Best Portable Nav units.

What are the best portable navigation units? What have been your good and bad experiences? Which one would you recommend?  

i use a magellan but i want to try out one of those garmin geko's because they should get the job done and they are much more inexpensive. so if you run it over, mash it in the mud, drop it in the rocks, or freeze it in the snow and you break it.. it's not that big of a loss  
RuggedRocksOffRoad.com

are you just real clumsy, or do you just play real rough?  

I've had several GPS's over the years.  My first was a Magellan 2000GPS which happened to be the one featured in 4WD&SU from years ago.  All it has was Lat/Long and some basic plotting.  These day's there no reason not to get a GPS that has mapping capabilities and color for that matter.

One of the thing you'll want to consider is the internal storage in the GPS.  Some of the handhelds come with very little storage room and no expandability options.  Typically, you'll get some basic maps.  Some have decent street maps though.  If you're wanting to travel on dirt roads or trail, you'll definitely want the ability to upload Topographical maps as these are usually more detailed and show trails unlike the street maps.  On my old Streetpilot 2610, I use a 2GB card to hold all of the US street maps as well as TOPO's of half the US.

Another consideration is the power source.  Will you need to carry it?  If so then for how long.  I would suggest getting one that uses standard AA batteries as they can be bought anywhere and probably be shared with something else you'll be carrying.

If you want a good handheld unit then I'd look no further then the Garmin GPS MAP 60 CX series that was just discontinued.  You can find them for under $300 which is a pretty good deal.  They take MicroSD cards so you can expand the memory.  They are a good size for Motorcycle, truck or even hiking.  They are water resistant as well.  Most GPS's aren't these days as they are meant for road use only.  If you want a new one then the GPS MAP 62 line is the replacement.

I have also owned a Garmin eTrex Legend C, Legend Cx as well as an old Garmin GPS III +.  I wouldn't really bother with the eTrex line as they are too small to see while driving.

Oh and what I hate about Garmin is that their Map Source software interface is severely outdated.  They updated it a few years back but it still looks like it was from the late 90's.  It works but it's not that intuitive. Still, I prefer Garmin over the competition.  Most people will tend to use the Garmins so you can share tracks which is nice too.

Sorry for my diatribe.  Hope it helps someone though.  

Thanks for the insights, Jeff. There are so many portable GPS units out there now, it's hard to know which ones are the best. Especially for off-roaders, since so many of them on the market now are targeted toward the general consumer.  

You can still put Topographical maps on the street-centric units like the NUVI's.  I just don't like the 3D view they use for street usage which is why I went with the older model with the top-down viewing.  The only real downside to the handhelds is the screen size.  I know some people use the Garmin 276c which is a chart plotter GPS but the huge screen is great for hard mounting in a Jeep.  Some guy's use them on their dual-sport motorcycles too.  I believe it can do street maps as well but I don't think it will do door-to-door navigation.  

I have been to Ouray more than 20 times and have taken my 03 wrangler once before however trails were not open.  I am going with just my family this year and want to find a GPS unit that your group may use on the trails.    anyone used the NUVI 500
Are you able to pull  Yankee boy,  Imogene, =Alpine loop or engineer on any of the units that you all use?


Thanks for any help or suggestions, I needed a real human with the experience of 4 wheeling and not some customer service rep at garmin to answer my question!!  

If I was going to replace my Street Pilot, I'd get a Nuvi 500 or 550 if I wanted a waterproof GPS.  They're the only ones that are waterproof.  The only difference between the two models are the maps.  You'll definitely want TOPO maps once you hit the trails and with most Garmin's that's an additional cost except on the 500, which gives you NT Navigator (Street Maps) as well as TOPO.  The only downside is the small screen but really, I don't think it's any smaller then my Street pilot which I find to be OK.

I don't have Garmin MapSource loaded up on this computer but if anyone does they should be able to check.  One of the problems with some TOPO's is that some older trails are missing as they have a set number of trails marked.  So sometimes you'll find some trails on older version that aren't on the newer, or vice verse.  Also many trails aren't named, they just have a line to follow.  In any case you should be able to install MapSource on a PC or Mac and then plot the trail by using GPS points so you can follow them.

I still wouldn't leave home without a paper map as the trail might not be accurate on the TOPO.  TOPO unlike NT Navigator doesn't seem to get updated every year but rather every few years so double check the routes.