James, how did you get the Garmin mounts to stick to your landy dash?

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

Hi Darrin,

I have never really trusted the self adhesive option of putting the mount on the dash - can only think vibration and heat will cause it to come adrift, which would be a real pain - and potentially damage the unit as it falls.
On my last 110 and current 130 I drilled down through the vinyl dash pad through the metal layer below and used self tappers screwed in to glue.
I find the Garmin mounts a bit of a pain to remove and re-attach the 276C on a regular basis - I might consider a RAM mount as they have a good reputation - but would need to see one first.

Concerning the 12v DC lead which I placed behind trim and wired with fuse to aux battery. The moulded plug at the GPS end design is dodgy !
The bottom half of the plug can pull out from the main body of the plug - if you lose it or cannot get it back on being careful not to bend or snap the delicate metal contacts which need to be slid in to the female bit you could be well stuffed in the middle of nowhere.
I ran a seam of glue around the plug join - hopefully that will prevent problems, as pulling the plug out takes quite a jerk - or maybe it's just me !

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Best regards,
James Stephenson
Land Rover Defender 130 camper
www.JamesUK.net

Many thanks James,

I must admit to being quite excited about it all - compared to the GPS III it has replaced it is rather bloody cool

Though similar to what you say, unplugging it is a pain - I wish it had a cradle that it just slipped in and out of - the GPS III was small enough to just shove into the dash and hope nobody broke in and saw it.

Already filled up all of the waypoints and about to drive 2 miles to pick up my girlfriend for it's first test run ;-) Will I get lost???

Cheers again, dj
(off in 6 weeks!)

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

I’m struggling with this decision also.

I already have an Asus PDA with a built in GPS antenna. With TomTom and Memory Map this has proved very reliable. Never loosing it’s satellites etc.

A couple of questions though. Would I be able to download the free maps from GPS Vector Map Morocco

If not where else would I be able to get Morocco maps.

How about getting GPX data in to it?

I’m also a little concerned about the reliability if its exposed to costant vibration and dust. Thoughts?

If I decide to go for a bespoke GPS such as a handheld Garmin can I get mapping in to them or do you just navigate by waypoint and paper map? I.E. do I need to spend more on something like a Garmin 152 to get mapping?

Lots of questions

Thanks,
Russ

Hey Russ,

With the PDA, how do you actually use the GPS - do you have it in front of you somewhere so you can see it?

I was hoping there'd be an option to just listen to it, with the PDA in your top pocket or something - is that possible or do PDA's purely do visuals?

thanks,

Alex

Here's how I did it for our car

I've got a GPS V (same as your old III Darrin, but with a bit more memory) which is screwed onto a block of wood which replaces the ashtray - then the cable (joint power & data serial cable) comes down to ciggy lighter & a Keyspan Serial / USB converter, and into the USB on my old Powerbook. The laptop lost it's screen a long time ago and has had various jobs since, but now it runs MacGPSpro and is held in a plywood frame behind the central cubbybox, with the stereo amplifier next to it.

The Mac then runs a Linitx 8 inch touchscreen monitor which I fitted where the radio used to live on the central console - it slides down over the heads of two big screws which are in a plywood sheet to fill the hole where the radio used to be. This way when parked the screen slides out and all potential tealeaves can see is a bit of wood with two massive screwheads in it where the radio used to be - with luck they won't bother breaking the window to nick that!

However - MacGPSpro doesn't auto open maps - It can read all the Russian Topo calibrated maps (and OS maps of Ireland which I've calibrated etc) but you have to select each one as you drive off the edge of a map - I believe that Touratec and OzzieExplorer auto open maps which would be nice

Generally the whole system works well, and an 80 gig hard drive gives us loads of music!

The orange blob suckered to the screen is a SPot tracker - also a good bit of kit if you are heading off outside normal comms range - it sends your location to a public Google Maps page which lets people check out where you are as well as having an emergency locator button... but that would be another thread...

Total cost - 200 pounds for the touchscreen, 125 pounds years ago for the Garmin GPS V 2nd hand about another 100 pounds total for cables, converters etc, and a laptop which would have been thrown away by most people, running on a 12 v car adaptor I got free with the replacement powerbook years ago...

Tony

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