Yes, I ditto LandcruiserSteve on GPS antenna question. Are these two while blobs I see in your post photo the GPS antennas? One of them must be! They're bulky it seems. Either way, it would be interesting to see where you'll mount it/them.
Good job on location of GPS inside car. One serious limitation on the FJ seems the amount of free space once can mount things, but I guess that gives room to all of this creative mounting stuff you guys with tools and spare metal this and that can come out with.
Mike how is the map coverage on it? How is the Topo detail, all that.. compared to a PC? I am jealous because my PC is really getting beat up.
10 x better and more accurate then the PC. Todd, I'm like you, I've been using MS Streets & Trips along with Delorme Street Atlas for years now in my vehicle running them on my laptop. I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to viewing size. I have the Ram Mount vehicle mount for my laptop, I will be selling this here in a few days. I ordered the extrap detailed map coverage for this unit. I noticed that it has a lot more accurate detail of creeks, dirt roads, topo info, etc. I was playing around with it last night, temp hooking it up. The backlight on the creen has 4 different brightness settings, I was a little woried on how dim I could make it while driving at night, not distroying my night vision. It is able to get very dim, dimmer than your dash lights on the vehicle. I have to install my Snorkel this afternoon, once done, I'm going to run over to Home Depot and buy a small piece of steel to make the brackets. I'm making abracket for Larry (uphill) also, he wants to mount his where I'm mounting mine. I talked with him on the phone last night about the unit. I'll show more pics when the mount is complete.
Quote:
Fjamming previously said:
It's going to be hard to beat the display of a PC. Todd, I thought you've gone to a tablet? I seem to recall you saying something like that.
I have been doing the same as Todd for years, the only bad thing about running a laptop GPS is, you have to turn your head 90 degrees everytime you want to look at the screen. The way I'm mounting this unit, will alow me more "Driving" control while still being able not only to view but to have access to the GPS controls.
Quote:
LandCruiserSteve previously said:
Mike, that looks great up there!!
A couple of Q's (since I'm getting ready to intall a Garmin 276C that I just received yesterday):
How's the viewing angle from the driver's seat? Will it be swivel-able within its mount??
Also, what are you going to be doing GPS antenna-wise??
Thanks Steve, The view from the Driver is perfect, even the passenger will be able to see the GPS. As far as the Antenna goes, it is a white round puck about 2" high, and 4" in Dia. it will be perminatly mounted on the roof of the vehicle. I am not mounting it yet, because I have a custom made BAJA style light bar being made right now and my ARB Half roof rack is being shipped to me. Once I mount the rack and light bar, I will then figure out where I want to mount the Antenna. I don't want to drill a bunch of holes in the roof. I will have to run all my lighting wires along with the GPS cables, I will use one location to penatrate through the roof. I'll post when pics and why the location that I choose.
Quote:
komombo previously said:
Yes, I ditto LandcruiserSteve on GPS antenna question. Are these two while blobs I see in your post photo the GPS antennas? One of them must be! They're bulky it seems. Either way, it would be interesting to see where you'll mount it/them.
Good job on location of GPS inside car. One serious limitation on the FJ seems the amount of free space once can mount things, but I guess that gives room to all of this creative mounting stuff you guys with tools and spare metal this and that can come out with.
I'm not putting the RV mirror back up, with just the GPS unit up there gives me more windshield viewing without it. Plus I have to many sticker on the back windshiled anyways. I hardly ever use the RV mirror.
Air2Air said:
...how is the map coverage on it? How is the Topo detail, all that.. compared to a PC? I am jealous because my PC is really getting beat up.
This is exactly why I went with this unit. It is very rugged and the view rivals that of a PC. I really wanted to go with a PC but space is tight (at least if you want to have full control from the driver's seat) and I felt almost any PC would get the snot beat out of it in a short period of time.
The topo maps are excellent. There is something like 40 steps of zoom-in.
The down-side: The UI on this unit is clunky and cumbersome. Downright archaic IMO. The screen is not touch screen. Everything is done with buttons and they are burdensome. There is no keyboard. The first time you try to type a name with that clunky UI you will want to scream. It looks/feels like the controls on a 1970's era analog TV transmitter.
BTW, I think there is a much better way to mount this. And my method keeps your mirror intact. I will post some pics when I get back from my latest travels.
Last edited by FJR Colorado : 11-28-2007 at 09:12 AM.
Linear Mode
