GPS mounting options?

[Gasolinejunkie]

I?m thinking of getting a GPS and one of the things I hate about them is those windscreen mounts with rubber suction pads. They stain the windscreen with rings, every time I get in the car I need to get the whole thing out of the glovebox and when I lock the car I?ll need to pack up the GPS, the spaghetti of wires and the mount. If you don?t someone might break in, when you do its an unnecessary pain in the backside for parking on the side of the road for half an hour.
Are there any other mounting options? I?d prefer permanently fixing it to the centre console so it lives there and is out of sight.
I heard about mounts that fit in cup holders but I don?t have one, and again that is temporary with wires everywhere. Do you get GPSs that fit in the stereo din? I have a UHF radio in one and I?m thinking of getting a head-unit in the other, I wouldn?t mind getting an integrated stereo and GPS if they are any good.

On ebay there is a seller in HongKong selling a GPS, DVD player & CD player in a double din head unit. The only issue I have with that (besides the no name brand) is since its not branded I won?t get maps for it if I need to update them.

Also, are there any maps or GPSs with preloaded maps of bush tracks? I?ve used a Garmin in the Grampians with Whereis maps and it had no idea of even small sealed roads and on tracks it was completely useless. The Nokia Navigator has maps of tracks in National Parks, I was wondering if anything else did.

Cheers
Ash

[mrbitchi]

VMS In Dash system

[sharkcaver]

Ash, if you've got a mapping Garmin, have you tried "shonky maps", they're free
http://4x4galore.com/shonky-download/ and when compared to the commercial oztopo or even Garmins new austopo, I dont see why you would bother with the later. All have their plusses and minuses, but its shonkies for me.

BTW, they all only show semi-major track detail, well in my area at least.

Shane

FYI, attached a pic shonky's of the Grampions, centered around halls gap

[psproule]

I had to mangle the mount to do it but I permanantly fixed my Navman S50 over the clock binacle (thus hiding the clock) in our NP GLX. Almost looks like it is meant to be there.

Pat

[geopaj]

Ash, if you've got a mapping Garmin, have you tried "shonky maps", they're free
http://4x4galore.com/shonky-download/ and when compared to the commercial oztopo or even Garmins new austopo, I dont see why you would bother with the later. All have their plusses and minuses, but its shonkies for me.

BTW, they all only show semi-major track detail, well in my area at least.

Shane

FYI, attached a pic shonky's of the Grampions, centered around halls gap

Tracks4Australia is another good (free) maping program for Garmin GPS'. A quick hunt with Google and you should be able to find a free downloadable copy. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll post a link.

[sharkcaver]

Thanks GP. I have both t4a and shonky's, I prefer the shonky detail.

Shane.

[sharkcaver]

Ash, below, find attached the image of the same area using tracks 4 australia as GP posted above.

Cheers,

Shane.

[Gasolinejunkie]

Sharkcaver, thanks a million for all your inputs and I apologise for not replying to the thread. I read and appreciate all your inputs a few weeks ago and that was a busy time with work so I didn’t spend much time on the forum.

I’m thinking of getting a Garmin Nuvi 760 and shonky or roof-top maps to go with it. Thanks again, GPS & Navigation is one of the things I know nothing about.

[sharkcaver]

Sharkcaver, thanks a million for all your inputs

I?m thinking of getting a Garmin Nuvi 760 and shonky or roof-top maps to go with it. Thanks again, GPS & Navigation is one of the things I know nothing about.

Not a problemo. Let us know how you get on and if you come up with anything exciting re console/indash mounting. I'm still researching the best solution to mount an lcd vga/av input monitor for both reverse cam and ozi via a netbook.

BTW, you do realise shonky's, T4A etc are not autorouting!

Shane.

[Gasolinejunkie]

Not a problemo. Let us know how you get on and if you come up with anything exciting re console/indash mounting. I'm still researching the best solution to mount an lcd vga/av input monitor for both reverse cam and ozi via a netbook.

BTW, you do realise shonky's, T4A etc are not autorouting!

Shane.

Soon I?m going to have bits of plastic cut out from everywhere. I wish it was the old days and dashes/centre consoles were made of wood so a little bit of sandpaper & varnish would look like it was factory made.
I?m going to have to cut out a slot behind the transfer-case lever when I raise the body so I?m thinking of permanently mounting the GPS on the ashtray behind the gear lever. Will put up pictures when I do it.

BTW, you do realise shonky's, T4A etc are not autorouting!

I don?t totally understand what you meant, but I know that Roof-top, OZ explorer & shonky are topographic maps, not navigational. So it doesn?t say ?turn left after the bog hole, follow the track till the river crossing and peer straight ahead?

[sharkcaver]

yep, thats what autorouting is all about. Mind you with ozi etc, you could create a route with waypoints and use that, but I wouldn't bother, just read the topo data as you go.

Shane.

[diy dave]

I have both in dash and a tom tom stick on. The biggest advantage a stick on has over my in dash one is that a lot of the time I can't see the indash one because of reflection, it can't be moved, whereas the stick on type,on the windscreen can be easily moved to overcome this problem. Believe me that reflection problem can drive you to distraction,(no pun intended).

[linc]

Hi Guys, really interesting discussion points above.
I've just received a Garmin nuvi 760 for xmas, seems like a great little unit but alas only comes preloaded with Whereis (australia city maps).

Judging by whats been said previously it seems I can fairly easily download and install shonky topo maps onto the unit ... can someone help an idiot out with blow-by-blow instructions of how to do this? Do I have to go via my SD slot or can I simply load things onto my internal memory and roll from there?

[Edit] Also, what about oziexplore topos instead of shonky's ... anyone with experience to comment?

Cheers in advance
Linc

[sharkcaver]

being a garmin, you could load shonky's to either sd or internal memory via mapsource. I would probably just load to sd then you can use either the default autorouting program (city nav I guess) or shonky's when required.

I run ozi (on a netbook) and what I can tell you is that there is very little in the way of decent mapping (for the southwest anyway) for ozi over here. Your garmin wouldn't run ozi anyway.

Dollar for dollar, shonky's are pretty damn good (and they dont cost ya anything), but like most things in life, free doesn't mean it will do anything. Are you in the north or south? I'd be happy to show ya what little I know if your a Northener...

Shane.

[linc]

Hi shane, thanks for that.
I've got a couple of 8Gb microSD cards on order from eBay ($22 a pop :P) so when they arrive I'll look at using MapSource to get Shonky's onto one of them.
I'm in the northern 'burbs ... Greenwood

Yeah I was only looking at using the regional topo stuff for out-of-city touring etc, mainly SW corner stuff in the coming 12 months I think. Be nice to see some detail around Pemberton, Walpole, etc for my easter trip.