Lucky - Page 13

1der · 02-22-2015, 08:54 AM

Really nicely done Robb!! I need too come check that out.

arctictraveller · 02-22-2015, 10:33 AM

[quote="Arctictraveller, that's pretty cool. Give us some more feedback and a price if you don't mind.[/quote]

I looked at nav systems for a long time and got hung up on what operating system I wanted to use. It seems that a lot depends on where you plan to travel since the best mapping programs for different areas (Canada, US, and Mexico) run on different systems. After looking at several options for over a year, I came to the conclusion there was not one system that would do it all, so I decided to get one that would serve me well for the near future, with a focus on off road travel. I was pretty frustrated, and ended up buying the Ipad on impulse. The Dual GPS (under $100.00) is one that was recommended by several folks as most likely to work with minimal start up issues. As a professional mariner, I run a lot of different nav programs and have had issues getting my laptops to recognize and operate correctly when plugging in a GPS. No problems with the Dual. As for nav programs, I started out with "You need a map and Scenic map" These are very similar programs, with one better for on road nav and the other better off road. Both are available at the App store. We used both for several months with pretty good success. The supplied maps have lots of off road trails (although many turn out to be closed, abandoned, or simply not there) It has a lot of good features including the ability to turn on and off shading of National forests, Indian reservation land, terrain shading and lots more. We tend to boondock a lot and being able to determine land ownership really helps. It will easily mark a route as you travel it and save it for future reference, but creating routes in advance is a bit clumsy, and requires using a PC and then emailing the route to yourself as a GPX file and then importing it to your Ipad. Then we met Claude (Viva La Vida) and spent a couple weeks following him around Death Valley. He was running Gaia and had marked a couple thousand points of interest, including creating routes to many of them. Gaia uses US topographic maps you down load as you need them. After you purchase the program you get unlimited access to all US topos. Creating routes is stupid easy (simply touch the screen to insert waypoints). It has a ton of features and is easy to use. The only downside is that you have to download maps in advance using a fast connection since they can be huge files. Since the files are so large, unless you have unlimited storage and lots of time, you have to decide in advance where your going and what level of detail you need. I did have success downloading using my Iphone hot spot though. Gaia has a ton of great features too, most of which are pretty useful. You need a map comes with all US maps in one down load, but they are not topo's. So, it seems each mapping program has desirable features and we end up using them all. As for our mount, I went with the RAM system and it works great with the exception of it moving around a bit on rough roads due mostly to being screwed to plastic. Robb's solution of a metal plate would probably solve the issue though. Hope this helps..........................