Tracks4Africa

[RedZed]

Has anyone used Tracks4Africa GPS maps?

I have European maps on my BMW Navigator Gps (Garmin product) and I am told that the Tracks4Africa runs independently of the Garmin maps which will work for me and save me having to buy Garmin Africa mapping. I am going to try the one-year subscription. I will also be using a TomTom 550 which has worldwide maps, so I will be able to compare the two.

[CalDriver]

Originally Posted by RedZed

Has anyone used Tracks4Africa GPS maps?

I have European maps on my BMW Navigator Gps (Garmin product) and I am told that the Tracks4Africa runs independently of the Garmin maps which will work for me and save me having to buy Garmin Africa mapping. I am going to try the one-year subscription. I will also be using a TomTom 550 which has worldwide maps, so I will be able to compare the two.

I have a lot. I like them, some think OSM is as good/better and free. I keep both on my GPS, but primarily use T4A.

They really excel in Southern Africa, and have a reputation for being less good further north. This is less and less true for East Africa, they have been adding a lot of info for E. Africa recently. I imagine they are not up to par in West and North Africa.

They'll have much more realistic travel times than OSM or Google, but may lack detail in areas that are not actively explored by the Southern African Overlanding crowd.

I have found they have good customer support if you have any issues. A one year subscription will get you a year of updates, and you'll still be able to use the maps afterwards, you don't lose access like some map subscriptions.

For free I use these: Africa OSM Topo Routable | GMapTool, but I highly recommend T4A.

[RedZed]

I will download the maps sometime over the next week, Track4Africa sound a very viable option over Garmin’s offering.

[*Touring Ted*]

I used them in 2010/2011 and they were EXCELLENT.

If they are as good or better than they were then then I 100% recommend them.

[RedZed]

I bought a one-years subscription for Africa which was £57 including the bank transfer fee’s…. Very good value. I downloaded the maps to my BMW Navigator GPS without too much trouble, the youTube video guides on how to do so are excellent.

The only issue with route planning is that you require a laptop and a physical cable to download any routes you have created in Garmin's BaseCamp. I will have an iPad and a Samsung tablet with me so this will not be possible once I have left home.

With the TomTom Rider 550 GPS, it is possible to create routes on MyDrive or on the MyRoute App and send these wirelessly to the GPS, much easier. However the Tracks4Africa on my Navigator GPS will have a lot more detail I will suspect. Anyway I doubt I will be exploring much beyond a D-classified road in Namibia so I will have the advantages of both GPS systems to refer to.

I note for Morocco the Tracks4Africa has the various popular off-road tracks listed, so this will be of further use in the future.

[Toyark]

Le Zed Rouge ( are you practicing your French yet? )
If you must, do your routes in BC (you have a pm btw)
do one then save the file in .gpx format.

Repeat for all routes.

You will then have a bunch of files which weight nothing which you can copy and paste into the Garmin folder on the micro sd using your phone and a micro usb reader then replace micro sd into garmin. Job done.
No laptop needed.
If you do individual files, you can then delete them once done.

If wanting to keep things simple as if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans... once you have set up your garmin with your chosen preferences then simply 'Find' the destination for the day and let the garmin calculate.
1- it calculates way faster
2- it allows for changes en route ( which are virtually inevitable)
3- it avoids the need for preparing routes, moving gpx etc#
and most of all
it avoid cock ups done by BC which may be (read usually is) set up with different settings/preferences which will get modified by your sat nav on sendin g to: resulting in a LOT of frustration. It's the No.1 complaint I get when people ask me for help with their sat navs.

[RedZed]

lol…thanks for your input toyark….. I generally do not go in one direction and hence ‘a’ destination does not work for me. Generally when motorcycling in Europe I have a fairly complex route which takes me on all my chosen motorcycles routes. The MyRoute App excels at this task as does the TomTom Rider 550.

Garmin in my experience are rubbish… in the case of base camp now a very old and outdated software. The Garmin BMW branded Navigator has a SD card behind a cover which requires the removal of screws. Ipads do not have SD cards with out the appropriate connector and I am not sure if you can save files this way?
The Samsung tablet does have a SD card, so I guess it can be done, but base camp does not work with a Samsung unless you have a windows platform loaded?

Anyway, the Garmin will remain being used as a engine read out (it is linked to the bike) and also for my ultimate destination of the day, so it will have some value with the tracks4africa mapping.

Things move on and Garmin has been left behind so far as I am concerned.

My French remains as basic as taught at school… not much call for it in the parts of Africa I am going

[Toyark]

sorry, I know absolutely nothing about apple products- I'm still old school with Surface4 which, aside from windows software, now I got to run android apps on. useful for example for running the iOverlander app amongst others.
The only constant in our world is change and that Basecamp needs a total refurb... but there are ways and more ways.
I wish you a fabulous holiday.