One problem that I did have was battery life. It looks like I'm going to have to look into a 12v plug mounted somewhere. Otherwise, I'm really impressed.
 
Yamahaguy_700Trips said:
Just an update, I tried out the GPS yesterday and was really impressed with the detail and accuracy of the maps. One problem that I did have was battery life. It looks like I'm going to have to look into a 12v plug mounted somewhere. Otherwise, I'm really impressed.

Wire in a 12v adapter and plug in to that. I posted about it last year. I think on my SXR 600 it was a brown wire going to the tach, or the headlight. I grounded to a bolt in the belly pan and mounted the cigarette lighter under my hood (out of the weather) and mounted the GPS to my console. On my viper, I mounted the GPS to my handlebars. The wire is a different color on the Viper. The information is here somewhere if you search for it. You'll be glad you wired it in.
 
I have a Garmin Rino 520 which I have been using to put my own maps together. I am going to copy my card and install it in my NUVI, I am going to mount the Nuvi on my handle bars and keep the other on in my pocket to make my POI on. It will be a little confusing at first but should work out fine. Funny related story, My buddy who who got me back into riding was going to buy a GPS. I looked around and was lost. He had been checking for a while. He suggested the Rino line and I ...gulp,, spent the money and bought the 530. He chose some cheap POS. I thought it would be nice to be able to map each other on the map in case we got in trouble. I bought a Rino 110 for my son and another for my "trail Boss". Some one lifted my sons and my other friend never remembers to bring his. OH well.
 


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