GPS Tracker for 6 month adventure, worthwhile?
 

Hi All,

I've been considering purchasing a Garmin Inreach Explorer+ for my solo adventure to Mongolia and back but I'm wondering if it is really necessary or not?

How many people here use such a tracker for their adventures?
Is the cost of the unit and the subsequent satellite monthly fee worth it?

Do most people get help from other people when travelling or do most people rely on these type of devices?

I welcome all comments, good and bad!

Thanks,

Mike.

I would look after it, as an emergency device, who will work out of normal mobile-phone coverage...

The emergency Plan isnt expensiv and can help you out of trouble.. Smartsafety will call for help, if you are not able to do it by yourself.

Trackrecording you can do too on your smartphone, which will do it more exactly than these satellite devices.

If your Friends/Parents like to follow you live - then the livetracking starts to get handy. My Family was very happy to follow my trip through africa and south america, if they was worry they was able to look after my progress.

Two times they did ask why I didnt move. Both times i got stuck abroad, but was able to get out after a day.

I wouldnt start in remote areas without, thats like going for an roadtrip without taking my phone with me.

For my 2 Month europe trip at 2019, I didnt use a satellite-Messenger, because my phone had connection most of the time.

Surfy

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
Looking at the costs of the unit and the satellite monthly charges it will cost me around UK£1200 for 6 months, this doesn't include any search and rescue or repatriation. It would provide basic text messaging and access to the emergency call centre should I get in trouble.

I agree it is very useful for my wife to keep track of me during the trip as there won't be mobile phone signal in most of the places I am visiting but, this is an expensive option just to provide that facility.
In some ways it is very much like an insurance policy, you pay out but may never need it.
Since I am trying not to over spend on the trip I am having to consider the costs as the same funds will buy a lot of petrol!

You are the first person I have come across that has used such a device so I am wondering how everyone else gets on without a tracker device?

Does anyone else on the forum have a thought on this?

Thanks,

Mike.

Not sure how you work out that cost. You can get a Germin InReach SE+ on eBay for £280 and the basic subscription is £15/month. For a 6 month trip that's a total of £370 and you still have the device to sell later if you don't want to keep it. For peace of mind in case you have an emergency in the wild places of Mongolia that's priceless.

Well worth having if your in areas without phone reception. The 2 way text messages and tracking functions have proved very useful on mine, not had to use the SOS fortunately.

£15 is the most basic package, which gives yo the SOS functions but no tracking and texts are additional. £35 gives you SOS, a bundle of texts each month and tracking point every 10minutes. The tracking is a lot more accurate than using a smart phone app.

I have no experience traveling in Mongolia so cannot speak to mobile coverage.

I do have experience with a life and death situation which turned out positive thanks only to instant communication with outside help via a sat phone.

It may seem ‘expensive’ now, but don’t kid yourself, if required, it will instantly become ‘priceless’.

IMO do yourself, and your loved ones, the favor and take advantage of technology with the potential to be life saving.

Peace of Mind for everyone.

I am a complete luddite and do not use this type of device and save the money, it is really down to what you are comfortable with rather than what others do.

If these things cost £12 there’s no doubt everyone would take them but at £1200 I personally wouldn’t bother. Yes there’s always the argument that if the worst happened your life might depend on it (and no doubt Riel has a tale to tell about his experience) but if that was a serious concern you might want to reconsider whether you should be doing the trip at all.

Even if you spent the money what would that get you? Actual rescue or just the ability to talk to a rescue centre thousands of miles away? You could buy an awful lot of local rescue for £1200. Of more concern to me would be the need to let family members know how things are going but given the resupply needs - fuel, food, water etc of motorcycle travel it’d be unusual to be out of regular communication reach for more than a few days at a time. I suppose I come to this via years, decades, of travel before these things were available so the accusation that I have a jaundiced eye might be valid but for me it’s ‘nice idea but not at that price’.

I'm seconding what 'Back of Beyond said.
When I was driving trucks in Russia in the early '90s for a Dutch company, it would have made no difference if I had been able to tell Holland that I had a problem because there would have been absolutely nothing they could have done about it.
£1200 really would buy you a LOT of help.

As I've pointed out above, it's not £1200, it's more like £370 and you can sell the PLB afterwards to get most of that back.

If you're only going to places where you can be pretty sure of footfall or mobile phone signal in case of emergency, fine, otherwise what do you do if you're off piste with no phone signal and you break a leg?

It's not about calling a breakdown service, it's about knowing that wherever you are in the world you can send an SOS signal and know someone is following up with the emergency services on your behalf.

I did use such a device, because I dont travel very safe.

Severall times I did try to follow tracks in africa or crossing the andes, after locals told me, that it is not possible to to drive futher.

Severall times I drive without a track many miles for an remote wildcamp spot or to because i did like the landscape, assuming that I`m able to find a track later.

So I was driving on paths without even local traffic, in parts of the the countrys with a very low population.

