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PbdBlue

Who has a Garmin Montana and.....

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Here is a Hair Splitting question. All the screens have improved over the years, My 60csx has a pretty lousy screen when compared to the 62 or the Montana.

And now for the question! We all like the bigger screen of the Montana, but it does take up more dash space. Who has the new improved 62 screen and does it get the job done at about half the price. ( Selling for $199 these days.) With all the 62 series sales around, I wonder if a hand held replacement is on the horizon. I also wonder why in the world Garmin cannot slim down these units; Montana and 62. These things are way thicker than needed.

:cowboy:

Please share your experience., Bagstr

I just bought a Garmin 78 (took GPSKevin's advice). One thing that I picked up researching before the buy was that the new Garmin 62's have a different OS than the 60's. Lot's of complaints due to the fact that it requires several more toggles through the menu to reach what your looking for on some pages.

attachicon.gifgarmin 78.jpg

That looks like a big pretty unit (no pun intended) for such a tiny screen in my opinion

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Kevin: The Montana is customizable for the screens and for "quick buttons". I haven't done it yet on mine but did read about it when I got the unit. These things take lots of time to get used to thats for sure. I really liked the Oregon model but the Montana is sweet. It can do so many things and that's part of the problem trying to find all of the commands and figuring them out. Lots of instructional videos on the 650t functions. I found that if I have mine in hand and do the functions as the videos illustrate it helps me remember. A teenager would probably have this thing nailed in a couple of hours with all the added bells and whistles.........

The reception is great on the Montana as stated. Lots of $ but they work good.

I also have a Samsung S4 that I have a couple of GPS apps loaded. That thing is really sweet and is so big and easy to read. I use it as my backup GPS. If I had the time to figure out the software I may just use the phone.

Yeah, i have mine re-arranged to make it easier, but its still nothing as easy as the 276C

I will keep it and enjoy it, because it works so well, just adding my ,.02 on my opinions of the drawbacks

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The 64 is the only unit besides the Montana that has the new screen technology. I fab'd a mount that uses the bar clamp bolts. It fits very nicely. When I get to a computer I'll post pics. As far as the older units go be aware that some promoters are stating that they will stop supporting even the 60csx (much less the 276) in the near future. Also the new units will store many more maps than the old ones. In my Montana I have the entire us in city nav and topo 100k plus topo 24k west and southwest all at the same time. Switching maps is very easy. I still have my 276 and it's my goto bit to use in the truck for 4wd but on the bike the Montana is my tool of choice. I still have my trusty 60csx which has now become my loaner/ backup unit.

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The 64 is the only unit besides the Montana that has the new screen technology. I fab'd a mount that uses the bar clamp bolts. It fits very nicely. When I get to a computer I'll post pics. As far as the older units go be aware that some promoters are stating that they will stop supporting even the 60csx (much less the 276) in the near future. Also the new units will store many more maps than the old ones. In my Montana I have the entire us in city nav and topo 100k plus topo 24k west and southwest all at the same time. Switching maps is very easy. I still have my 276 and it's my goto bit to use in the truck for 4wd but on the bike the Montana is my tool of choice. I still have my trusty 60csx which has now become my loaner/ backup unit.

I meant how on earth do you use the Montana with Mapsource???

Thanks

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The 64 is the only unit besides the Montana that has the new screen technology. I fab'd a mount that uses the bar clamp bolts. It fits very nicely. When I get to a computer I'll post pics. As far as the older units go be aware that some promoters are stating that they will stop supporting even the 60csx (much less the 276) in the near future. Also the new units will store many more maps than the old ones. In my Montana I have the entire us in city nav and topo 100k plus topo 24k west and southwest all at the same time. Switching maps is very easy. I still have my 276 and it's my goto bit to use in the truck for 4wd but on the bike the Montana is my tool of choice. I still have my trusty 60csx which has now become my loaner/ backup unit.

I meant how on earth do you use the Montana with Mapsource???

Thanks

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I use Mapsource with my Montana as well.....as far as how can that be possible? No idea

I have never downloaded Basecamp and only have Mapsource.

Works fine for me

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I use Mapsource to create tracks and upload\download tracks, waypoints, etc to the Montana and vise versa. I'm using v6.15.5.Works for me. Never use Basecamp.

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Sooo,,,the consensus is the Basecamp progress is a failure. Mmmm... :shiftyeyes_anim:

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Base camp is just different. I'm sure it works for some. I don't find it intuitive and since I am familiar with Mapsource I just prefer to use it. Mapsource does everything I need.

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BaseCamp works fine.

When it comes to loading maps, I trust MapInstall more than I trust MapSource. It hasn't been updated in years and isn't aware of functionality added to newer GPS units.

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WOW!

Got Mapsource working fine with the Montana now.. I just needed to update it, as i was running a much older version for the 276c

All is well in the world now! :)

Kevin

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Here's some pics of my Montana mount. So far it survived my Desert Dash crash and two days up here at Bass Lake.

post-286-0-06928400-1403967057.jpg

post-286-0-63679000-1403967059.jpg

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post-286-0-30976200-1403967064.jpg

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Here's some pics of my Montana mount. So far it survived my Desert Dash crash and two days up here at Bass Lake.

Very cool mount!!! Custom? I got the Touratech one to ease hardwiring and so far so good with an epic high speed crash.. Zero damage to GPS!

Yours looks a lot cleaner though! I dig it!

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Yeah I made it. Pretty easy. Got isolation mounts from McMaster Carr and the spacers to clear the bar clamp are from Marshalls. Wiring is straight forward since it uses the AMPS mount. I have ACAD drawings if anyone is interested.

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Only complaint i have about mine is you can't zoom out very far to see an overall view of a large area of topo roads.

276c didnt have this problem, but other than that, the Montna is the dealio

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