GPS or Tablet

Clay2078

New member
Hello,


My name is Clayton. I'm new to overlanding and need advise on navigation. What is the best option to go with? I want to be able to use the device for on and off road. I have very little if no tech "know how", so user friendly would be a huge plus. I've looked at previous threads and don't really understand the "apps" that people are putting on the tablets. Any help would be great guys. Thanks
 

jimi breeze

jimi breeze
If this helps.... I use separate GPS units for whatever I'm doing. I don't know of any obese size fits all unit, if there is I missed it.
road - I use a Garmin 2455LM. Just your typical road GPS but it has lifetime map updates.
off road - ipad with a Garmin Glo GPS unit. I use several mapping apps which seems to cover what I need.
trail - Garmin Oregon 400. Comes with a base map of the US
motorcycle - Garmin Nuvi
 

pugslyyy

Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
Yeah I'm with Jimi on that one. I find the on-road functionality of the Garmin units to be hard to beat. I like the big screen dezl 760LMT but I also use my ipad with Allstays apps, etc.

Whatever you get, I highly recommend the RAM mounts for holding everything in place.
 

VanIsle_Greg

I think I need a bigger truck!
I picked up a Dell Venue 7 Android Tablet. It is nice for navigation as well as general tablet stuff for a few reasons.

- Easy to use and good sized screen
- It is one of the only ones I could find with an unassisted GPS (does not require cellular for GPS receiver to function properly)
- It has hundreds of mapping and navigation apps to choose from for free or low cost
- It was cheap as chips and it works very well
- Light and easy to find mounts for it
- Can use it as a Car-Puter or for listening to tunes off of (Bluetooth streaming to Car System)

It is not as slick as some of the dedicated Garmin or other GPS units, and the receiver is nowhere near as strong by itself. For this reason I picked up a Dual GPS receiver puck. The 2 together for around $220 and I get the use of a full Android tablet too. The GPS puck is also Bluetooth and therefore I can use it for my other tablet or a Laptop too.

http://www.dell.com/ca/p/dell-venue-7/pd

http://gps.dualav.com/explore-by-product/xgps150a/
 

theksmith

Explorer
i love my tablet setup, but i think a dedicated GPS unit is always going to be much simpler for someone that isn't technical at all. Garmin makes nice stuff. traditionally the on-road Nuvi style didn't do everything most off-roaders wanted, not sure if they've bridged that gap or not yet. i know the Montana series is a full fledged topo capable unit with a decent sized screen still.

one thought - if you have a smart phone, then you could give some of the GPS/topo/nav apps a trial run there and see if you get the gist of how to use them and if so then get a tablet (it'll have a better screen and more flexibility than any dedicated unit, and likely cheaper total investment). i agree with the last post that a Venue 7 is a good choice for a non cellular carrier type tablet.
 
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VanIsle_Greg

I think I need a bigger truck!
i love my tablet setup, but i think a dedicated GPS unit is always going to be much simpler for someone that isn't technical at all.

I just reread the OP and my post... yeah, you nailed it. I am a Datacenter Manager and run a team of Senior Datacenter and Server analysts, I sometimes forget not everyone is a tech head like me.

Carry on...nothing to see here.
 

off-roader

Expedition Leader
Hello,


My name is Clayton. I'm new to overlanding and need advise on navigation. What is the best option to go with? I want to be able to use the device for on and off road. I have very little if no tech "know how", so user friendly would be a huge plus. I've looked at previous threads and don't really understand the "apps" that people are putting on the tablets. Any help would be great guys. Thanks

Hi Clayton,

IMHO, if you have an android or iOS phone then I find Waze to be a far better on road solution than traditional dedicated GPS units. For traffic detection it uses other Waze owners ahead of you to help it gauge the actual sped of traffic rather than just rely the often delayed info from your local highways traffic monitoring systems. I probably use it once or twice a week and it consumes barely any data so that should be good news if you don't have an unlimited plan.

Otherwise there are plenty of different gps options available. I heavily recommend one that comes bundled with free lifetime map updates and traffic updates.

