Garmin Montana 680
 

Hi Guys, I have a Montana 680, which comes without maps. What is the best source for European maps, which I can then add the TET GPX files to? And what is the easiest process to do so?

Also, Im pretty rubbish at uploading this kind of information to the units, does anyone offer a paid for service to get this all done on to your GPS?

Cheers

I have the Montana 600 and have used openstreetmap for for years and on my Balkans and Thailand/Laos Trip. Found it to be fine and I am still using it today
I also use it with BaseCamp for the plotting then putting it on the SD card before putting it in my 600.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=6/49.359/13.799

Wayne

Hi Stuart - if you've bought a Montana with no maps at all in, I'd recommend you get the City Navigator maps for Europe from Garmin to start with (on an SD card) - that will give you all the functionality of a regular Zumo/Nuvi GPS with a huge database of addresses and points of interest etc. and if you adjust the scale of the maps to 'most' on your Montana you'll see there is a huge amount of dirt road detail on there too.

Once you've loaded the TET (or other) GPX breadcrumb tracks into there, they will simply overlay on whatever map/s you have installed.

If any of the 'road/trail' detail is missing on the Garmin CN maps, the breadcrumb for the TET will still show on the screen anyway, and you just navigate along it by keeping your cursor on the line until the coincides with the map information again.

Note that the TET GPX files are not 'turn by turn' navigation, but the digital equivalent of tracing over a map with a highlighter pen on a sheet of clear acetate, and laying it over whichever map/s you choose.

You can convert a GPX breadcrumb trail into a turn by turn 'route' using the Garmin software, but it really isn't necessary - and keep in mind once it's 'routing' it will snap to the roads it thinks are the fastest/shortest based on the installed maps, not necessarily exactly the way you might want to go via the original breadcrumb track.

In a nutshell, personally I would use the 'go to' button to find fuel, food, hotels, addresses etc. and let the machine guide you turn by turn in those instances; while when navigating predefined 'trail' routes such as the TET, just display the relevant track on the screen in a highlighted colour of your choice, and follow it that way.

Hope that helps...

Jenny x

Thanks Jenny, much appreciated.

OpenStreetMap has got to be the best resource ever, download maps to your Garmin device completely free. I use them for navigating round the UK all the time and find they are 99% accurate to street level. Last year I rode through Europe down to Croatia and they were the ideal guide in my 610. In 2022 I'll be using them again (hopefully post covid!) to navigate over to Magadan and back via the Stans. www.facebook.com/motosunburn

Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

Another recommendation for OSM--I have now completely stopped using Garmin maps, because OSM maps are about 99% as good, and free.

I also don't want to support Garmin any more than I have to because of their incredibly irritating business practices, such as putting out devices with fewer features than their predecessors, artificially limiting what features belong on what devices based on the type of device, and then reneging on their "lifetime map updates". Screw Garmin...I still use their devices, just because there it nothing else available, but haven't bought a new one in ten years or so.

I've used OSM maps now in Europe, Russia, Mongolia, and the US, and they've been great everywhere. I was particularly impressed by the maps for Mongolia, which were routable even on the unpaved tracks used as roads in many parts of Mongolia.