GPS Question.. And an introduction...

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Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam
GPS Question.. And an introduction...

Hi! Came across this page while looking up information about GPS use on off road vehicles..

My name is Jen, I have made this account on behalf of myself and my boyfriend Justin. I have done my share of wheeling around Cowichan, and Justin is a Sookee looking to explore the trails up here. We live in Sahtlam and the beast that we call a truck is a '94 GMC Jimmy, and trust me you don't want to see what it looked like when we started.. I doubt this truck will ever be finished...

Anyways.. Back to the question...

We want to get a tablet, preferably a 10", and want to know some suggestions.. We have been trying to find one used but not having any luck yet.. Just wondering what ya'll have and with what apps? From the reading i have done, i have found that we need the 3G/LTE function.. But even then i still don't know what exactly to look for when buying a tablet or which apps work best for apple and android.

Would be a great help!
Looking forward to meeting some of you on the trails!

Lauchlin's picture

Brent
Duncan bc

Well i use a asus 10 inch tablet has built in GPS and google map very simple .....I also can use a cheap lab top 10 inch a external GPS antenna and Back road maps or Topo Maps (free) or i have a garmin gps with backroad maps on it ..........Some people use there iphone and google maps .............There is many different ways to set up some thing ..........Easy cheap fast way find cheap Garmin gps install (free) TOPO map Canada .............

jas's picture
jas

Jas
Shawnigan

I use a spare phone that I have and a backcountry navigator app.
Simple and it works great.

Lauchlin's picture

Brent
Duncan bc

That uses topo maps

Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam

We ordered in a Samsung 8"... Its hard to find a 10" with the LTE...

Does anyone have some pictures of the mountings they did?
I am looking up the Ram Mounts now, thinking of screwing something right into the glove box door.

Lauchlin's picture

Brent
Duncan bc

I use ram mounts for my ham radio look here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAFl3um95fw

Beer-n-Meat's picture

Beer-n-Meat
Nanaimo

I use a 10" Samsung Tab2 with "Backcountry Navigator" App.

The Tab2 is an older model so can be picked up for fairly cheap $100.00 or so.
The App was $10.00 for lifetime subscription, works offline and has more options that I use.

Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam

Got the tablet set up with Back Country Nav.... Damn GPS worked great! Way better than my truck did! Tracked me perfectly! Now back to the drawing board to figure out whats wrong with my truck now... Moody beast!

Beer-n-Meat's picture

Beer-n-Meat
Nanaimo

I suggest using the "CanMatrix" map source, it is the most detailed when it comes to roads not found on other map sources.

If you do a little research there other ToPo maps that can be downloaded and used on the App. but again, none that I have found better than the above mentioned.

jas's picture
jas

Jas
Shawnigan

I'm not sure which topo map I'm using but it shows a lot of the 4x4 trails that I've been on. It might be CanMatrix as said above. It's very detail with old roads/trails.

blazin_jason's picture

Jason
Nanaimo

I use a cheap 8" Acer tablet, backcountry navigator, RAM mount, DUAL sky pro blue tooth GPS. The tablet GPS also works. I downloaded the maps/tiles for most areas, as I don't have data. I also have it setup on my phone, but haven't transferred over any trip data yet. So it only requires a GPS signal, as in a lot of places there isn't any cell service if you need to load maps. The RAM mount works pretty well, it does bounce around some, but for the most part once it's tightened down, no issues. I added in an aluminum plate under the hvac area that the RAM ball threads into. But it would spin, so I made a plate to lock it in place. Overall it works good for me. This is also in a first gen S10, 90 Jimmy.

Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam

Thanks guys.. once we got the tablet and mocked up where we wanted it it didn't work where we originally planned.. none of the ram mounts worked for us for mounting to the dashboard, and we didn't want a suction cup one. Amazon was good, got a cheap case and a dash mount which screws into the dash, we will see if it shakes around too much... My Jimmy is a standard so it's hard to place it somewhere usefull.

I will post pictures when I get it all together.

In the mean time, damn truck isn't adjusting the timing on its own... We're trying get to fix it to be able to camp in a month!

Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam

Jimmy isn't broken anymore.. Off to try the GPS and shoot some stuff tomorrow.. Yay.. If you see my truck around Duncan feel free to honk! I will probably look at you like your nuts.. but yeah. LOL

Lauchlin's picture

Brent
Duncan bc

I will be up hill 60 tomorrow may go up Mt Breton or Sicker ??

Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam

I'm not sure if we were willing to go too far off the beaten trail yet.. We are probably going Skutz and maybe go up some small trails and make sure everything works alright..

Rain check though!

Jay's picture
Jay

Jay
Langford

I have my tablet with back country nav mounted overhead, where my rear view mirrir is.

Spadanko's picture

Jen
Sahtlam

We have this all set up. Of course we got the mount Friday and went up the mountain Saturday morning, so my "GPS holder" was my 11 yr old friend lol... So we got the mount in now with the tablet all set up and i believe Justin is done hard wiring a charging cable into the dash. Then we can still use the single cigarette lighter as a charger for the go pro or cell phones or whatever.

Only downside to the Automatic to Standard swap... I keep punching my cd deck!

RoninSwanson's picture

Camilbro
Victoria

OSMand - android app. full version is available from F-droid. an open source app store. download offline maps for your region. easy peasy lemon squeezy

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