I know the local dist dont like it, but has anyone here bought a gps from the USA and used it here in Australia? I realise the basemaps are out but are there any other drawbacks? It's a forgone conclusion that I'll need to use cartridges to ride where I'm going so basemaps dont offer me much. Thanks for any feedback - interested to hear any positive or negative thoughts on doing this
Yes, an American unit will work here Australian mapping for both Garmin and Magellan will load and work fine on an overseas unit. GME, the Australian Garmin distributor, will honour the international warranty. However.... ... for each warranty claim they will charge you a $50 administration fee. This fee is used to pay for couriering the unit back to Garmin US. Garmin US will then decide whether to repair or replace the unit and send it back. Next Destination, the Australian Magellan distributor, will advise you to return the unit to the dealer you purchased it from for warranty service. Next Destination can load an Australian basemap to an overseas purchased unit for $300. They will service an overseas unit at normal service rates. If you send them an overseas unit that you have 'somehow' loaded an Australian basemap to they will not service it. When you buy from an Australian dealer you get service and if the dealer is interested in return business, ongoing service and advice. Some dealers will provide free loading of annual mapping upgrades (loading only), firmware and POI (speed camera etc) for the life of the unit. Specialist GPS dealers are also happy to help you with phone and email advice on using the features of your unit. If you know GPS backwards and are prepared to accept delays on any warranty service then overseas purchases can reduce your costs. While Australia dealers will try to help you with issues you have had with other dealers including overseas dealers, this is not their job or responsibility. If support time exceeds 5 minutes then they will normally charge for their time.
I bought a Magellan eXplorist 400 off ebay for $A285 delivered. Not too bad. Especially since they retail for over $A580 here. There's no way I'd spend that much... even if i could... Getting the basemap on was a bit of a mission but I did get it working. The basemap was part of the 'worldwide basemap' and not very detailed, main roads only. Getting detailed maps onto the device was the real tricky part but I did get it going. I ended up converting some Garmin maps using the information on www.msh-tools.com. This was not easy at all and took me a couple of weeks, on and off... I think it would be great to get some of the DiscoverAus maps.
How did you go? im looking at a magellan eXplorist 600 or XL as you can get them cheaper on ebay....... are the maps any good? its had to navagate out here no hills or any features to go on
I bought my Megellan Meridan Colour for abour $450 aussie two years ago, delivered from the USA. I left the base map in place and use SD cards for all my mapping. Excellent. NO probs as at all. I normally buy local, but the colour was $1300 aussie local when i got mine. Now I appreciate the costs for distributors for stocking and servicing stock. BUt.................
I bought an eXplorist XL (big screen) early this year new from a US ebay dealer AUD $463 all up including postage and I also bought the DiscoverAus Streets and Tracks Topo here for AUD$380. It has the US basemap on it which is not a problem, I recently used it for a trip to Cape York and I carry it in my jacket most of the time, its a lot smaller than a street directory. The DiscoverAus maps are very detailed and I used it a lot to find my way around the towns and cities and less so in the bush.
I did the same but bought a Magellan Meridian Platinum. Mate you paid way too much for the discover Aust Streets and 4WD tracks - I got mine for $199 from GPSOz if I remember rightly. The only problem I have found is that when you want to navigate to say a town, that they do not come up in your waypoint list because only towns in the basemap do (USA). I find that a bit annoying sometimes, especially when you are going a very long way (Bris-Melb) and want to know how far it will be to some place along the way. The street directory in the Discover Aus stuff is bloody good though for navigating thru unknown towns. The offraod info is good, but you need to be judicious with what it thinks is a road sometimes.
anyone know if the US base map can be unloaded??..........im still thinking about getting one for the US
There are two versions DiscoverAus Streets & Tracks Topo - A$399 DiscoverAus Streets & Tracks - A$239 The Topo version has contour lines and comes preloaded on an SD card. Magellan have just released a beta version of MApsend Lite v2.0 which allows you to copy the maps to your PC and work with them. The 3D feature along with the Topo feature allows you to play back your tracks riding through them. http://www.gpsoz.com.au/magellan_mapping.htm Check out this link for an Aus basemap, copy it to your basemap folder. On the explorist you can copy it to an SD card basemap folder and then get the GPS to look in there for the basemap by going to preferences, active setup. http://www.rhamphorhinkx.ecohost.ru/maps/ Buying maps and street directories for the whole country would be a lot more expensive and bulky than an SD card and GPS.
With the eXplorist you can load and unload any basemap you want and have two basemaps available at the same time, one in Internal memory and one on your SD card.
I have just purchased an Explorist XL, bacically a Explorist 500 with a larger screen. The total cost in Australia was over $1500.00 with unit, mount, 12 volt power and local maps. The unit from USA was $430.00 au compared to $950.00 locally (No Local warranty). I have purchased the local maps OZ topo which are expensive at $380.00 but seem very accurate and are preloaded onto an SD card for the whole of Australia. All up cost was approx $950.00 with the Ram Mount and power supply for the bike. I have also got a copy of the world wide base maps to correct the over 700 meter zoom problem. I have used it for its first long trip to the Kosicuisko Rally last weekend and it was great. We did some dirt roads on the way down and the preloaded route showed me at each turn which way to go. The track log when I returned home was interesting seeing our trip in 3D mode on the topo maps. I would highly recommend. Regards Big John <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
I'm glad I found this thread! I am interested in the explorist 500. looks good. and this thread has given me hope! a couple of things that i am still not clear on. I understand i can use another basemap off of an SD card. that's great! but can I replace the one on the unit? pete40 talked about how his meridian unit didn't do waypoints properly... does this affect explorist in the same way? finally, I intend to use the unit I buy in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, etc... are maps better for Magellan or Garmin? Are maps converted from Garmin just as good when converted? I don't really like the garmin ones, but what would be the best equivalent to the explorist 500? I appreciate all you help on this! many thanks!!!
Yes you can replace the basemap on the unit. You should not have any problems with waypoints or POI's (points of intrest) as they are called now. I don't think there are any good GPS maps of those countries, check out the Worldwide basemap demo on the Magellan website. http://www.magellangps.com/products/webviewer/default_j.asp?map_name=_world_basemap&load=yes http://www.magellangps.com/products/software.asp
Hi all. I noticed that nearly all the posts above mainly discuss the Magellan products. I like the accuracy of the Magellan gear for our Aussie bush, but I also want something that will work easy with Google Earth so I am leaning towards a Garmin product. If I were to purchase say a Zumo or a Garmin 276C unit, how easy is it to remove/replace the basemap so I can have the aussie basemap on it? Cheers, Daz.
Below for garmins only! I don't know. But .. I don't care .. the base map is fairly useless anyway .. it is not acurate, only shows main roads ... Get Tracks 4 Australia and you have the bush covered. If you want autorouting then you need 'City Navigator' ...