I like to live in the wilderness, love remote areas, love doing offroad stuff with my well prepared 4x4. I`m able to stay remote for severall days, sleeping in the car.

Locals usually don`t have mud terrain tyres, not so big tyres, not such a ground clearance – when they have to stop I usually are able to drive even without using my winch.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r6fEYKSaEt...0/DSC02229.jpg

I guess I did calulate more with the help that my family and friends can organizee from switzerland, than the help oft he Rescue-Center which is for real life threatening situations.

For me was «car stuck in the wilderness» the most realistic scenario.

If you drive with a roadbike on tracks with enough traffic, you usually get help from locals if you are in trouble. If you leave well travelled roads, I would use such a device...


Any smartphone will record better tracks. On the most satellite-messenger "plans" you just add any 2 minutes a new waypoint (spot / garmin).

Many offroad tracks are today recorded by smartphone/tablets - and you are able to follow them...

Surfy

Might help if you slid off the road into the forest and wedged into the cab out of sight of traffic.

20 yrs ago I crashed our rally car at night during a race and ended upside down in a gully a long way from the road and out of sight. I was able to crawl out like a rat but at the time it actually put the wilies up me that if we couldnt get out or were really hurt we would not have been found at least till morning.

Hi,

If you look at the £15/month tariff you'll see that you actually have to pay an additional amount for each track point to be recorded. If you set it to track every 10mins (default for the package) over 6 months that will add up to over £2500!

So the £15/month package isn't as cheap as you think it is!

Next tariff up is £24.99 per month without extra charges for recording tracking points if you subscribe for a 12 month period minimum, total cost for satellite being £299.88 + the cost of the Garmin InReach Explorer+ at £449.99 total minimum cost would be £749.87.

This gives you the ability to be able to use their SOS call centre in an emergency, tracking for family to see where you are and the ability to send 40 texts per month however, this doesn't cover the insurance package you need to cover the cost of the recovery should you initiate an SOS call, this has to be added on top and it's not cheap!

All I am trying to do is gauge from others that have travelled this route and had problems as to whether they've used this kind of service or just relied on people they've met along the way.

I agree the tracking facility for friends and family is indeed a nice to have as they will be able to see where I am pretty much realtime.

Mike.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.
I had a look at Sat phones but they seem very expensive?
Can you give an idea of how much yours cost and over what period of time?

Thanks,

Mike.

Hi,

Thanks for your response.
As per my later message, the £35/month package does seem the best solution however, there is then the recovery insurance on top.

I'm going to hunt around for the insurance and see if I can get it else where.

Which Inreach device are you using and in what countries?

Thanks,

Mike.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.
With the tracker and the places I am going the response would be days not hours for sure so, I will have to support myself the best I can until help arrives.

I'm looking at all options at the moment.

Mike.

Hi Mark,

This is the biggest trip I have ever done and so I'm trying to decide what I am happy with.
Most of my trips to date have almost all been within range of a 3G mobile service so comms hasn't been an issue.

I am leaning towards the happy to go it alone side as I am a very hands on chap and have a fair amount of medical ability and survival skills but, my wife thinks otherwise so it's a balancing game.

If only we had global internet connectivity!

Cheers,

Mike.

Hi,

I've also been travelling for decades, well before 3g Mobile services existed. My wife and I have travelled all over the world without such devices as they didn't exist and handled our breakdowns/problems without issue.

Since we now live in a very connected world and I'll be doing this trip solo I was just looking into the options available and trying to gauge what others are doing.

The price doesn't cover the cost of the actual rescue, you need insurance on top for that, hence my original total price.

Mike.

I strongly suggest to use your smartphone for tracking purpose. With MotionX you can also do liveupdates (when you have coverage).

With a smartphone you get a more "useful" track - which you can share - and others are able to drive the same way.

Livetracking from Satellite-Messenger allows with a "good" plan, to track any two minutes a waypoint - that is really just for showing where you was.. Is not usable for anything else...

With MotionX you can share your tracks in detail, too you can use it for a blog or something. With an GPX Export someone else can use it for navigation.

The Map is done with MotionX (the background is a Screenshot on my iPad):

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iWkAUvx_-_...rica-Flyer.jpg

I have an old Delorme Inreach without the nav screen, used throughout Morocco and the Western Sahara.

I don't bother with the insurance as I don't need it for my useage, I either run on the Safety Plan if I just need to send a few txts and have the reassurance of GEOS support in a life or death situation or the Recreation plan if I need the tracking running.

Since I got the unit the phone coverage in the region has improved considerably so find I use the InReach less than I did as I can use various apps for live tracking function.

If I have a tour group with me in areas without phone reception then I have the tracking running for friends and family back home to see where we are and be able to contact the group in an emergency

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
I think if I'm going to bother with an in reach device I may as well go with the plan that has the tracking so my wife can keep track of me.

Mike.

Hi,

Thanks for the info, not heard of that app before, but there are so many!
Does MotionX work even when there is no 3G signal and you are in the middle of nowhere or does it require a mobile data connection to work?

