Thanks for the information. I am finally going to order it tomorrow before procrastination costs me more money. I went to the garmin site and found the dash mount and then went to the wal-mart web site and saw it. Glad to see spring has returned again to the northeast. We were commenting the other day that our weather down south seems to be early to mid March weather with the wind blowing all the time. Hopefully spring is here for good this time. Jef
I do not have the Garmin, but do have a GPS in the car and it is everything Cheryl says. I love it and am planning on buying the Garmin 330 for the motorhome and I appreciate all the shopping you guys have done for me. I too think Wal Mart is about the cheapest, but am still looking
We bought our Garmin c340 (not 330) through Amazon who had a price "too low to list" Think we paid $285 and got it in three days or so. LOVE IT.
A "cheaper" GPS alternative, I am not sure its really cheaper...but it is if you already own a laptop. DeLorme sells its GPS software for $35.00 (at least that is what I paid at Staples last fall) that will run on any Windows laptop. If you have a compatible PDA (check the DeLorme web site for this), the software includes a PDA version. I use a standard Bluetooth GPS NMEA (standard GPS data protocol) antenna that I happened to own. These are available on E-bay for less than $100 or even less (perhaps around $50) if you are willing to put up with a wire between your antenna and your laptop. Bluetooth is a wireless protocol. A bluetooth attachment for your laptop will run about $30 on Ebay (Again you do not need this if you are willing to put up with a wire between the antenna and your laptop.) So...if you already have a laptop, you can add GPS for the software and about $50 for the antenna. If you do not wish to spend the $35 for the DeLorme software, Microsoft Trips and Streets 2005 is available for free. The 2007 version has a cost. Bottom line, you can try GPS for a total investment of about $50 for an antenna if you use MS Streets and Trips 2005 and you already own a laptop. For onboard navigation, the laptop can be a bit large but I have used mine by placing it between the front seats on the engine hatch. I prefer using my PDA with a winshield mounting since this can be more easily viewed. Power for the PDA or laptop is furnished by a converter that plugs into a 12VDC outlet in the motorhome. My converter has both 110 volts out (plenty of amperage for a laptop or PDA) and a USB charging port. The converter is often a lot cheaper and more flexible way to go than obtaining a 12 VDC power cord for your laptop that may be unique to the laptop. Having said all of that, I would not hesitate to purchase a Garmin if I wanted a dedicated unit. I am also a pilot and have relied on Garmin GPS for years in flight. They do a great job and their updates are generally not terribly expensive. We pay $35 for an update to the flying stuff and it is really a very extensive and highly detailed database that includes all airports and instrument approaches in North America.
Was out this last weekend with motor home, our first this season, and was our first opportunity to use the GPS. Although we knew the routes to be taken, I programmed the GPS for the trip to educate oneself in it's operation. It works grrreat !!! Can see that the unit will be of great help in an unknown area. My only complaint is, that they, Garmin, do not include an owners manual with the product. The manual is available on the Garmin website, and you can print one from there. Otherwise, so far so good.
Butch, yeah, I thought that they had just forgot to put a manual in our box and then found out it was available online. Hubby never did download it though, as he said the unit it pretty self explanatory. Did you do an update download from their website? Greg has done one once because there were some things that were not appearing when we first got it.
QUOTE(Butch @ Mar 5 2007, 12:46 PM) [snapback]6388[/snapback] Locally Best Buy has a Garmin StreetPilot C 330 GPS unit on sale for $ 299.99. I have been watching the prices on the C 330, and @ $299.99 this is the lowest price, here anyway. Know little about the unit, as the people in our circle of Rv friends do not use them. I guess they all know where their going, and how to get there !! Please, if anyone knows anything about this GPS, as to experiences, opinions, reviews, good or bad, please advise. Thanks We have a gps in our car and a Garmin that we used in our motorhome. We just bought a 3rd one called co-pilot. It was the least expensive and so far the best. It gives you RV routes to avoid tunnels and low over passes. The garmin got us lost in Maryland trying to avoid the tunnel and the co-pilot worked around it. None of them are perfect, espcially if you need to turn immediately after a turn, sometime the nav doesn't warn you in time and you miss the turn or sometimes if there are a few places to turn it is hard to know exactly the right one. The garmin had us turning left when we should have been turning right to go to the Tampa RV Super show. Sometimes they just say they have no data for that area, so a good map is essential! Still, I would be lost with out it.... :lol:
QUOTE(Butch @ Mar 5 2007, 01:46 PM) [snapback]6388[/snapback] Locally Best Buy has a Garmin StreetPilot C 330 GPS unit on sale for $ 299.99. I have been watching the prices on the C 330, and @ $299.99 this is the lowest price, here anyway. Know little about the unit, as the people in our circle of Rv friends do not use them. I guess they all know where their going, and how to get there !! Please, if anyone knows anything about this GPS, as to experiences, opinions, reviews, good or bad, please advise. Thanks Hi, my answer is a little late but better than never. I recently went through the same odyssey in buying a GPS, there are thousands around and every one of them are promoting the best performance. I am saying this because before getting the Magellan Crossover GPS, I went through the Microsoft Street & Trips which is quite handy, however, since it has to be used connected with the Laptop, is not legal to travel with it on the car. As a second option I bought the Gaming C330 which is a good unit, however, if you wish to build up your own trip, it is not feasible and that was not acceptable since, when I am traveling, I like to zig zag wherever I wish and create the pattern of my trip before departure. The Magellan Crossover is a little expensive but it provides you road direction, Marine direction and hiking direction, the most important part, for me, was the fact that there is a feature to build up your own itinerary, in other words, you build up your own itinerary by filling up the specific form in the computer by entering the co-ordinates and then copy them in your GPS. Other features which are quite common with other units is the possibility to buy the card memory for Europe, or Asia or….. I am very happy with it and if you travel a lot and in remote areas, I would recommend it.
