Tracking your trail with GPS! Whatta ya got?
04-30-2008 | 05:44 PM
#11
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From: Nova Scotia, Canada
mygig
Do you do any long trail tracking with it? I lot of the trails around here definelty would not be on any gps map, and would need to be tracked by myself and then used later for reference. I will say though it does look great!
04-30-2008 | 05:45 PM
#12
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From: Nova Scotia, Canada
Sig, thats a nice setup. Does it come with that Jeep cover? That looks sick. Do you do any trail tracking with it? Any limitations on length of trails ect?
04-30-2008 | 06:00 PM
#13
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From: Nova Scotia, Canada
Tracks are the best feature in an Off-Road GPS, The Moppar Trail Guide is a Garmin Quest and it SUCKS for tracking, It does have a "Active Track" but you cannot change the color to make it more visible, and you can not "Import tracks" Plus the screen is too damm small, it is way too EXPENSIVE, and is seriously lacking in features. IMO
The Garmin 60/76 series are very good GPS's and do tracks, but with limits, you can only import track files with a max of 20 tracks @ 500 points each, ( less points = less resolution) the active track is 10,000 points which is good. you can change the color of your tracks ( ex: red = 5 difficulty rated, Magenta = 3 etc.)
I have switched to the Lowrance units as they will allow you to import track files with up to 100 tracks per file @ up 10,000 points in each track. The XOG (less than $250)is a very nice 3.5" screen GPS that comes with US/Canada Nav-Teq map data built in, and you can also load Topo data on a SD card ( $100)
The Lowrance 600c is a 5" screen and it comes with not only US/Canada Street maps but also has complete US Topo maps built in,,
The lowrance units will also let you zoom out much farther and still see minor road detail, the Garmin units loose minor detail at the .5 mile level, but with Lowrance it is very nice to zoom out and see where a dirt road goes.
Tracks are great way to show you trails that you get from fellow explorers , I have track files for most of the western states, so Where ever I go I can see trails that I have done or a trail that I got from someone.
Because most topo maps show you trails but they are far from accurate, Plus it saves you a bunch of wasted time going down dead ends etc.
The Garmin 60/76 series are very good GPS's and do tracks, but with limits, you can only import track files with a max of 20 tracks @ 500 points each, ( less points = less resolution) the active track is 10,000 points which is good. you can change the color of your tracks ( ex: red = 5 difficulty rated, Magenta = 3 etc.)
I have switched to the Lowrance units as they will allow you to import track files with up to 100 tracks per file @ up 10,000 points in each track. The XOG (less than $250)is a very nice 3.5" screen GPS that comes with US/Canada Nav-Teq map data built in, and you can also load Topo data on a SD card ( $100)
The Lowrance 600c is a 5" screen and it comes with not only US/Canada Street maps but also has complete US Topo maps built in,,
The lowrance units will also let you zoom out much farther and still see minor road detail, the Garmin units loose minor detail at the .5 mile level, but with Lowrance it is very nice to zoom out and see where a dirt road goes.
Tracks are great way to show you trails that you get from fellow explorers , I have track files for most of the western states, so Where ever I go I can see trails that I have done or a trail that I got from someone.
Because most topo maps show you trails but they are far from accurate, Plus it saves you a bunch of wasted time going down dead ends etc.
rwamf, When I read the details on those GPS units (Lowrance) they do not say they have tracking capability, any ideas what they might refer to it as?
04-30-2008 | 10:08 PM
#14
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: Odessa TX
Here are some photos of the XOG screen with both the Built in Nav-Teq and Lowrance's Mapcreate Topo. By the way most of these I tracked with my Garmin 60c years ago, and just transfered them to the Lowrance, That is also nice as you can convert most tracks from different manufactures.
And here is an area that I am going to explore this summer, so I bought the SAT images
Here is the XOG in my JK
and another screen shot of the Trails, You can change not only the color but the way they look also, ( from a dotted line to solid etc) The red trails are from one of my trail files, and the green dots are from the track we did this evening.
Also you can just touch the track and the name will appear on the screen. Very cool
Last edited by rwamf; 05-14-2008 at 09:15 AM.
04-30-2008 | 10:24 PM
#15
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From: Odessa TX
The Garmin Quest( Jeep unit) will record a track that you can down load to a PC but you cannot import a saved track back into the unit, Or I should say not like most GPS's, There is a way to import saved tracks but you have to turn off active tracking and rename them all, "ACTIVE TRACK 001, 002 etc" and then the total points of all the tracks must not exceed 9999 points. So you cannot change the color etc, they just show up as black dots, and you can't move the cursor over them to get the name like "POISON SPIDER" all you will see is "ACTIVE TRACK 003", so it is kinda worthless.
05-01-2008 | 03:36 AM
#16
JK Super Freak
Joined: May 2007
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From: Martinsburg, WV
PPC + GPS Tuner
I use my ppc device as my all in one wonder device. It does my navigation via iGuidance and for off roading, I use a neat program called "GPSTuner". It’s an application made for off road driving. it automatically leaves a bread crumb trail can save your track info in several formats and can even include details like highest altitude, fastest speed, etc. also, it has a fancy compass, can get weather forecast for the area (if I have service and can get online :-P ).
One nice thing about the program is that you can import any image file as your map background as long as you set a few calibration points. So I can either use topo maps, or get road maps or use satellite images as my maps.
That’s what I use. Once I get all the parts together and I make a carputor, I’ll have to look around and find something else again.
One nice thing about the program is that you can import any image file as your map background as long as you set a few calibration points. So I can either use topo maps, or get road maps or use satellite images as my maps.
That’s what I use. Once I get all the parts together and I make a carputor, I’ll have to look around and find something else again.
05-01-2008 | 11:31 AM
#17
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: Anniston AL
Delorme makes a great handheld (color screen) that you can get windshield mounts for. I chose it because of the software that came with but after using it I wouldn't have anything else. After each trip I download from my handset and I have a USGS topo with my tracks and waypoints mapped out. You can also preload routes on and offroad as well as download various sat imagery. The downside is that the starter package is about $300.
05-01-2008 | 12:12 PM
#18
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From: Odessa TX
Delorme makes a great handheld (color screen) that you can get windshield mounts for. I chose it because of the software that came with but after using it I wouldn't have anything else. After each trip I download from my handset and I have a USGS topo with my tracks and waypoints mapped out. You can also preload routes on and offroad as well as download various sat imagery. The downside is that the starter package is about $300.
For a vehicle GPS it is way below average, The XOG is much faster and has a bigger screen, routes very fast, has voice, mp3 player etc.
05-01-2008 | 04:18 PM
#19
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From: Nova Scotia, Canada
Lowrance
The Garmin Quest( Jeep unit) will record a track that you can down load to a PC but you cannot import a saved track back into the unit, Or I should say not like most GPS's, There is a way to import saved tracks but you have to turn off active tracking and rename them all, "ACTIVE TRACK 001, 002 etc" and then the total points of all the tracks must not exceed 9999 points. So you cannot change the color etc, they just show up as black dots, and you can't move the cursor over them to get the name like "POISON SPIDER" all you will see is "ACTIVE TRACK 003", so it is kinda worthless.
