Garmin GPS 276C? (1 Viewer)

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Anyone Running This Unit?

I am looking to upgrade my GPSV with the 276C but see mounting this unit in the 80 might be a problem. Anyone care to chime in?

Thanks
Kevin
 
Well, if my host ever comes back up.. you can see the pictures at this link:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=44664&highlight=gps+mount

Until then here are a few pics of what I did with my Street Pilot III, basically a 2x4 cut and carved to replace the ash tray:


P.S. I have had my leather seat bottom restitched since that picture LXtreme :)
GPS_mount1.jpg
 
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Thanks Gbell

Very nice install!

Email your pics to me at: speicher@san.rr.com and i can host them for you!
 
The 276C will be my next GPS purchase (probably in the next 30 days or so). Feature rich and a big, daylight readable screen.

It is a winner in my opinion. :D
 
No, but i also am interseted in that unit... actually im interested in the newer one. the gpsmap 396
but your looking at 2500 big ones... the nice advantage is that it has realtime weather, xm sat. radio opion avi. is movable between car and boat... and airplane if you have it... though i was wondering if it would just give your curent alt. wind shear factor and misc.... pluss if your lost ... you can possably find the path that airplanes take ... and follow that path. or make a safe signal to be located if stranded.
 
expeditionswest said:
The 276C will be my next GPS purchase (probably in the next 30 days or so). Feature rich and a big, daylight readable screen.

It is a winner in my opinion. :D

Agreed on all counts!

Do you know that is needs the AUTO kit which is another $200 or so? A little tidbit a few friends didnt know until too late! Still a smoker of a systme though!

Have you looked into mounting it in your 80? Or are you mounting it into your quad cab tacoma? The 80's have an odd layout for mounting this type of device. I am looking for ideas and pics.

Thanks
 
Curious.. do you all plan on throwing the line out the sunroof and fishing in your 80? :) Or do you at least have a boat or plane that you would move this to? Because these seem like a little over kill for just a land based vehicle. The only thing that I'm not sure of is do either of these units give the elevation of land areas on the map? That and the realtime weather would be the only benifit over the street pilot series if you only plan to use this in your LC on dry land. But I believe Garmin will be bringing out several new models throughout their whole line of products and I believe one is a street pilot with realtime weather in the near future.
-Gary
 
gbell210 said:
... these seem like a little over kill for just a land based vehicle.

I have the 276C and the vehicle mount kit, but have not installed it yet. Just use the bean-bag on the dash.... and throw it on the passenger seat when going vertical :D

It is a very nice unit. Water-proof, USB (FAST map transfers), very visible screen day or night, portable between vehicles (I take it with me for use in rental cars), and has lots of memory. I have both StreetPilot (street maps with full "service" listings) and Topo maps (good but not great).

The navigation on-road is among the best I've seen (FAST, flexible, accurate), and even routes offroad (it knows about many major truck/back-country trails).

I download both street and topo maps for areas I'm traveling to. Great for finding gas or food in unfamiliar areas. Stores virtually endless tracks.

When I get home, I overlay the tracks on topo maps and satellite images for an overview. Yes, I could do that on a laptop realtime, but its too much of a bother :princess:

As for mounting, I have been putting my Cruiser-effort into other areas for now... :grinpimp:

:cheers:
 
lol gbell,
No .. I do have a boat... but i guess I could park my 80 in the water up to the doors and fish off the roof :)
I do have a boat... and it would come in handy there... the airplane... nope.. dont have one of thoes.. so it would be about 1K more to have the weather and plane mode. + the xm sat. opt.
it also comes with the auto software..
If i had the money to blow... id get it .. but I think I will need gears bumpers and stuff first...
maybe in a year or two... when it goes way down in price... or like said.. incorporate it into the auto or auto/marine only version.
PS I read that the instant weather is a monthly subscription as long as x-tra for xm sat.
 
