BajaNomad

Offroadig GPS

PaulW - 12-6-2020 at 08:29 AM

Offering for Garmin fans
Garmin overlander. A 7” screen. It is not a NUVI as you can tell by the price.

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/automotive/explore-more-wi...

Anybody have one?

Overlander.jpg - 45kB

advrider - 12-6-2020 at 08:39 AM

Nice looking unit but I have found Garmin very hard to use. I have spent countless hours trying to load stuff on my Garmin with little success. Could just be me but I find most phone GPS app's much easier to use and no you don't need cell service for them to work.

PaulW - 12-6-2020 at 09:20 AM

My experience with Garmin is about the same as Lowrance. Huge learning curve then easy after that.
With the phone or tablet if you want to use all the capabilities then there is a learning period.
Trouble with all the non GPS units I have tried the image is very poor.
Phone is way to small and tablet is usually big enough, but hard to read.
Lots of pluses and minuses, but except for the learning curve on a GPS they will always be my favorite.

TMW - 12-6-2020 at 10:10 AM

Loading stuff in a Garmin is usually thru BaseCamp. Once you learn how it's easy.

Mr. Bills - 12-6-2020 at 10:20 AM

I looked at the Garmin Overlander, but in the end decided my money was better spent on a Garmin inReach Explorer+ and an inexpensive Garmin Drive 51 navigation unit.

Even the cheapest model of the Garmin Drive navigation units is capable of using a multitude of third party maps and Open Street Map files.

I haven't had much opportunity to experiment with the Garmin navigation unit in 2020, but last year used the Garmin Drive 51 with the Cartografia 32 topo map of Baja. Worked great.

larryC - 12-6-2020 at 02:51 PM

Along the same lines, I'm trying to use Google maps off line but can't figure out how to download the maps. It seems to have better resolution than Gaia. Anyone had luck with google maps offline?

StuckSucks - 12-6-2020 at 04:00 PM

Quote: Originally posted by larryC  
Along the same lines, I'm trying to use Google maps off line but can't figure out how to download the maps. It seems to have better resolution than Gaia. Anyone had luck with google maps offline?


Google's downloadable maps are the map version only, not satellite, so if you get away from any infrastructure, there is nothing to see on the map. In a Baja, off-line world, I find them useless.

With Gaia, you can download all your map layers including satellite (granted, not as good as Google's sat view).

StuckSucks - 12-6-2020 at 04:06 PM

Quote: Originally posted by larryC  
Along the same lines, I'm trying to use Google maps off line but can't figure out how to download the maps.


Download a Google map to use offline

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Maps app.
2. Make sure you're connected to the Internet and are not in Incognito mode.
3. Search for a place, like San Francisco .
4. At the bottom, tap the name or address of the place.
5. On the resulting page, in the upper right, click the 3 dots menu.
6. Select Download offline map. Download.

PaulW - 12-6-2020 at 04:49 PM

And repeat for any place you want offline maps.
Like choose San felipe Bc or Mexicali BC, etc.
And for redundancy do a similar drilfor maps.me. The you will have two choices of offline maps.

advrider - 12-7-2020 at 07:08 AM

Good info stuck..

msteve1014 - 12-7-2020 at 07:53 AM

As was said before, those maps are great for finding a place in Mexicali or Ensenada, but a map of the Viscaino area will show almost nothing.

JZ - 12-7-2020 at 09:08 AM

Hard pass on a standalone GPS. Not user friendly.

Back Country Navigator or Gaia are the best GPS apps for your phone.

Google Maps for paved roads in Baja.


[Edited on 12-7-2020 by JZ]

PaulW - 12-7-2020 at 03:47 PM

Back Country Navigator or Gaia backcountry tracks
Correct, but no POIs for a new traveler

All have a purpose

4x4abc - 12-7-2020 at 09:46 PM

sure you can use Google Earth imagery offline.
They are held in cache.
cache is limited in size, but you can create as many diffenret cache files as your computer/tablet can hold
will work on tablet as well as on laptop - not on phone

there is a number of help applications out there - here is an example:
https://qpdownload.com/cache-for-google-earth/

Mac users have to create their own cache files - easy, but time consuming

and yes, Garmin sucks. InReach sucked before it was acquired by Garmin - and it it did not improve a bit. One of the most useful tools. But one of the most cumbersome.
Garmin will go away like Blockbuster.
The smart kids are just getting ready.

bajaric - 12-8-2020 at 06:30 AM

I tried the Google Maps thing on a tablet, where you select "offline maps" and the draw a rectangle for the area that you want to save to the tablet's memory cache. This actually saves not only the street maps, but a satellite view, however the satellite view was such low resolution that when zoomed in it was blurry. Only JZ know the secret of saving hi res satellite views to a tablet.

HeyMulegeScott - 12-15-2020 at 07:35 PM

One of the benefits of this unit is that it has preloaded data from ioverlander.com but you can download that data for free from ioverlander and use in Basecamp to update any Garmin GPS unit, even mine from the stoneage.

JZ - 12-16-2020 at 03:30 PM

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc  
sure you can use Google Earth imagery offline.
They are held in cache.
cache is limited in size, but you can create as many diffenret cache files as your computer/tablet can hold
will work on tablet as well as on laptop - not on phone

there is a number of help applications out there - here is an example:
https://qpdownload.com/cache-for-google-earth/

Mac users have to create their own cache files - easy, but time consuming

and yes, Garmin sucks. InReach sucked before it was acquired by Garmin - and it it did not improve a bit. One of the most useful tools. But one of the most cumbersome.
Garmin will go away like Blockbuster.
The smart kids are just getting ready.


I have the equivalent of Google Earth satellite imagery for offline use. Works on phone and tablet. All of Baja.

It's like seeing yourself drive / ride on GE.

JZ - 12-16-2020 at 03:32 PM

The other thing to remember is the phone apps are also supported on the dash screens of newer trucks.

The new Bronco has a huge 12 inch LED screen that runs Gaia.