GPS V Field Report (with some comparative notes about the GPSMAP 76)

Eat your heart out .... Grizwald's!

My family and I recently completed a 5300 km road trip from Calgary, Alberta to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Always eager to explore new country, we planned our trip to avoid traveling the same road twice, while packing in as much shopping and tourist attractions as time/money allowed. Like modern day Grizwald's we were packed to the rafters with clothes, food, cameras, blankets, pillows, etc. But unlike the Griswald's we had no intentions of getting lost, after all what self-respecting techno buff would be caught on the open road without a GPS unit ... or two.

Also since my company provides GPS training services, I thought this would be a great opportunity to field test some of Garmin's newer GPS units loaded with US Mapsource data. So we hit the road on a blustery March morning with not one but two GPS units. My trusty GPSMap76 was pre-loaded with the US Roads and Recreation data. I am also planning a fishing trip to Montana this fall, and wanted to see first hand how accurately the creeks and rivers are shown on the maps. Our second unit (on loan from friends) was a Garmin GPS V pre-loaded with Garmin's US Metro Guide data, we planned on using the V's routing capabilities to help find hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and shopping malls along the way.

Both GPS units were ergonomically mounted on the dash of our Dodge Caravan, making it feel more like a well appointed European sport sedan ...ya right! With these high tech tools in place we were ready for our cross country odyssey to see the sights of Zion National Monument, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Yellowstone Park. We had the V plugged into 12 volt power and ran the Map76 on batteries (it only needs 2 AA's opposed to 4 for the V). We had fun using the Map76 to identify creeks, rivers, and numerous mountains peaks along the way, while at the same time a quick glance at the V told us how much further to the next gas station or the all important rest area.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the accuracy of the road mapping in the US is much the same as in Canada. That is, not all of the roads are accurately located, in fact some portions of the I-15 were off as much as 1 km (and no I wasn't on the wrong road). This didn't present any real problems, with the majority of the roads accurately mapped, we always knew where we were, and where we had to go. On the other hand the names and locations of creeks and rivers shown on both the Map 76 and V appeared to be very accurate.

We found the routing function of the GPS V was really great. When we wanted to stop for a meal we simply pressed the find button, selected Points of Interest (POI's), then restaurants, then the desired cuisine. The V then did a quick search and displayed a list of the nearest restaurants meeting our criteria. We usually picked a name that sounded good (like... Frontier Pies or Mom's Café) and selected GOTO. The V then calculated the route and guided us the rest of the way, eliminating much of our IEA (Interstate Exit Anxiety), we always arrived within minutes of the V's calculated arrival time, and now eagerly look forward to the inevitable "when will we be there ?"

While the V's POI's search function worked very well, we found that searching for a known address such as a hotel to be both tedious (on data entry), and a bit frustrating since we didn't always get a 100% match. We quickly learned that once we had found a hotel or restaurant to save it as a waypoint so we could re-calculate a route back to it later. On the return trip we traveled different roads as much as possible, but wanted to stop back at a few of the better places that were close by, Having previously saved these places as waypoints made it a snap to navigate back to them ... especially in the dark.

On a few occasions we had to override the V's routing with good old fashioned human logic. For example, we used the V to get us to our lunch destination in Salt Lake City (a mile or so east of I-15), after lunch we created a route to Zion National monument. The V wanted us to drive south through the city for approximately 20 miles before merging back onto I-15. The city street we were on paralleled I-15 and would have eventually merged with it, but (to us) it was obviously faster to go a mile or so west to the interstate before proceeding south. While using either of these mapping GPS units will certainly get you there and back, we still recommend taking along a good road Atlas which lets you see the big picture (helps clarify some issues) and shows interesting historical information and topography.

When using the two different units side by side one quickly notices the differences. I found the Map76 much easier to read because of its larger screen that allows you to see more of the map ahead (while in Track up), than can be seen on the V in either portrait or landscape modes. Next time I make a trip with the V I will use a mount that holds the unit in portrait mode so I can see more of the map. The accuracy of the topographic data on both units was good, certainly good enough for me to find the right creek or lake on my upcoming fishing adventure. If Garmin added the routing function to the Map76 it would be my pick of the litter, but until then I will be looking to buy a V for my the next long distance road trip.

Happy Travels

Russ Thompson