I am wanting to by a dashmount GPS for traveling and am looking for some opinions on which brands/models to buy.

Everyone seems to use the Garmins around here.

 

I've used hand held ones only, Garmins are good but the Magellens had better reception...

 

I heard Tom Tom is not so great is that true?

 

I have been using the Tom Tom one xls model and really like it. It is very accurate and easy to use. Have used it to find places to eat just by listing names such as pizza. The updates are free where Garmin is about 70.00 for updates.I have owned it for about 6 mths. now..

 

I have a DeLorme Earthmate that plugs into my laptop.
The map software I run is from Rand McNally.

Not dash mounted, but a 15.4" screen sure beats a 4" screen.

 

I like Navman myself, had the F15 first ($100 at RadioShack) but then somehow the screen got cracked, till I can find a replacement for it I bought a used F20 (older model than F15) from evilbay for less than $50 and it's been treating me great - only time it had a bit of hard time finding the satellite was right after coming out of the Holland tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn in NYC, darn skyscrapers sure did mess it up, lol. In its defense tho I gotta admit I was running off its internal antenna, should I have hooked up an external one things may have been much different.

 

I have a 7ish year old garmin street pilot and it works great, had it for 6 Years.
Newer color ones are easy to see but this ones easy to operate, about a 3X5" screen and this shows me where the main roads are and thats all I need. Also the map rotates around my arrow, when the map is solid, I get confused. Also, keeps a dotted line everywhere I have been for the last 100 miles. so while driving on mountian passes, I know which road I took.

 

Haha, my F15 sees the dirt roads too, very good when there's a bridge out on the main road and the only other main road makes for a 15-mile detour - 2 miles through the corn fields raising up a cloud of dust behind me, and I was right on the other side of that bridge.

 

garmin is the best tom tom sucks for offroad no topo maps at all pure crap i love my new garmin tho shows trails that i can't even see..best buy i think but thats just my opinion

 

What model garmin do you have that shows topo maps?

Has any one used a lowerance cross over? It is suposed to do lake maps and such if you add them.

 

the nuvi 255 you have to buy the map but its worth it u can also get mapping programs and u can load google earth into it. u can also get your water maps check out garmin.com

 

gps to me is a good copoilt how can read a map

 

I have a Tom Tom 1 xl like Flamebuster. Got a factory refurbished one for $99 and it works great, easy to input address and such. Don't know about off road stuff, but it's never failed me on road. Battery life kind of sucks though.
While using it for work one day getting to a power plant outside of Beloit, it took me down a few dirt roads and across a 1 lane bridge, but got me right to the front door. Sometimes you have to watch how they're setup, shortest, fastest route, major roads...
I had used MS Streets with the gps on my laptop and I find this much easier to use; don't have to wait for the laptop to boot up and worrying about the laptop flying off the seat cause I didn't have anything to strap it down. But Dave is right, the big screen is great and it was better when I just wanted to zoom out to see exactly where I was or to just look at a map.

 

Since I use mine for business reasons, I like being able to load topo maps, street maps and satellite images overlaying each other.

Then I can add my own info on top of that for owner contact info and the like.

Plus even if the road is not there on the map, I can still map and remember the route as I drive.

Can't figure out why a road might not be there in the WV back country.

 

My dad just bought a Garmin 205 and tried it on the way home out rual addres did not show up. My parents address is only a couple years old and I can understand, but where I live the place has been here forever and it does not recognize the address.