Hey everyone , Ok, I have been told garmin is about the best gps, But which on would be best for me ? I am wanting to record the trails I ride down , down load this to my pc and print out maps for myself and friends . What about sample rates , and acuracy when the trail splits ? And those cloudy days, it seems it's always cloudy. Do they all have multiple satelites they lock to ? Thanks , Brian ..

99 scrambler 500
98 scrambler 400
96 mohave 250

 

I have A Garmin 3 Plus it has the built in map and this comes in handy. The map is not very detailed but it does carry most all state highways. This is nice when you want a quik bearing. The only draw back is that the mapping takes up memory space, if you leave your gps on and take to the trails it will only record a bread crumb trail for about 45 miles then it starts to delete the trail from the begining. Don't worry your waypoints don't get deleted. This unit has the capabilities your looking for and you can also down load very detaile topo maps into this unit. This unit will fit right in your shirt pocket.


Steve
98 Grizzly

[This message has been edited by flipper (edited 09-09-1999).]

 

Hey Brian I forgot to tell you. I don't have any problems with cloudy days, as for accuracy all gps units have a default of up to 35 feet by government regulations. In fact if you just sit the unit on a table it will travel by its self up to 35 feet. Also all have multiple tracking of the satelites.

 

Briank,This is a painful subject for me at this point, but I am currently waiting for a reply from Garmin re the 2nd unit I 've had since Aug 12.The first one, which was in a mount on the tank of my Warrior worked fine for about a hour then shut itself off. I restarted it & another mile or so it went off again. I emailed the tech dept. at Garmin & their reply was that the unit was defective, so I returned it & received a new unit last week. Over the long weekend I again mounted it & had the same problem. Worked fine for a short time & then off.
As I ride quite aggressively, & with full gear on so pocket carry is not an option...no pockets.As in any other type of radio receiver, gps units have an ic board in them & possibly the jolting of an atv simply breaks the circuits. At any rate my questions to Garmin were whether the unit was not designed for this application or did I have yet another defective one.I received an automated e-mail stating that, due to the back log of e-mails over the long week-end their tech dept would be somewhat delayed in their reply.
I would guess if you ride in a more leisurely manner or don't wish to have it on while you ride, the unit may work fine, but the reply from Garmin will be more definitive.
Otherwise the gps12 is a great unit, establishing fixes very quickly with up to 12 satellites. As the lowest priced of all their units, it still has more bells & whistles than most will ever use.
I hope to hear from them by next week at the latest & if you care to know their response, feel free to e-mail me.

THE AZ HARD PACKER, calmiller@kachina.net


P.S.Garmin does offer a handlebar mount & I'd think that would have more jarring than my tank mount


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[This message has been edited by hot_shoe_cv (edited 09-09-1999).]

 

Any of you guy have problems tracking when riding through heavy forest cover? I always ride in the woods and I'm wondering if the gps will still track, or will I have to ride to a clearing to get my position? I'm thinking about purchasing the GPS 3 plus. Thanks for your help!

Bruce Crowe
99 400ex
99 Wolverine

 

Have you tried one of the cases that you strap to your belt. Cabelas has a nice one for about $12. I picked one up after my friend destroyed his gps on those so called handle bar gps mounts. And yes if your in extremly heavy cover it will not work.

 

Hot Shoe,

There were complaints on one of the GPS sites about certain batteries losing contact and shutting off Garmin GPS's. Are you using batteries or a power cord?

I have a Garmin 12Xl I use. I made my own handlebar mount for my Sportsman and use the 12 volt power cord. I did have the cord come loose once but the NiMH I use batteries kicked in and kept tracking.

 

I have a Garmin 12XL and a Garmin Street pilot. The Street pilot is a little large to go anythere but in a mount of some sort. With the street mapping ability, its overkill for a quad, but great for traveling. The 12XL is great for a quad. Garmin claims its "canopy proof" which means clouds and tree cover woun't affect its operation. It has bailed me out a few times while riding mountain bikes in Kentucky.
I like the idea of mapping trails.

 

Hey, I have checked out some GPS's at Wall-Mart and a few web sites and finally found one I think would be good for what I want to do . Has any one tried the 12cx from Garmin ? The base price was $238.99 and with some extras like a case , data cable and things like that was only 266.99. This thing even has a colored screen !! You can check it out at http://www.csn.net/~lwjames/GGPS.html
I hope that came up as a hyper link . Well , tell me what ya think , Brian

 

Ok , don't laugh . I know the hyper link didn't work , but if you high light the link in the post and right click on it you can copy and paste it in your location bar . I just thought that was pretty cool ! Learn something new every day !!!!