Experience with Garmin 60cs GPS?

[Morphious]

Hey all, I'm in the process of buying some new toys and one of those is a GPS system. The one I've narrowed it down too is this. I want a hand held unit, as I tend to go to the back woods where the truck can't go, whether it's on 4 wheelers, bikes, or just good old fashioned foot power.



If anybody has used this one or knows of someones results, I'd appreciate it. This unit can have an external antenna attached to it, for the automobile. I'm not planning on buying the antenna right now, but leave that as an option for the future if I decide I need it.



I'm already going to have to add an XM antenna to the truck, as well as a CB antenna here in the next couple of months.



#ad


Thanks for the inputs.



Morph.

 

[TPappas]

Ive got that exact unit sitting right here on the desk in fron of me. I bought the external antenna and cigarette lighter adapter for the car and it works awesome! I bought the map disk with it and after loading it it will give you turn by turn directions telling you how to get to your destination. Totally awesome, great choice!

 

[klenger]

I want one too.

 

[BarryG]

I dont have the 60 but have the GPS Map 76CS. That thing is just plain great. Batteries last quite a long time and quite a bit of memory. It will do just about anything but wipe your rear end. I cant remember now why I went with the 76 over the 60 as they were fairly comparable but I had some reason for it.



The wife is out using it now. She is through hiking the Colorado Trail all 475 miles of it this summer. Denver to Durango. I dropped her off at the trailhead on Sunday and pick her up in Durango on July 31st. I have a few resupply runs to make in the coming weeks. I sure wish I could get two months off to do something like that. One of the perks of being a HS teacher I guess.



Anyway I think you will be happy with the 60. I did quite a bit of research on them and like you really needed it for backcountry use not in the vehicle. While it works fine in the vehicle it is hard as hell to drive and play with it. You really need a co pilot to fiddle with it if using it in a vehicle for directions and such. And while all the various brands have + & -'s the Garmin 60 and 76 had the best all around features and memory for my needs.



Darn shame they wont let you download anyones maps but theirs into them. That goes for any of the brands. Their proprietary maps kind of suck. At least as far as scale goes(for backcountry use). None of them have the 7. 5 minute maps in them. But with other map software you can plot your stuff and do everything on it and then load the waypoints/annotations onto the unit into their map. You just dont have the same scale. Which I guess is not that big of a deal. There is brand out there called Trimble that years ago had every 7. 5 minute map of the US loaded on it. However they have switched to more commercial applications and are very very expensive. They have several units that run windows ce so you actually have a little computer with you.