Froggystyle
11-15-2006, 09:27 AM
I have been doing some research into possibly offering one of the very cool moving-map GPS units for OEM installation in the Revolutions. I figure there is multiple great things about it, including but not limited to...
Calculating gallons/hour
"Safe" path down the river
Aforementioned "safe" path while night navigating
Navigation to and from Catalina or anywhere OTH.
Easy to find waypoints and rendezvous areas in new lakes and such (we met with the Las Vegas hot boaters and had no idea where "LasVegas***boatBeach" was...)
Plot and plan paths for vacations to Mead/Powell/LOTO etc...
Additionally, many of the units I am looking at double function as an off-road GPS system, so a mount in a Rhino, Jeep or Rail is easy day. You could remove it from the boat easily, and use it that night in your Rhino. Many of my clients and prospective clients have Rhinos and rails etc...
Lastly, some of the new units (Lowrance 600C for example) also include a turn-by-turn navigation system for driving on the road... meaning you can take it out of the boat or Rhino and install it in your tow vehicle or motorhome easily. I have found that many folks, like me have Nav in the truck, but not in a motorhome. This would solve that...
In any case, I know that the best offroad specific one is the Lowrance 3500C or the 480 Baja units. The best on-road nav systems are the Kenwood (IMHO) in dash units, and I don't know what the best on the water is, but the most expensive and trick chart-plotters are not compatible with the dirt and street use, so would lose viability for me.
So here is my question... does anyone currently do this, what do they use and how do they like it? I am strongly considering the Lowrance 600C which seems to do it all. I just don't like the touch-screen for use in the boat, but it is waterproof, so it is what it is. The screen is easily readable during the daytime.
Any thoughts?
Calculating gallons/hour
"Safe" path down the river
Aforementioned "safe" path while night navigating
Navigation to and from Catalina or anywhere OTH.
Easy to find waypoints and rendezvous areas in new lakes and such (we met with the Las Vegas hot boaters and had no idea where "LasVegas***boatBeach" was...)
Plot and plan paths for vacations to Mead/Powell/LOTO etc...
Additionally, many of the units I am looking at double function as an off-road GPS system, so a mount in a Rhino, Jeep or Rail is easy day. You could remove it from the boat easily, and use it that night in your Rhino. Many of my clients and prospective clients have Rhinos and rails etc...
Lastly, some of the new units (Lowrance 600C for example) also include a turn-by-turn navigation system for driving on the road... meaning you can take it out of the boat or Rhino and install it in your tow vehicle or motorhome easily. I have found that many folks, like me have Nav in the truck, but not in a motorhome. This would solve that...
In any case, I know that the best offroad specific one is the Lowrance 3500C or the 480 Baja units. The best on-road nav systems are the Kenwood (IMHO) in dash units, and I don't know what the best on the water is, but the most expensive and trick chart-plotters are not compatible with the dirt and street use, so would lose viability for me.
So here is my question... does anyone currently do this, what do they use and how do they like it? I am strongly considering the Lowrance 600C which seems to do it all. I just don't like the touch-screen for use in the boat, but it is waterproof, so it is what it is. The screen is easily readable during the daytime.
Any thoughts?