Off road I use an iPad I 64GB 3G unit mounted on a ram mount. I do not have a 3G plan for it since I only bought the 3G version for the integrated GPS. For mapping software I use a variety of apps but most of the time I use either Scenic Maps, or occasionally Motion X.

I do do occassionally use the iPad for street use. When needed I use TomToms street mapping software.

HTH!
 

AFBronco235

Crew Chief
I went with the low budget Surface 2 tablet with Windows 8.1/RT operating system. It works just like Windows 8, but with a touch screen. For me, it was more of a process of elimination and price. I haven't had good luck with any apple or droid products so far. They kept crapping out on me. The Surface 2 (not the pro version) did not come with GPS or data plan, so you'll need an external GPS unit, which actually saves money on the price. About $200 in my case. It does have to be a Bluetooth GPS, as the surface RT will not recognize a USB GPS unit.

For the mapping app, I chose MapsPro. Its not as user friendly in its current version, but its getting updated on a monthly basis and should be very capable by the end of the year. It also works well offline, for when you have to work "off the grid" without any internet access to download a map. You just have to download the map of the area you'll be working in and you'll be set. GPS compatible. The only downside is that you do have to download maps for a trip while you have internet access, and for long trips with step-by-step navigation, you need to download each map frame for the trip manually, but this is only temporary as the programmer is working on a way to download simple road maps for road navigation. The other advantage of MapsPro is the variety of maps available, including topographical maps with common hiking and biking trails.

It would help us to know exactly how you'd use it, on and off road. Are you driving to a remote area for a hike? Rock crawling, desert survival, simple exploration?
 

Clay2078

New member
Well guys I apologize for the late response. I did not know check for responses to this thread...like I said, not tech savvy at all. I can't thank you guys enough for all the responses. I know I want to go with the tablet. I know I need 3G or 4G, but I do not want a cell contract. I asked a kid at the apple store and he advised I would not be able to use the GPS function without a service provider...I've been told I can on the forum. AFBronco235 I will be using tablet for off road use around TN and NC for now. I don't really need it for street use. For example I would want to be able to download a map of the Cherokee NF and be able to see my location on the service roads etc.
 

AFBronco235

Crew Chief
That kid at the apple store is an idiot. What he was talking about is NOT true GPS, but cell tower triangulation. It works fine in cities and paved roads, but not so well in remote areas with little to no cell reception. There are a number of external GPS units you can connect to a tablet to get true GPS readings. Since all you need to know is where you are, that would be simple enough. I went with a GlobalSat Bluetooth model BT-821C that works with my Surface 2 Bluetooth. It can be mounted in a vehicle or packed in a bag.

You should look into MAPS Pro. I'm not sure if it will work with Apple though. I stay away from their products since they seem to fall apart so readily around me. I can tell you that you can download a map of an area and keep track of the path you've taken with it. You can also download several types of maps. I'm thinking you'd need topographical maps and terrain maps and maybe something that shows common trails and such.

Regardless of what brand you get, you DO NOT NEED any type of cellular reception. Just get on amazon or ebay and find a good GPS unit like the one I have and make sure its compatible with your device. Anybody who tells you otherwise has no idea what true GPS tracking is.

One downside is figuring out how to download maps to the level you need. I recommend you only download maps of the areas you need, and take it down to the level 15 or 16. Zoom level 13 is city level while 17 is considered street level, to give you an idea. Just for fun, I looked up the Cherokee NF and managed to get a good terrain and trail map for it, which I think you'd enjoy.
 

pugslyyy

Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
...or do what I did and buy and old AT&T iPad 2. It works great and has the GPS built in. I don't have a service contract (or any cellular data service) on it.

I have to admit that I'm a fan of getting a tablet with GPS functionality built in.
 

Clay2078

New member
Good to go sir. I'll look into all of that. Once again thank you for the intell. Could I use the device without an external GPS unit?
 

pugslyyy

Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
Pugslyyy are you using an external unit or just the device?

Just the iPad2 wifi+3G. I've never used a data package on it in the US, but in Europe I popped a sim card in and used it. It's nice to have the flexibility and IMHO an iPad without GPS is just crippled.

The good news is that the iPad 2 is pretty cheap these days - and for most folks it is more than capable enough to do what you need. You can buy a used one for <$200 on ebay.
 

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