Off-Road GPS

I have used Google tracks on my Android before and it works well. I just stumbled upon this one from Code Sector called Maverick. Code Sector makes a better copy tool that I use, Tera Copy.
While your there check out 'Speed View' and 'Here I Am' all of these might be helpful for the avid camper, hiker, biker, outdoors man or woman.

Code Sector link

Google Play link

 

I use a $2.85 app on my android called My Trails. It let's you select from 8 or 10 different maps to overlay your gps trail on, tracks your movements until you stop it and saves the files as .gpx which can be pulled from the phone and opened with a free PC app called AVS4fun or something like that that will convert the gpx to html which can be opened with any number of programs and display your map.

 

There are free versions of each of these. Couldn't hurt to try them.

 

Currently only available for my local area, but quickly expanding!

http://www.owlsheadgps.com/home/index.html

 

I use GPS Kit for all my trips, I hardly even use my Lowrance now. You can choose from 10+ overlays such as google earth or google hybrid, share tracks, waypoints, etc, and track all sort of information. Also works without reception.

 

Sweet! I've been to all those places and a few I don't see plotted. I'll have to explore the plots in your first image.

I have a dumb phone so I used to use a Garmin III+, then the eTrex legend, and then a GPSMAP 60CSx. I still use the 60CSX but just to record tracklogs on the card.

The last couple trips I used the new iPad w/GPS (cellular service off) + MotionX GPS HD. The app only cost $1.99 and it allows you to predefine map sets with min/max zoom levels and download them to the device for offline use. The maps are FREE and current. Street maps, TOPO, Satellite and Hybrid (and Marine) maps.

I live in East San Diego County but I've always hauled up to the Dale mining district and the area around the east and north of Amboy. My very first off road trip was to Iron Age mine. I like the freedom and sparseness but I have to log a lot of highway time and burn a lot of gas just to get up there.

I wanted to explore more of Anza-Borrego so I purchased this trail guide before the last couple trips and downloaded all the waypoints for free and easily loaded them onto the iPad. The iPad has worked out so well off road I decided to mount it on the dash.

 

anyone have experience with the garmin Montana 650? it looks bad ass. has a camera too
supports satellite view, topo, birds eye, and road turn by turn maps.

 

Yes, I always try the free shit first. My Trails was well worth the 2.85 for the full app.

 

this is still my main off road GPS:

 

You may have just sold me on getting an ipad. Don't need 3G or any of that crap to make it work? Just a GPS satellite signal like any other GPS unit?

 

yes, prior to entering the area without reception, you need to cache the region onto the app. So before leaving the house, select the area you will be exploring, and it downloads all the map information beforehand, thus, when you are out of signal, you dont need to load the map, and GPS takes care of the tracking.

Im not sure if the ipad has GPS capabilities, but if it does, this will work!

 

I use Motion X GPS HD the same way, downloadable maps. Even though you don't need Wi-Fi you do need an iPad with a cellular connection, doesn't have to be activated though, it's just where Apple has the GPS chip.

If you look close on my signature pic you can see my iPad mounted on the windshield with a RAM mount.

I am going to try GPS Kit HD though, looks really cool.

Guy,

 

This shows how the iPad looks in my 4runner. Works well, very stable and you can shoot video out the front windshield or back into the cab.

Guy,

 

Can you define and name multiple map sets with GPS Kit? Anyone have both apps?

I'm reading the reviews and some say GPS Kit HD doesn't support true offline mode. It sounds like it supports a map cache, which is what you describe. The user zooms around and it caches the images. MotionX GPS HD also supports a 1024 MB map cache to speed up loading maps offline or online.

In addition to a map cache MotionX GPS HD also supports true download and storage that is only limited by the iPad's available memory. That is why I bought the 64GB version. Once you define and download the map set, it is there until you delete the set. I can define and download many map sets. I currently have 23. I have road map coverage from overview (7) down to individual street names (15) from SoCal to St. Louis along Route 66 / I40 and then St. Louis to NE Ohio. I also have hybrid satelite views of the Petified Forest, my favorite off road spots and a couple other locations. I also have several TOPO map sets.

The map overview wiki page for GPS Kit HD doesn't include naming the map cache which seems like you can only cache one area at a time.

GPS Kit HD is 25% off and they still ask $14.99. VS $1.99 for MotionX. It would be nice if they had a demo or light version to try. The google earth integration sounds neat but most of the bells and whistles seem like social networking that requires cellular enabled. I paid for the cellular iPad just to get the compass + GPS and won't ever activate the cellular radio. MotionX GPS also has a version for the iPhone.

This image is from a pre-downloaded mapset of zoom level 15 for Anza-Borrego. I could have downloaded them at zoom level 19 but it was overkill for my needs and makes the map sets much larger. Full screen mode, WIFI and Cellular are OFF. When WIFI (or cellular) is on, you can zoom to any level and it will automatically download/display and cache the map tiles as you pan around.

The full resolution image looks better than this. The screen shots were down-sampled when I uploaded them.

 

I want to read more on this... Really great upgrades to off roading, to have a satellite image map with your track/ location on it.

 

I downloaded GPS Kit last night and my initial impression is Motion X has more features and better map caching. You do have to play with Motion X a little more to figure out some of the options. GPS Kit seems a little basic next to Motion X.

If you're on the fence I would go with Motion X, it's cheaper too.

Guy,

 

When I started looking into this I was surprised to see so little on here. There are soo many outdoors people on here.

 

So, an Iphone or Ipad can still track your progress on GPS when out of cell reception?

If that's true, then it to sounds to me like the iPad is a Lowrance killer...

 

Looking into doing this. What kind of mount is that? And do you have the mount there all the time or is it easily removed?
Thanks