GPS suggestions

[mehall]

I am planning a cross country trip. Can anyone suggest a GPS that will
hold the entire route- preferably with a good battery life?

[ptaylor]

Hi mehall. Welcome to the forum.

Last time I checked, there were no units that would hold over 1,000 waypoints - not nearly enough to go coast-to-coast one one of the ACA routes. But there are workarounds.

Your question is a good one, and a common one, that has been discussed a lot on this forum. I suggest you do a search on 'waypoints'. Click the button in the top-right corner of this screen; set the 'in the past' box to spaces, so you get all dates. After doing all that research, I'm sure you will still be unsure; be sure to get back to our community with your questions.

Paul

[svwayne]

I've been using the Lowrance iFinder series for several years now with good success. While it is true that all GPS units limit the number of active waypoints there is an easy way to get around this with the Lowrance(and probably other GPSs as well). You just need to break the route into segments with each segment containing the max numer of points allowable with your GPS. The Lowrance will handle 1000 waypoints max, at a time. I have downloaded the GPS data for the Great Divide which is grouped in 8 different segments, each segment containing waypoints for that segment. Once downloaded I use freeware called GPSBabel to convert the *.gpx format waypoint files to the *.usr format required by Lowrance. Each *.usr file can then be copied to the SD card on the Lowrance. The Lowrance allows me to load and navigate one segment at a time. When I reach the end of a segment I just load the next and continue.

The iFinder series come in many flavors. I currently have the H2Oc which is waterproof, color, and will run ~12-14 hours on 2 "AA" batteries.