Garmin 276C replacement Advice

[MHAMBI]

Hi All,

Was wondering if there is a replacement or any equivalent or better GPS to use for overlanding across Europe and Africa than the Garmin 276C?
I am planning to drive from the UK to SA in a couple of years and am starting to do some research, Ill be posting a few threads looking for info on all sorts. Would love to hear from people who have done it already with some good tips and advice. Thanks

Shayne.

 

[MarkW]

Garmin Montana or the newer Monterra will do well. Only downside I've found with my Montana is I wish there was a bigger screen on it so I could see more of my surroundings as I travel

 

[MHAMBI]

Hi Mark,
That is exactly why i was looking for something different, something with possibly a bigger colour screen.

 

[MarkW]

THeres a few on here with the Garmin DEZL unit's, which have a bigger screen size. I'm not so familiar with those and whether they will do off road navigation or just road nav

 

[Chris]

I have a Dezl 760 and almost every rough track we drove in Morocco was on the map. Very very rarely did it show just blank desert. It's a good unit, simple controls and will take a reversing camera too.

 

[MarkW]

Can you remember what maps you were using? By off road nav I mean not have any tracks showing on the mapset rather than using dirt tracks/piste loaded into the maps

 

[MHAMBI]

Thx Guys,

Will have a look at those.

 

[Chris]

I just downloaded a free map of Morocco and stuck in on an SD card. I didn't upload tracks or anything that would have been way beyond my ability. It was just basic mapping of the country and all those tracks / trails were already in there. I could have added waypoint stuff that people were chucking about, but I didn't. Not a clue how.
I used the maps to find that camp site when we were on the coast. I just typed in nearest camp site and there we were.

 

[MarkW]

I suspect it was Open Street Maps, Olafs maps can be a bit tricky to install. The DEZL did seem a bit better a searching POI's than the Montana but I've had issues with it before and haven't established if it the mapset or the garmin unit

 

[Dave Docwra]

Is it the East or West coast of Africa you are planning to travel down?

 

[GeekOKent]

I have a DEZL 760, it can consume gpx files for tracks ( it creates gpx as default anyway ) - one good thing with this device is that it does not need garmin's own software to upload, you can drop in content on an sdcard, or just plug the DEZL into the usb port ( comes up as mass storage, 8GB built in, ~ 1GB free after the base firmware + UK + Western EU maps ).

 

[MHAMBI]

Hi Dave,

Definitely the west cost, would like to spend up to 6 months doing it.

 

[KriPa]

Hello,

I installed an android car stereo with a 7" screen and for africa I installed the Tracks4Africa app https://tracks4africa.co.za/maps/about/smartphone/apple/

 

[MHAMBI]

Ah Great Patrik,

That looks like a way better option, To use an IPad with an external GPS.
Has anyone got this setup and if so how accurate and reliable is it?
Will definitely look at tracks for Africa website for info.

 

[Chris]

I have just bought an ipad for that purpose and have ordered a new Ram Mount for it. It has built in GPS chip so there's no need for an external device. I switched off wifi and cellular and went for a spin with the basic imaps running and it knew exactly where I was.

 

[MHAMBI]

Great Thx Chris,
I think that may be the way forward, ill try it out. Do you have the name of that Ram Mount with the built in GPS?

 

[stumog]

The ram mount is just the mount to hold the ipad this has the GPS built in. I have a Samsung tablet with this set up but don't seem to get the GPS to work very well with memory map.

 

[MarkW]

worth bearing in mind the limitation of a lot of apps on tablets for navigation, android has better range of mapping apps available than ipad but check what the base mapping source is, most rely on OSM maps.

Also the newer Garmin units use GLOSNASS for improved signal reception on the unit over GPS.


Long running thread on tablets and smartphones vs dedicated units over on the hub (once you get past the OPs personal war against Garmin

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/navigation-maps-compass-gps/smart-phone-vs-garmin-et-63191-28

 

[Chris]

Beat me to it Stu, yes the ipad has the GPS in it. The mount is just a plastic tray with an arm.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

might also be worth noting that if you have an Andriod tablet without GPS built in and an Android smart phone with GPS you can set them up so the tablet uses the phone's GPS over Bluetooth, works quite well and there are plenty of very cheap Android tablets that are ideal for this.