Garmin Tread (1 Viewer)

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sogncab

sogncab

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Anybody have one?
Kinda spendy, but I'm not a fan of running a tablet for maps either.

www.garmin.com

Garmin Tread® - Overland Edition | Powersport GPS

Tread - Overland Edition is an all-terrain navigator with turn-by-turn trail navigation, custom routing by vehicle size, & built-in global satellite communication.
www.garmin.com www.garmin.com


Curious what other's experience is.
 
I bought the Tread 5.5 Base model- literally just ordered it. No direct user experience yet.- I picked the smaller 5.5 Base unit mainly for back country motorcycling and in the Cruiser as needed. At 499 it ticks a few boxes for my needs.

For auto only use- I might look at the overland edition- a bit more spendy but larger screen same basic platform but android OS ( I believe). ASP 4x4Overland does a good review on it if youre interested in his opinion.....
 
I cashed in a zillion credit card points for Cabela's gift cards. Waiting for them to show up, then I'll be ordering one up.
 
After 3 months of using it. It's pretty awesome. It's a little buggy at times, it struggles with the cameras at times, and there's a fair amount of latency with them.

Road navigation can be a little weird. Google maps is so good. The Garmin is not afraid of shaving a few miles in trade for a short stint on a gravel road.
It doesn't handle traffic as well as Google maps either. Google will reroute to save time, I think the Garmin is always shooting for the shortest distance. It'll warn you of traffic, but doesn't do anything about it.

Running to Colorado in the 80, I had Google maps up on the head unit and the Garmin running. What I found was they'd give slightly different routes at times and I could pick and choose what I thought was my best option.


Off pavement, the Garmin is great. I've only really tested it in the Black Hills, but it did well. I'm thinking it'll be great at SAS as well.

Some of the settings can be a little word to find at time, but one you now where they are is no big deal.

The maps are way more detailed and there's some great options for layers. I really like the parcels and property owners being shown when you want it.
 
My Overlander is about 6 months old and it totally went buggy.
Waiting to see if Garmin support will honor the warranty.

IMG_2972.jpeg
 
That's a bummer.

Garmin has had good support in the past. But I haven't used support in a long time.

Mine gets used daily and I think it's odometer is reading 25k miles.
 
I've eyed the Tread for a while and I think I am about to pull the trigger. Just can't decide on 8" vs. 10" model. I currently use a combination of my 16" Tesla style head unit plus my iPhone running a variety of nav apps but mostly OnX and plain old Google maps/nav. The reason I am leaning toward Garmin type device is to get a more robust and reliable nav solution. What I have works, especially where I have cell coverage but when I really need Nav, I generally don't have cell coverage. Yes, I plan my trips and download maps so that I have them off line, but I also don't always follow the plan. Downloading maps mostly works but is a PITA and with OnX, time consuming. Downloading files to the Tesla unit wifi is painfully slow. My Tesla HU and I have a love/hate relationship. I love its concept but hate its buggyness. Its just not reliable enough plus I ask the iphone and HU to do a lot of other things. Nav is important enough to me to justify a dedicate device. Here is my current set up:
1739989681086.png

The pic shows Gaia on the phone and OnX on the HU. Perfect in concept but only ~66% in reality as a third of the time I'm dealing with some issue. Most of the time I can resolve whatever the issue is but it sucks the fun out of the moment and the whole point of all of this (the big THIS) are the moments. But I digress.

What I want is a dedicated Nav that is always loaded with detailed maps and satellite overlays of the whole US and doesn't care if I have internet or not. I believe the Tread will do this. No more, damn, I didn't download the map or get the detail/overlay I wanted.

One thing I am curious about is how easy it is to build off road routes on the fly or even pre trip at home and then use these routes in "turn by turn" mode. I understand that it will auto route me from where I am to where I want to go, but generally, I want to decide the path or rout. What I currently like to do is pre build my planned routes in OnX, load my offline maps on both the Tesla HU and my phone, then use the phone in "turn by turn" mode but have the HU set to show a birds eye view of the whole route. This way the phone tells me left ot right and at a glance I can see where I'm at in the world without pushing buttons or swiping screens. If I'm going to replace the phone with the Tread, I'll want the routes to be the same. Essentially, I want it to do what I currently do in OnX. Has anyone build three day backcountry routes on the Tread? And I'm hoping route building is easy on the Tread.

Another thing I'd like confirmation on is how the Tread gets powered. I believe that it gets powered from its "dock" and the "dock" gets powered from a cigarette lighter plug. I would hardwire the doc which might just mean I cut the cigarette plug off and splice to a power circuit. I believe it has a USB connection but that is to connect it to a PC, not power or charge the unit. It seems weird to me that a device like this isn't powered and charged with a USB-C. Especially given that it is intended to be able to operate when not on the doc. Pulling it out of the truck and sitting around the campfire with your buddies planning the next day is an awesome use case. So is using it in the house while I plan/prep for my next adventure is awesome too but I think there is no way to charge it if it's not on the doc in the truck. Is that true?

