Thinking of purchasing a Nuvi 550 or one like the Nuvi 2555 and concerned about battery life. I've read that the battery hookup on the back of the unit can be problematic. Wondered about the actual battery life (8 hours on Garmin's site). If less than that in real life use, would a spare battery work? I would rather have the 5" screen on the newer Nuvi's than the 3" on the 550 but worry about the vibration on a mc. TIA Ian, Iowa Edit: I've been using a 2730 that is getting iffy, I assume both these models will do the same tasks as that unit.
I bought the Nuvi 550 to replace a GPSMAP60SC I had been using for moto a little over a year ago. My thought was it would be useable in both the car and the bike, and it's the only Nuvi that's waterproof. To answer your specific question, battery life is a few hours (4-6) with the screen turned down low. Replacing the battery is easy enough if that's the way you plan to go. I wired up a USB cable to my bikes (dirt, dual sport and street) and always used the USB port to power the GPS. It worked well almost always, despite the flimsy connection. The one problem I did have was during an off-road muti-day trip where the power would drop out intermittently; very annoying. I reset all the electrical connections and haven't seen the problem re-occur but I'm not convinced the problem isn't with the USB port. In the end, I don't like USB as a power source for a motorcycle (less of a concern if it's for a road bike). More generally, if you ride off road the screen is hard to read, is very suseptible to glare and get covered in dust easily, making it unreadable while moving. More of a problem, it doesn't support Tracks and (for me) that's a HUGE drawback for offroad riding. I thought I could get away with using routes and auto calc, and it mostly works, but I've been far from established roads a few times and really wished for the ability to display loaded tracks as a way to navigate. If you dont plan to use it off-road, none of these concerns will matter and I think the 550 is a terrific unit for auto routing and street use. That it can double up in the car is a bonus. For me, the off-road issue are insurountable problems so I'm moving to a Montana 500 and will likely hardwire the 550 in my truck. Hope this helps....
