GPS -which one and why
 

Dear All,

I am after some some information and feed back from overlanders who have used GPS to to help guide them across Turkey, Iran Pakistan and India.

All of the makes and models seem to do a very large part of Europe but elsewhere is a bit patchy.

Also any information on coverage of the other stans and china, Nepal, Burma, and Thailand would be nice as I am sure that will be of use to many other overlanders here!

?c? :eek3:

1- I have moved your post to the appropriate part of the Hubb.

2- I would encourage you to search and read the many many posts about SatNavs in this section as there is a HUGE amount of information there already which may well help you decide.

If you buy one in Northern America you'll find the maps for large parts of northern America to be good , but a bit patchy elsewhere (including Europe).

You'll need to get suitable maps for your GPS for the places you want to go. Before you buy a GPS look at the available maps for those places - detail + costs. And then factor in that the maps get updated .. and you may need to pay for those too.

The choice of GPS hardware is largely separate from GPS mapping. The same GPS device will come with separate maps depending on where you buy it, although probably none of them are pre-loaded with decent maps for Nepal or your other destinations.

While I haven't looked at it for your particular countries, OSM maps could be your best bet, and are loadable to many, if not most, Garmin devices.

There are many choices for devices, but I would recommend getting one that has a powered mount for the bike so that you don't have to worry about buying/recharging batteries all the time. Obviously, it should be weather-proof, or have a weather-proof case.

Most of the newest models cost about $800, but you could probably get a very functional used or refurbished older model for a couple hundred dollars. I have used Zumo 550s extensively and have found them to be an excellent tool.