Hello all. I use www.dealnews.com, and www.buy.com for the best prices, if you're comfortable w/ ordering online. (there are others out there as well) Today, buy.com had a "Tom Tom 1" for $175.00/free ship, refurbished. They also had other brands and models, too, new and refurbished. Plus, you can google a particular brand/model, and get reader/user reviews before buying. I do this sort of shopping all the time. It's how I got all of my Blue Ox/US gear towing equipment at super cheap prices. As always, HTH. B)
Hi all, I'm new to this sight, but I was reading ya'lls posts.. We havethe GPS that you are asking about, and it is well worth its money. When we first purchased it, we paid $600.00 at Circuit City. Now at Wal Mart, they are in the 200's, they told us, they might need to be updated, you go online, and buy this chip for a $100. and it will update all the detours on road construction and all. Have had ours for 3 yrs, and love it. good luck
QUOTE(riggarob @ Aug 13 2007, 07:20 PM) [snapback]7952[/snapback] Hello all. I use www.dealnews.com, and www.buy.com for the best prices, if you're comfortable w/ ordering online. (there are others out there as well) Today, buy.com had a "Tom Tom 1" for $175.00/free ship, refurbished. They also had other brands and models, too, new and refurbished. Plus, you can google a particular brand/model, and get reader/user reviews before buying. I do this sort of shopping all the time. It's how I got all of my Blue Ox/US gear towing equipment at super cheap prices. As always, HTH. B) GPS is now become like wine, there are so many brands at so many price with so many feature that's become impossible to establish what's good and what's not. In my point of view
Hi, Any of the laptop based gps units will hold the trip you plan. My latest "creation" has no less than 62 stops. I use Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007, with a Deluo usb antenna. It more than meets my needs. Cost was under 80.00 on Ebay. QUOTE(Galli @ Aug 19 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]8028[/snapback] I give you an example, next year I am planning a trip from Ottawa, Canada to the Yukon and then returning via the USA, in this itinerary, I am planning to visit several cities , in Canada, in the way out and others in the USA, in the inbound portion. Considering the above itinerary, you will not find a cheap GPS that will hold the above in a memory, therefore and in order to accomplish all that, you have to create all waypoints of the itinerary (longitude and latitude) and being to include them in your trip B) . Most of the regular GPS do not allow so much freedom and in order to do e complicate journey, you must input in the unit sector by sector separately . In closing, if you decide to buy some thing, first establish the use that you wish to have from the GPS and then spend your money accordingly. (Ps = I am not an expert, therefore, my comments are only based on my personal experience.) :lol:
GPS's are so nice. It took us down a back road shortcut once and we would have been lost without it. Also we made a wrong turn and it told us right away otherwise we would have kept going
QUOTE(pianotuna @ Aug 19 2007, 03:05 PM) [snapback]8030[/snapback] Hi, Any of the laptop based gps units will hold the trip you plan. My latest "creation" has no less than 62 stops. I use Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007, with a Deluo usb antenna. It more than meets my needs. Cost was under 80.00 on Ebay. QUOTE(Galli @ Aug 19 2007, 12:27 PM) [snapback]8028[/snapback] I give you an example, next year I am planning a trip from Ottawa, Canada to the Yukon and then returning via the USA, in this itinerary, I am planning to visit several cities , in Canada, in the way out and others in the USA, in the inbound portion. Considering the above itinerary, you will not find a cheap GPS that will hold the above in a memory, therefore and in order to accomplish all that, you have to create all waypoints of the itinerary (longitude and latitude) and being to include them in your trip B) . Most of the regular GPS do not allow so much freedom and in order to do e complicate journey, you must input in the unit sector by sector separately . In closing, if you decide to buy some thing, first establish the use that you wish to have from the GPS and then spend your money accordingly. (Ps = I am not an expert, therefore, my comments are only based on my personal experience.) :lol: Yes pianotuna, I have to agree with you, i used the Microsoft GPS in laptop for several years BUT recently I learned from a police that, YOU CANNOT HAVE A COMPUTER SCREEN OR TELEVISION INLINE WITH A DRIVER; penalty for it could be a fine and the authorities take the computer and GPS away as evidence in cort. I was perfectly happy with it but in line of what I said above, i had to choose a different option. Good luck, if they catch you, let me know which jail they put you and I shall bring you cigarettes he, he, he
Hi, Then they will have to start impounding the whole car. Have a look here: http://reviews.cnet.com/in-dash-car-stereo...y=true#mgallery However, if you *do* wish to bring me something--a cup of Earl Grey tea would be nice. Thanks! Yes pianotuna, I have to agree with you, i used the Microsoft GPS in laptop for several years BUT recently I learned from a police that, YOU CANNOT HAVE A COMPUTER SCREEN OR TELEVISION INLINE WITH A DRIVER; penalty for it could be a fine and the authorities take the computer and GPS away as evidence in cort. I was perfectly happy with it but in line of what I said above, i had to choose a different option. Good luck, if they catch you, let me know which jail they put you and I shall bring you cigarettes he, he, he [/quote]
Hi all, I just learned how to get google maps to give GPS coordinates. go to google maps enter a starting address click search click link One can then cut and paste the coordinates into Microsoft Maps or other computer based software, or enter it into a stand alone gps unit. Enjoy!
