Can or Do, car GPS units be used for Geocaching?

Storm Chasers · Post by **Storm Chasers** » 09 March 09 10:14 pm

As title says, Can or do these units work for geocaching? Can we upload waypoints that are routable or is this a thing of the future?

Q2... What GPS in car navigator would be best for this job, without going silly with price.

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 09 March 09 11:37 pm

Yes, as long as you allow for caches next to roads. I have the TomTom (can't compare to others as never used). But occasionally I have pulled up next to a drive by and spotted the likely hide location before the handheld GPS has got lock.

Yes they can, but I would recommend a handheld decent GPS for serious caching.

Bundyrumandcoke · Post by **Bundyrumandcoke** » 10 March 09 6:45 am

Garmin Nuvi 500 is 95% of the way there. It will download GPX files from GSAK, and then direct you to the cache. Only drama I have with it is the last few metres, it gets a bit confuced, and wont give a definitive countdown of metres to go, even when changed to walking mode, so I will be keeping my Csx for the final hunt. Apart from that, I'm pretty happy with it, especially for on the bike.

Fuddley · Post by **Fuddley** » 10 March 09 7:22 am

Yes, I have been using my Tom Tom for some time, you can upload caches as POIs from GSAK, and with a bit of tweaking you can also upload the cache page info. as HTML to give you paperless caching. In saying this I do prefer to use the Oregon as the TTs battery life is quite short, and it does not give good directions close to GZ, but with a little practice and a little effort it will work fine.

OMY130 · Post by **OMY130** » 10 March 09 9:44 am

Very sucessfully for the last 2 yrs with Nuvi 660, Very accurate. Mostly caching within 20mins from car. I have also bought the Nuvi 500 but found it doesn't have Sirf III so it behaves just like Bundy says (sorry Bundy, I just hate it now & it lives in the work truck). There is also a GSAK marco to load GPX files in all Nuvi's. This leads the way in paperless caching. Excellent feature.
However, for all serious bush caching I still use a traditional GPS with extended battery life. Then I wander aimlessly at GZ as my old GPS isn't that great. The fun of it all.

Bundyrumandcoke · Post by **Bundyrumandcoke** » 10 March 09 10:04 am

Awwww Graham, and I was sold on it when you showed it to me.

Actually, dont be sorry, as it does nearly everything that I want of it, and as I said, I just use my Csx for the last few metres.

I run them both on the bike, and they will get a real flogging on the trip next week. The Nuvi will get us there, with the Csx set for speedo.

crew 153 · Post by **crew 153** » 10 March 09 10:09 am

I use a Gamin Quest in-car. Very easy to upload from GSAK.

It has the advantage that you can use it hand held off road to find the cache I don't use it for that too often as the old Garmin 72 is good enough when I get to the area.

I have had it a few years now and the internal antenna has stopped working and I am onto my second external antenna.

roundcircle · Post by **roundcircle** » 10 March 09 7:50 pm

I know of a cacher who until very recently used a Nuvi which did not have the capability to have waypoints uploaded. They drove as close as they could, then then displayed the raw co-ords and aligned the numbers as they walked around.

They found about 100 or so caches like this.

They've since moved to an Oregon 300, and now they look like this when out caching >

So to answer the original question, yes you can use the Car GPS. But proper hand held will do a better job.

Ksix · Post by **Ksix** » 11 March 09 2:11 pm

We found our first 350+ caches using a Garmin Nuvi 310. It is a great unit and I can't recommend it high enough.

The only real down side to it, is that it is a in-carunit so it is not water-proof (but we have used it many-a-times inside a cliplock bag to keep it dry during wet weather) and it is not the most rugged unit (i.e. shouldn't be dropped - well not continuously anyway

)

If you have a search around on the net you can find a heap of macros etc for GSAK that allow you to store all geocaches (+ descriptions + hints + logs etc) as POI's on the device, making it great for those spontaneous caching aventures. Only downside with this is you can't mark the cache as being found or add comments etc. But minor inconvenience really.

As an all-round in-car/geocaching device I'd recommend a Garmin Nuvi.

Cheers,
Ksix
"Eat... Sleep... geocache..."

Bundyrumandcoke · Post by **Bundyrumandcoke** » 11 March 09 3:36 pm

And the Nuvi 500 IS waterproof, why I bought it for the bike.

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 11 March 09 6:09 pm

The other way to go is to get something like a GPS60Cx and get the auto-routing maps for it.

Then you have a really good hand-held unit for caching (and other hiking, etc. uses) as well as something that will get you to the right address or nearest parking to a cache.

You miss out on the voice prompts, but mounting it in a place you can see the screen makes it quite usable. You hear a beep when you're coming up to a turn (further away the faster you're going) and a different beep when you're right on the turn. The screen changes from a map to a big, clear turn indicator, so it's easy to see whether you're going left or right.

Not as convenient to enter new destinations as a touch-screen, but you really should be doing that while parked anyway...