Which Garmin Mapsource product for Transam

[Scholefield]

I live in the UK and I'm planning to do the TransAm in 08.  I have a Garmin 60CSX with a 1gb memory card.  Which Mapsource product should I buy to use on the TransAm.  City Navigator NT USA, Topo USA or something else?  Thank you.

[ptaylor]

I use City Navigator North America v8. It has all the roads and streets, and a lot of points of interest like lodging, restaurants, post offices, etc. I have a Garmin 76c.

I've never used Topo, but my understanding is that it lacks road details.

Paul

[FredHiltz]

I can add that I use City Select (predecessor to City Navigator) for its routing and points of interest like Paul. I also load US Topo when traveling in the mountains for its information about climbs, rivers, and streams.

US Topo actually shows more road detail about old dirt roads, jeep tracks, and even some hiking trails. However, the information dates from the 1970s and 1980s. Also, the GPSR cannot generate routes from US Topo. It can generate a route in City Navigator and navigate it while displaying it on US Topo though.

You can compare the coverage of a few favorite locations with the MapSource Map Viewer at http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/.

Your receiver has plenty of memory to store both sets of maps for the whole TransAm. You will need to reload waypoints a few times, though. Search here for messages containing "waypoints," especially the thread "GPS with complete southern tier waypoints" starting last June 26, for ways to cope with the 1000-waypoint limit.

Fred

[gamaman]

Another nice feature with the City Navigator Software on the Garmin60CSX is that it can be programed for different modes of transportation.  

For bicycles the routing is done on secondary streets and away from highways.  Using the Mapsource software on you computer, you can create a route and then download it to your GPS.  This is useful since you can block out sections of roadway that you do not want to travel, such as extremely steep hills!!