Is this more common than I think?!

[Geoffnsara]

So I was shopping at REI today and overheard a woman talking to a sales guy about topo maps and GPS’s. She told him that they’ve been geocaching with their Nuvi. I had to interrupt them to tell her that they don’t need maps to geocache. Has anyone else out there been geocaching with their GPS that’s intended for driving. I completely understand the benefit of getting to your driving destination that way, but am I missing something???

[bartrod]

Paperless caching with the Nuvi is great! Pocket queries can be loaded into it that include all the info on each cache’s webpage…the hint is even decoded. And the Nuvi takes you right to them. I still use my handheld Lowrance when I get to the site, but the Nuvi does have a pedestrian mode. The only downside is that it has limited battery life and you don’t want to get it wet! Here’s a link from the Garmin website to get you started:
http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

[jerrys dad]

Thanks for the link! I am going to set mine up tomorrow and see how it works this weekend. Will report back after trying it.

[Ray]

We have been using our Nuvi as an aid for a few months now and admit that it can be a powerful tool. We use it to get us to the nearest parking and as our paperless data source. However, It is not a good idea to take it on the trail. Our Garmin 60s are better suited to rough treatment and rain, dew and puddles that may be encountered on the hike. The Nuvi can hold cache data for THOUSANDS of geocaches, but that data is no more current than your last PQ loaded. So, you may find that keeping the pages current will require a greater investment of time than you originally thought.

Bottom line… The Nuvi is great as an aid, but our 60s are our work horses.

[labrat_wr]

@Trudy & the beast wrote:

We have been using our Nuvi as an aid for a few months now and admit that it can be a powerful tool. We use it to get us to the nearest parking and as our paperless data source. However, It is not a good idea to take it on the trail. Our Garmin 60s are better suited to rough treatment and rain, dew and puddles that may be encountered on the hike. The Nuvi can hold cache data for THOUSANDS of geocaches, but that data is no more current than your last PQ loaded. So, you may find that keeping the pages current will require a greater investment of time than you originally thought.

Bottom line… The Nuvi is great as an aid, but our 60s are our work horses.

I have to agree with the Beast on this. While utilizing the macro from GSAK to load all the cache details to the nuvi for paperless caching, the final search is best done with the handheld. At least with the nuvi200, manuvering those last 20-30 feet can be difficult as I found out when a late night spur of the moment cache run for a night cache and one nearby made using the nuvi a necessity as the battery on the handheld died.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[bartrod]

I agree that you don’t want to rely on the Nuvi too much, but I’ll take it with me on the trail…in a ziplock bag in the off mode. That way I can always turn it on briefly to check cache details. I’ve used it on a couple of occasions where I actually forgot my handheld…it’s hell to get old…and I’ve actually found caches with it, but your handheld is a necessity for accuracy. My Lowrance can also hold pocket queries downloaded to an SD card, so the two work well in tandem.

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

[zuma]

I have tried the Nuvi in the field, and it would be an OK emergency backup, say if I forgot my handheld gps, but I agree with TATB and Labrat. While it kinda works, it is the wrong shape to be used as a handheld, it looks fragile and easily subject to damage in rough terrain, and it is tougher to pinpoint GZ.

I did use it as a backup a few times while my Garmin Legend was on it’s last legs, but now that I have the Colorado have not resorted to taking it out of the car.

zuma

[hogrod]

I’ve seen lots of post on the geocaching.com forum where people are using auto units to find geocaches. Most of these people already had the auto unit and didn’t want to buy another unit right away. The most common thing I’ve read is they aren’t very accurate in the woods, and jump around allot making it very difficult to pinpoint a cache.

I use a 60Cx as my caching/auto gps and it works great, but if I was buying again I wouldn’t buy it.
I would buy a a Nuvi 255W for the car for $175 and a VentureHC for the trail for only $130. Total would be less than I originally paid for the 60Cx($375+$100 maps), and I would get my street maps for free with the Nuvi. Then I would just download one of the many free trail maps on gps file depot website for the ventureHC.

[Averith]

I would have to agree with everyone’s comments. I use my Nuvi 200 to get me close then use my Magellan Triton 2000 out of the car. I also have found that the Nuvi doesn’t always take you to the best location for parking but I suppose that is why we have to use our brains on occasion and not just our tech.

[bartrod]

One other important issue with the Nuvi is that it has limited battery life. If you disconnect it from your car, you’d better not let it wear down or it’s DEAD!. I think it’ll run safely for about 3 hours before needing to be recharged…probably longer but I wouldn’t push it. I managed to get my Nuvi free last summer through a special promotion that Discover card was running at the time…found out about it in the Groundspeak forums:)

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

[Geoffnsara]

Thanks for the info. I guess I’m so used to having started before there were such technological advances where you could have a GPS installed in your car let alone remove it to help you geocache. Granted, we haven’t been as active in the caching community as we once were…but I hadn’t heard that anyone had been using their car units in the woods. I knew that T&tB had been using Barbie to get close to the site (parking) for their car. It sounded like the woman at REI was pretty new to the sport and thought that you HAD to have maps installed in your handheld unit to cache most efficiently too. I guess that everyone has their own preferences! 😀

[Averith]

@bartrod wrote:

Paperless caching with the Nuvi is great! Pocket queries can be loaded into it that include all the info on each cache’s webpage…the hint is even decoded. And the Nuvi takes you right to them. I still use my handheld Lowrance when I get to the site, but the Nuvi does have a pedestrian mode. The only downside is that it has limited battery life and you don’t want to get it wet! Here’s a link from the Garmin website to get you started:
http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html

Thank you so much!! I didn’t know that it was possible to load that much cache info onto the Nuvi. I had just been loading the gpx file directly to the nuvi using POI loader. Thanks for sharing this!!

[Team Hemisphere Dancer]

This was working for right up until I installed the latest version of GSAK. Now it is not working anymore. Does anyone know of any fixes for this?

[bartrod]

I switched to the newest version of GSAK not too long ago and started having some trouble too. I tried the GSAK forums and support and had a little luck. I was getting error messages…found out that I could either go back to the old version or uninstalling/reinstalling the new version. Then I found when uninstalling that I had to delete all the GSAK files in my computer before reinstalling because uninstalling does not undo those. Support walked me through some things…suggested it could have been caused by any number of things…gremlins,etc. I’m still having an issue with the proper macro, but found a way around it…I may just go back to the old version. I had no trouble with it at all. Hope this helps.

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

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