street Pilot GPS

[RJ2]

Looking to get a gps street Pilot , any hot tips on what unit to get?

 

[stick]

Iv'e got the Garmin III+. If you get lost with this thing, you've got to be driving blind!!

The III+ is not in color, but for the bucks, do you need it? It works great in the truck, and you can also carry it in your pocket!



Stick

 

[EarthRoamer]

GPS III+

I've been using a GPS III+ since my 1999 trip to Alaska and it's been on every trip with me since then. I even took it on an 8 day sailing trip from Florida to Puerto Rico. When the onboard GPS that cost thousands of dollars kept failing, we entered the waypoints into my GPS III+ and used the little Garmin!



My only complaint using the III+ in my truck is that the screen is pretty small. I plan to upgrade to the Street Pilot just to get the bigger color screen, but I'll still keep the trusty III+ close at hand.



Garmin is definitely the way to go! They make fantastic products.

 

[JJW_ND]

Street Pilots are Great!

We have several Streetpilot Colormaps and a couple of the newer Streetpilot III. Both have similar screens, both color but the newer (and more exspensive) Streetpilot III has built in autorouting. The color map just does by the crow flies. You have to manually add the turns.



The autorouting is pretty cool and worth the extra coin. The latest Mapsource software had great road coverage. All city streets (inlcuding most all "Points of Interest") and most all gravel roads, trails. We loaded this software in both the ColorMaps and the newer IIIs. With this software you can Autoroute to almost any location your heart desires. NEVER GET LOST. ALmost forgot, the III also talks to you. You can start out in NY and select a street adress in LA. Once it determines the route (no laptop needed) it will both show you and talk you all the way there. You can even select prefferences of Interstates, tollroads etc.



If you jump off the route, it will automatically readjust the route from the new heading.



They are great!



jjw

ND

 

[Dkevdog]

We just bought four of the GPS V's. They are only black and white, but they will do autorouting (no voive prompt) and have a ton of waypoints you can set. And the price is right- it can be had for around $400.



Kev

 

[BushWakr - RIP]

I'm using the GPS III+ as well. I have the extra basemap,rec. map loaded and its is great. I agree the screen is a bit small but I use a cell phone type mount extende out a bit and have very little problem with seeing it.

The mapSource CD has turned out to be a good addition to create/edit/transfer data to PC or Laptop too.



Bob.

 

[Dave MacArthur]

Bill-



Why not get a cheap laptop off of Ebay to use as a screen and keep the 3+? That's what I'm thinking about doing. PI's and II's can be had for very little money right now.



Dave.

 

[D. Showan]

Just a warning, My older laptop killed the satellite signal from my garmin legend. It worked fine with a new laptop. I would sure be leary of a laptop from E-bay.

 

[EarthRoamer]

Originally posted by Dave MacArthur

Bill-



Why not get a cheap laptop off of Ebay to use as a screen and keep the 3+? That's what I'm thinking about doing. PI's and II's can be had for very little money right now.



Dave.

I've thought about doing this, but I'm not sure where I would put it. I have my III+ velcroed to the dash, even a really small laptop would be pretty big on the dash.



I have to crawl over my center console to get to the back of my camper, so the laptop would be in the way mounted on the center console.

 

[claymike]

I use to have the Garmin III but just bought the Garmin V. The auto re-route feature is great and the back lighting is much improved over the III. Here is a good site to look at.

http://gpsnow.com/gmgen.htm This comes with the GPS, cig adapter, mount, PC cable and map source program for your computer.



Mike

 

[FDziurda]

Streetpilot Colormap

I picked up a new Sreetpilot Colormap on EBay for $300. I also have a III+ but the display "washes out" in the sunlight, while the Streetpilot's active matrix color display does not. Since the new Streetpilot IIIs have come out, you can get some very good deals on the older Colormaps. You will, no doubt, want to add some aditional memory to the Colormap and get a USB programmer to load it.



Good Luck,



Frank

 

[Patriot Diesel]

I have a Garmin StreetPilot also... I love it... very easy to read display... even in direct sunlight. When we go on long trips I hook up the laptop... now that is truly awesome. I am going to buy one of the Jotto mounts for the laptop so that it doesn't have to sit on my center console...

 

[Dave MacArthur]

You learn something new on the TDR everyday. I had never heard of the Jotto Desk until Patriot Deisel said something. I thought the police departments were having something fabricated locally. Check out the website:



http://www.jottodesk.com/



If you do a search on Google.com for Jotto Desk there are lots of retailers with prices and options. Bill, I was thinking about using the center console but this looks like the way to go.



Dave.

 

[E-9]

Garmin III

Do you have to buy extra software to get all roads in the US on this unit? I am curious about what you get when you buy the unit and what you have to buy "extra" to have all roads on the unit.

 

[Doubleclutch]

E-9, most of the ones we're interested in come with a "base map" that has Alaska through Tierra del Fuego. You buy a CD called "sourcemap" of which there are several types. Roads and Recreation, Topo, etc. You join the GPS and computer running the sourcemap CD and "load" areas of interest. The III+ has 1. 44 meg of data that can be loaded- the more streets in an area uses more of the 1. 44 is used. And this loaded area "uses" some of the base map so that if you cross out of the area you've loaded, you get the dreaded XXXXX area. Some of the newer units use data cards that can be loaded with up to 128 meg of data! I have had the III+ since Garmin upgraded my III back in '9X. Arms are getting too short for the smaller displays so I upgraded to a marine unit- the 176C. BIG display, BIG numbers, Big color!!! About $550 from GPS City in Las Vegas. The unit uses the same software as my III+ so it's a win all around! Takes a little effort to learn, but the only times I've been "lost" is when I thought the GPS was wrong, and drove accordingly.

 

[Patriot Diesel]

To give you an idea of how much space the detailed maps can take up... I have the entire state of Virginia loaded in mine. It took close to 64 MB's

 

[bighammer]

I saw a map GPS setup at Sam's Club this morning. It's $199 and includes map data CD and a PC interface cord. Also a holder for use in a car or truck. I've been looking a while, but they keep getting better and cheaper.

 

[Koa Man]

bighammer,

Do you recall which model it was? Just bought a Garmin GPS V for my wife, since she is going to visit my daughter in Illinois and will be renting a car. I was going to buy the Street Pilot III, but Garmin does not have a Hawaii map for it yet, but the V does. Seems like the V is a better buy when you look at the cost of DCA's for it and the extra features it has over the SPIII. It is also only half the price. Cons are no color, voice prompts and smaller display, but still way better than looking at a paper map!

 

[bighammer]

I couldn't remember the name, but the number 330 stuck in my head. Did a search for "GPS 330" and came up with Magellan. I think it's the 330x (w/ the xtra stuff)

 

[D. Showan]

330 is just a handheld, not what you guys have been talking about