I have been running the Garmin 276c for a few months now. It is an awesome GPS, big sreen, easy to read and the auto routing is awesome. Bought it with the 128MB memory card and the suction RAM Mount from www.gpscity.com This GPS is half the price in US compared to the price in ZA. I use extensively for travelling in remote locations.

In Africa there is an incentive called www.tracks4africa.co.za It is group of guys that submit all their tracklogs (high detail) into a warehouse where it gets processed and GPS accurate maps gets produced that plugs into mapsource. The base maps are for free and if you want the geofeatures included then it is around $5 per map. This is an awesome product.

In my vehicle I use the RAM suction mount. This is stable, solid and I can move it to where I like it. Here is the website with several options.
http://www.rammountsdirect.com/item-npi-garmin-176-196-276c-and-296-series-cradle/ramholga7.htm


Here is my specific configuration.
http://www.rammountsdirect.com/item-ram/ramb148ga7.htm

ramb148ga7.jpg


Cheers
 
Its not clear from my post but the RAM Suction mount works best attached to the windscreen.
 
That ram mount was going to be my 2nd choice. Few reasons I didn't go with the windshield suction mount is that I didn't want it to be in my view of the road when I didn't have the GPS there and I didn't want to keep taking it on and off, espically when I put up a sunshade to block the sun when parked. With the RAM mounts, they screw to the gps unit itself, and isn't as easy to detach and move to a car that doesn't need the windshield mounting. Also, I wanted to run the wires nicely to where it mounts, and up on the dash there really wasn't an easy way since the cable wasn't long enough to wrap around the side of the dash and across the defroster vents.

The nice thing about having it on the windshield though is it is in better few to look at while driving. I have to glance down, and can't use periphrial vision to watch the road, where you can a little better with the suction mount. But that is also why I have the voice navigation so I don't have to look down as much.

But, the suction mount by RAM gets my 2nd vote.
 
I'm curious what kind of reception you guys get with these units while they are in the truck? Reason i ask is i used to work at a company and we had a really accurate $6,000 GPS unit we used for maping wetlands and such. If you were in a heavy tree canopy or even in our company toyota tundra it would hardly hold enough satellites to even work.
 
concretejungle said:
Reason i ask is i used to work at a company and we had a really accurate $6,000 GPS unit we used for maping wetlands and such. .

Hey, what kinda work you do/did? I am a Land Surveyor and use it for mapping wetlands and such too! As for tree coverage issues, we noticed the Topcon unit worked awesome and the Trimble unit not so good.

Anyway, for you other guys, POST SOME PICS!!! Especially Bongani, i am very interested in that suction mount and curious how it fits/looks! :D
 
Thanks to all who gave feedback on the 276c. I really appreciate the "real world" impressions.

That 396 is very tempting though, but also a significant investment.

I can buy te 276c and a sat phone for that amount.... hmmm, decision, decision ;)
 
gbell210 said:
... I didn't want it to be in my view of the road when I didn't have the GPS there and I didn't want to keep taking it on and off, espically when I put up a sunshade to block the sun when parked. With the RAM mounts, they screw to the gps unit itself, and isn't as easy to detach

gbell

Sorry dude but this is incorrect. The RAM mount use a quick release bracket that secures the GPS to the mount. If I need to remove the GPS for security reason then I leave the mount against the windscreen and just clip the GPS off.

I also use the mount in such a fashion that the GPS sits just above dash board. Now I am a short sh1t, yet I do not find that this position obscures the road.

For better reception under a tree canopy I use an external antenna. There is company here in ZA where we get for about $13.

I will take some photos tonight. (which is your morning)
 
Kevin,

That's the unit I use in my 80. Works great. I got a RAM mount from gpscity.com for it. It doesn't get in my way at all when I'm driving. I'm very pleased.

Regards

Alvaro
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alvarorb said:
Kevin,

That's the unit I use in my 80. Works great. I got a RAM mount from gpscity.com for it. It doesn't get in my way at all when I'm driving. I'm very pleased.

Regards

Alvaro


PERFECT, just what i wanted and needed! Very slick mount!

THanks
 

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