Thanks,

Mike.

Its one of the main reasons I got the unit so family can follow my progress from home.

All the app's Ive seen that provide tracking need a phone signal or wifi for that track to be seen by anyone at home (its a different function to recording a track log on a navigation app or proper gps unit).

Polarsteps works ok, but the track point frequency is less than the InReach and obviously if you have no phone or wifi nobody at home can see where you are

Many years ago I had a serious crash in Oregon on a minor, infrequently traveled road. I went down the embankment. When I clambered back up to the road I realized that no one would have spotted me down there if I had been incapacitated. Also no one knew that I had spontaneously taken that particular road. When I returned home my partner and I agreed that I would be carrying a locator device for future solo trips.

Whether it's worth it or not is a very personal decision. One which was easy for me to make after what had happened to me.

I first traveled with the SPOT device and then switched to the InReach. The device cost me about CDN $450 and my unlimited tracking package is CDN $55/month. I can suspend the plan anytime and only be charged about $4/month and just reactivate anytime I want for specific trips.

At this point I wouldn't travel without it on solo trips. I've taken it with me to Mexico, all of Central America, British Columbia logging roads, Dominican republic, and it'll come with me to Colombia as well.

At the very least my contacts will know my last location if they end up organizing their own search if local authorities don't respond.

...Michelle

And on another note. Back in the eighties a woman and her SUV disappeared on the highway from Whistler to Vancouver. She was heading home from her condo and just vanished. It was years later that her vehicle, with her inside, was discovered down a slope in the trees and this was on a major highway.

Not trying to be alarmist and it's a personal decision. Just saying that things do happen.

...Michelle

My gran used to have a panic button she kept on a necklace for if she needed help.

I thought it needed a smell-o-meter just in case


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

MotionX can work without 4G/3G Connection! Too you can import tracks, export tracks, download maps for offline use and so on.

I did use the first Delorme Inreach device together (emergency, livetracking, messenger) with an ipad (trackrecording, navigation) for both, transafrica and south america.

- My Friends and family did loves to watch my progress.
- Other travellers did send me Messages about places nearby
- I did feel save, because I know that I am able not just for trigger an SOS,
too for beeing able to to communicate in SMS style.
- I know that my friends are reachable, who look for help at sample - if i have an maintenance breakdown abroad (nothing which should lead to an SOS Call)
- I was able to update my Blog with shortmessages, together with my current coordinates.

I would start the same, if the trip leads to remote ares!

After some years of the trip:

The Map of delorme isnt working anymore, because they did merge with Garmin. The Links in my blog with the coordinates arent working anymore in my transafrica blog. Panamericana is working till now..

The tracked points of the delorem arent usable for anything else:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tx9mgLSDqe...fetracking.jpg

The GPX Track recorded with your smartphone, you can share/store und reuse, sooon you keep it..

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for your reply.
I've been discussing it with my wife and I think she would like me to carry a device so that she can ping me via text message every now and then but also to be able to track me whilst away for 6 months.

I'm considering either the Garmin InReach Mini or the Garmin InReach Explorer+ at the moment.

Am I right in saying you can send predefined messages with the devices?
Can you define the messages yourself or are they predefined by Garmin?
According to the documents and mid range satellite package you can send unlimited predefined messages? Do you find this useful or not?

Are you able to update social media from the device directly? I read somewhere that this is possible but cannot find out what exactly it sends out, do you use it for this and if so what does it send out?

Thanks,

Mike.

You can connect with your smartphone to your garmin/inreach device. With the "Earthmate" App you are able so to type any SMS Messages and send/receive it.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qc...=w1920-h977-rw

Yup that's correct but the info on the website also talks about being able to send unlimited "Predefined Messages" but nowhere does it detail what the predefined messages are.

Since the satellite package I was looking at only allow 40 text message per month I thought I may be able to utilise the predefined messages for advising location and OK status rather than using up the 40 text allowance.

Mike.

If I recall you can set your own messages some where in the settings etc. The App makes it much easier to use and is the only way to control the Mini I think.

Txts are limited in number of characters so its a bit like going back to the early days of mobile phones.

Having to use the App to control the mini is a drawback really especially if I come off and can't get back to the bike for whatever reason and the mobile is still mounted on the bike, I won't be able to send messages from the app. This is making me lean more towards the Garmin InReach Explorer+ now ... why is this decision so difficult LOL

Mike.

Mike,

Once you've signed up and logged into your account you'll see a number of pre-entered messages such as "yes", "no", "having a great time", etc, etc. Each and every one or them can be edited into whatever you want. You can also add additional messages to the ones already listed. It's fully under your control.

I'm not on social media but there are buttons which allow you to link Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as a button for sharing via email.

I hope that answers your question.

...Michelle

Hi Michelle,

Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me, I very much appreciate it.
The predefined messages will be very useful, especially if they are unlimited.

I have now just purchased the Garmin InReach Explorer+ and my wife is happy once more :)

Thanks,

Mike.