Topo on a Nuvi?

Decidion · 02-08-2008, 03:44 AM

Anyone have a Garmin Nuvi and loaded up any of the Topo versions? How well does it work? What are the limitations?

90%+ of my driving is on road, and I want to get a Nuvi 200W, but I also want to use Topo with it for the 10% of offroading I do...will it work?

I have looked at the 60CSx, but it doesn't seem as road friendly as the Nuvi series. The Colorado's are very nice, but I just can't justify $400-$500 for one. I can get a Nuvi 200W and Topo 2008 for around $300, which is my limit.

AZFJCRUZ'er · 02-08-2008, 04:49 AM

I didn't even know they had a topo for a Garmin Nuvi. I have the 350....I'd love to get one of those. Does it actually show the off road trails and stuff? Anyone know?

**1911** · 02-08-2008, 06:35 AM

I have Garmin Topo 2008 loaded on my Nuvi 660 and it works just fine, although you have to turn off "3D View" on the main display for the topos to display there. The worst thing about it (to me) is that the Garmin topos are only 1:100,000 maps (as opposed to the 1:24,000 scale of paper 7.5 minute quads) so you don't get much detail. I guess it's the trade-off for getting the whole country on one disk.

What roads and trails it shows depends on where you are, but again the detail is not great. When I was elk hunting in Colorado last year, it showed county roads and main trails on the 11,000-foot mountain I was on but not all the 4WD trails by any means.

In New mexico and Texas it does not show many trails; it has to be a pretty decent (maintained) dirt road to show up.

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in mine and don't look at it very much while I'm wheeling - there's just not enough detail to be any real help. I suppose it would do to find your way back to civilization if you were completely lost or snowed in or something, but for wheeling it's not that useful.

I have digital 1:24,000 USGS 7.5 quads on my laptop that I can plug a GPS into when I need the detail and that works super great, but having a laptop in the truck for wheeling is not practical since I don't have a mount for it.

Decidion · 02-08-2008, 11:58 AM

Wow, thanks for the info. So maybe Garmin isn't the way to go for a decent GPS that has Topo maps, as I know they are pretty proprietary on maps that can be loaded on their units (without you having to dig in and use some kind of third party software).

What about the Ouray trails? Do those show up? I can't get the Topo demo on Garmin's website to work, so I can't even check that out.

**1911** · 02-08-2008, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Decidion previously said:

What about the Ouray trails? Do those show up?

Couldn't say; last time I was at Ouray I didn't have the Nuvi.

Sonoita · 02-08-2008, 03:41 PM

I have a Nuvi 660 in the FJ because I like the large screen, and works ok. The only limitation for me is it does not plot the tracks, I use a 60CSX for that. There are 24K/1 in National Parks west from Garmin, they cover all of Moab if you ever wheel there. Here are some screen shots from the 660.