GARMIN / MAGEllan/or uniden

Doug,

I would depend on how they were mounted in the vehicle. The upright model that you have shown does not have to be hanging in mid air, it also can be sitting on the dash.

I have one of those upright models and have made up a bracket that is mounted on the dash and the bottom of the GPS sits on the dash. I have uses a couple of rubber mounts and that has taken a lot of the shake out of the unit. You will never get rid of all the shake, unless the vehicle is stopped.

Wayne

Hi there Doug,

You missed a couple other top sites.

GPSOZ sells both.
Prestige Communications (in your backyard) sell all brands.

The handheld units, with the right cradle will handle anything dished up to them.
For instance, the Magellan Meridian and Explorist handhelds can sit in an accessory cradle which has a suction base and a flexible arm or swivel mechanism, so they can sit upright, or lay flat, or any other angle you wish.

Magellan Cradles

Plenty of options out there mate.
I would have thought a similar option would exist for the Garmin eTrex units, although I'm not familiar with the products, or their accessories.

Everything is a compromise in one way or another, but the advantage of the handheld unit is that they can be used while on foot.

I'm still attempting to discover what is the best all round choice and have come to the conclusion that there isn't one.

I have the Magellan Meridian Marine handheld which has DiscoverOz and Great Desert Tracks "on-board". Useful, but lacks some detail unless you fiddle with the zoom and still doesn't provide the best detail.

I have a Notebook which the Magellan interfaces to and I run DiscoverOz, Great Desert Tracks and OziExplorer (with NATMAP Premium) on, sometimes all concurrently. This gives the easiest to read screen due to it's size, but the Notebook is somewhat of an "intrusion" between my Bride and myself. Certainly has it's uses.

Just recently purchased a PDA and run both OziExplorer (with NATMAP Premium) and CoPilot Live, for turn by turn direction in the Metro areas. This gives great flexibility in both the Metro Areas and the Bush, but I'm yet to find out how practical it's size will be for display purposes.

Overall, the PDA will probably get the most use, but the Magellan, as a stand-alone GPS, will always sit in its cradle as a backup reference. (also great for speed display)
The Notebook will probably be used if I'm doing any serious "Treknote" work.

Anyway, as I said, plenty of options, one just needs to decide what's best for their own specific purpose, or use the bloody lot like I do:-)

Have a good one!

Doug,

Just for clarification, one of the Magellan Mounts affixes to the windscreen with two suction cups and the flexible shaft can be positioned in any direction.

The other mount is fixed on any flat surface (usually screwed, but can be velcro'ed) and the gymbal type movement of the cradle is then locked in any desirable position.

Yeah, my fingers do get busy on the keyboard sometimes. I try to convey the information I give as open and flexible rather than push a particular product & model.

What's good for one, doesn't necessarily suit another.

See Ya!

Hi Doug, Having a relaxing Sunday with a good mate of mine. His name is Johnnie Walker. He's about 12 yrs old and packs a punch for such an old bloke. The keys on my board are looking half their size [or my fingers twice as thick].

I hope my reply made some sense [wink! wink!]

Cheers...........Lionel.