Also, on a side note, as the Garmin is an Android device, theoretically it will also run any app available for Android so I could run OnX on it if I wanted to and have the built in Garmin maps always there for backup or additional info. This requires hacking the unit a bit and is not supported by Garmin and probably voids warranty. I don't think I'd really do that as it may risk reliability which is my primary driver but the idea is intriguing.
 
How does the Tread compare to Gaia? I like Gaia for the different overlays and have stuck with it for years because I can get away with fewer devices but always interested in what’s out there.
 
kcjaz said:
Another thing I'd like confirmation on is how the Tread gets powered. I believe that it gets powered from its "dock" and the "dock" gets powered from a cigarette lighter plug. I would hardwire the doc which might just mean I cut the cigarette plug off and splice to a power circuit.
Click to expand...


They sell a bare plug that you can wire.

You can power it via USB, but it needs high amperage source. And there's a flappy door that the USB port is behind. Its not convenient. It is good for bringing it in the house and doing updates though. Which pip up every 2-3 months and take an eternity to download because they are usually 10gb.


Offroad. I love the navigation offroad.
Onroad. I don't love the navigation on road. But there are parts that are awesome. It does such a good job of showing what is ahead for fuel stops. I appreciate that when driving a vehicle getting 6mpg.

I've found that it is good to have Google maps and the Tread running at the same time on road trips. Then you can pick and choose what is best for you.
 
sogncab said:
They sell a bare plug that you can wire.

You can power it via USB, but it needs high amperage source. And there's a flappy door that the USB port is behind. Its not convenient. It is good for bringing it in the house and doing updates though. Which pip up every 2-3 months and take an eternity to download because they are usually 10gb.


Offroad. I love the navigation offroad.
Onroad. I don't love the navigation on road. But there are parts that are awesome. It does such a good job of showing what is ahead for fuel stops. I appreciate that when driving a vehicle getting 6mpg.

I've found that it is good to have Google maps and the Tread running at the same time on road trips. Then you can pick and choose what is best for you.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I’m going to pull the trigger on the 8” model. I think it will fit ok where I currently put my phone. I’ll definitely get the bare plug to hard wire.

Does it need to be connected to a PC for updates or can it update itself via WiFi? I believe it can connect to WiFi?
 
kcjaz said:
Does it need to be connected to a PC for updates or can it update itself via WiFi? I believe it can connect to WiFi?
Click to expand...

It can update via wifi. I haven't plugged mine into a computer for anything I don't think.

I want to buy another dock or two and some arms for mounting in other vehicles. I've used it in both of my Landcruisers and my pickup.
 
sogncab said:
It can update via wifi. I haven't plugged mine into a computer for anything I don't think.

I want to buy another dock or two and some arms for mounting in other vehicles. I've used it in both of my Landcruisers and my pickup.
Click to expand...
This looks like the power kit but it only lists the 10" KL version as "compatible". Can't find one specific to the 8" on the Garmin site. I would think it would also work for the 8: version. I'll email or call Garmin to verify.

www.garmin.com

Tread® XL Dock Power Cable | Garmin

www.garmin.com www.garmin.com
 
Watching with curiosity. While I like a dedicated nav device, having the flexibility of an iPad mini is nice as well. Having a combination of Gaia, OnX and Earthmate sometimes reveals roads on one that aren’t shown on another. Earthmate is vector based so map size isn’t an issue. Though satellite and land use is also invaluable.
 
I'm sure others offer this as well, but showing land parcels is a sweet option on the Garmin.

20250223_160245.jpg


It was nice when I was in Superior National Forest last fall to know that a spot that might be nice to camp on was not marked and was private property. Saw a bunch of that in Colorado too, where something looked like it might be a nice spot, but it wasn't public land
 
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Ordered the 8” Tread and received it last night. Haven’t had time to play with it much yet. Just did software and map updates. The aggressive battery management is super annoying as it shuts the screen down in 30 seconds even though I have it plugged into USB power. There doesn’t seem to be a setting for the timing of the screen shutting off. When in low power mode it kept loosing its Wi-Fi connection which suspends the update downloads. I’m using an Apple 20w USB-C charger. Maybe that’s not enough? It shows charging and the battery is charge up to 100%.
 
There is a screen setting for how seriously it shuts off. I had similar aggravation.

The battery life is terrible if you haven't experienced it yet.

It's cordless, sorta. 🤣
 
Installed the Tread in my Taco and used it going down to the Lake and back (all highway). Its of course fine for that but it isn't as intuitive as I was hoping to make it switch modes and some of it is inactive if you are moving (settable at least). I suppose its like anything else and you just have to play with it and use it.

The biggest thing that doesn't seem intuitive or easy is planning detailed routes for places you are currently not at. For example I am planning my Cruise Moab runs and I wanted to layout the Kokopelli 3 day route. I've done this in OnX and was hoping you could do that same kinda thing on the Garmin device itself. Maybe you can but it isn't obvious to me. I have to start from my current location in KC which is odd. I also like to take the short day type runs (like Hell's Revenge) and route the trail and add in the Fun Treks way points. I'm sure it will do it. I can see the trails but I want to program the specific route so the turn by turn works and I stay on the indented path. Maybe the webapp is really how you are suppose to do this. Still playing with it.
 
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