Happy Easter everyone. I'm getting ready to purchase a new garmin Montana and was wondering wait was the pros and cons of purchasing maps for it? DVD or downloads from garmin. Thanks for all input.
The dvd is the way to go, that way you have a hard copy in case you have a computer go down and have to reformat or for putting on more than one computer.
I also just purchased a Montana 650. I got the "Bundle" from GPS City which comes with "City Navigator N America" DVD. I've ordered the Topo Maps DVD for N & S Dakota because I'm scheduled to ride the Dakal in June!! I've not loaded any maps yet!! I can probably figure out what I need to do, , , :) , , , but if you can save me some "Learning Curve" time I'd appreciate it!! To me it's logical that the National Forest roads (from the Dakal GPX files) we'll likely be on would be better shown on the Topo maps rather than the City Navigator!! I think I've seen where I can load regions from the DVD's to save space!! I've also ordered a couple 4 gig Micro SD cards!! The Dakal GPX file is already loaded in the internal memory!! I'm only going to use this GPS for adventure riding!! 1. Should I load only the area of the Topo maps that include the area of the Dakal?? 2. Should I load this information on a SD card?? 3. Am I completely missing something?? :) Any tips would be appreciated!! Thanks, Alfred, Dahlonega, GA.
Unfortunately, the "Learning Curve" can't be avoided. I still use Mapsource because everything I read about Basecamp when it first came out made the idea of trying to learn it hideous. But if you don't know either one, then learning Basecamp for you may be easier than for me because you don't already have a notion of how it should work, but doesn't. There are in depth articles in this forum on both programs. You're just going to have to do some reading. Before choosing which mapset to use for your .gpx files, I'd want to know if they are routes or tracks. Once you load City Nav on your computer, view your .gpx files in Mapsource or Basecamp, whichever one you decide to use. I think you'll be surprised how detailed City Nav is. Oh wait, last I heard, you couldn't do that with Basecamp. POS software. Big reason why I still use Mapsource. I too thought Topo would be the way to go, but I hardly ever use it. For me, the screen gets very busy and cluttered. Have to turn the detail way down to cut down on most of the topo elevation lines. And its very hard to tell the difference between roads, topo lines and rivers/creeks, especially at a glance. I have both Mapsets loaded on my device, but I usually only switch to topo when a road I'm on peters put in City Nav. Then I check topo to see if it shows the rest. That happened to me while riding the TAT thru Oregon. Had to reroute due to a rock slide. None of the old logging roads were in City Nav. Topo had more detail for that area, and altho it was tricky, I did find a way to reroute using it. I usually only load the City Nav map tiles for the states I may find myself in. As for topo, I don't load the whole state, just the tiles for in and around the area I'm going to be in. Saves a lot of memory. I don't know how the Montana stores its maps, whether its internal or SD card. I just trust that whenever I select the map tiles in Mapsource that I want on my device, when I click "send to device", they go where ever they are supposed to.
Trailryder42, I have Basecamp loaded!! I have a Zumo on my street bike!! Prior to getting the Montana I loaded the GPX files on it to see what it looked like on City Navigator!! The Forest roads were there but I "Assumed" the Topo's would be better!! Another rider rode the Dakal & indicated he used CN too, , , I've read a lot but needed someone to offer answers to my questions!! Tracks!! With Basecamp you can't load the maps on the computer, , , you plug the GPS Ito the computer & Basecamp uses the maps that are loaded on the unit!! I can see the detailed CIty Navigator maps on my computer to create routes & tracks!! This is very helpful to me!! Also very helpful!!! It has internal memory & a memory card slot!! From what I've read it appears as though I could (like you said) have the (Topo map) tiles for the area of the Dakal loaded on a memory card for those "more detailed" situations!! The Montana 650t comes with Topo Maps loaded so I think the internal memory is large enough to hold City Navigator!! We'll see!!! Your answers have been VERY Helpful for me!! Thank You, Alfred Dahlonega, GA.
I have City Navigator, old Topo 100k, Topo 24k southwest plus lots of custom kmz maps loaded on my Montana. No problems. I personally think the DVDs are the way to go. But I only use one GPS at a time for several years. The main advantage of the topos is that they often show minor roads that do not appear in CN. So I tend to use them more for trip planning. And the old 100k topos show often show different roads than the 24k version. I use the newer Mapinstall program to install maps onto the Montana. I used to use Mapsource for my older units. If you are new to this, I would recommend just installing a few map tiles to figure out the process and see how this goes. Once you get some confidence go ahead and install everything.
