The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[landtoy]

hi i am thinking of buying a road angel adventurer for off road use has anyone used one?
regads rob.

[Google]

[Wandering Willy]

I've not come across the Road Angel but have a couple of Garmin GPS units which have been useful.

The first is the most basic of the Etrex range which now sell for around £100. It has no map but can store locations to form a track or route. This means you can plan a trip on your computer and then download the plan to the Etrex. This then directs you via a series of waypoints. OK, so it's not sophisticated but it works. Also, it's a lot less money than the Road Angel (around £250?). After the trip you can then download your actual route onto your computer and overlay it onto a map to see where you went (Oziexplorer - see below).

The second unit is a Garmin Streetpilot 2820. It's very much a road use GPS; voice, bluetooth, MP3, POIs etc. However, you can get additional maps for it from Garmin. These include a topographic Ordnance Survey map of the UK (and other places). This sells for $300 in the US and can be bought in the UK as well (don't have a price for it here).

The point of this is to say that there are other options. The Garmin topo map can be loaded onto one of the cheaper Garmin units (e.g. Nuvi) which gives you both a comprehensive road GPS as well as an offroad one.

Also, both my Garmin units are waterproof for use outdoors. I only introduce Garmin because of my experience of using them and wanted to mention the options they provide.

You can also get the Ordnance Survey Topo maps from OS but by area so you can choose an area of interest and then get the appropriate electronic OS map. You would need to check the format of the map file to ensure you could load it onto you selected GPS as you might find - say - the file format for a TomTom GPS isn't available from the OS.

I use some software called OziExplorer (see http://www.oziexplorer.com/ ) which lets me use a very simple mouse type GPS receiver plus any suitable map image (scanned or downloaded) to overlay a journey onto it. With a laptop, I can do this while on the road (or track). I use my Etrex to do this but with Oziexplore I only need a £30 GPS receiver not the GPS functionality of the Etrex.

Willy

[landtoy]

willy
Thanks for the advice, the road angel is around £250 and you can add  memory maps from your pc which i allready have so still not sure yet.
again thanks.
rob

[Ken Wales]

I was thinking of getting a more useful PDA with GPS and loading it with memory map, PDA's are cheap off e bay £130ish new from america, I just need to find out if the chargers are compatable to or slightly higher mains electricity.

[Towpack]

Don't forget if you buy anything from the States with a value of more than £18 you will be charged VAT & import duty.This is paid at the point of entry by the courier and you get a bill from them.I bought some gauges from Canada for £160 delivered and got a bill for £30.I couldn't actually get the gauges I wanted over here anyway so had to import them but importing something because it's cheaper can be a false economy unless the seller states that the price to you includes all import taxes etc.
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Phil


1998 HDJ80 Amazon VX 4.2TD
2004 Yamaha R1 (Sold)
2011 Ducati 1198SP (Sold)
2012 kawasaki ZZr1400
2002 Honda XR650R (BRP)- STOLEN GRRRRR!!!
2010 Husaberg FE570....YIPPEEEEE!!!!
2003 GT XCR3000
1995 Border Collie-Passed away 23-5-2011

[Landcrusher]

Or it is declared as a gift. You don't always pay extra on imports from the US. I buy regularly. Last few orders have been heavy lumps: skid plates, diff guards etc etc. None of these have been caught by C&E. But a Leatherman was. It's sort of pot luck really.

LC
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HDJ 80 but still a 90 owner at heart (yeah right!)

[Paul_Humphreys]

[Wandering Willy]

I don't have experience of tracking across large areas of empty country. 99% of my driving is on hard surface road. Therefore, my main use of a GPS devise is to 'know' the network of roads and guide me along the best one for my journey A to B.

Off-road I would have thought the situation would be rather different. You still want to go from A to B but you can choose more or less any route you want. A topographic map which include things like rivers and other obstacles would obviously help (e.g. Ordnance Survey paper maps).

Most car GPSs allow you to cope with travel at 60mph by predicting your arrival at a junction or turning and using voice instructions to warn you. Traveling across a desert, moor or mountain doesn't usually need that sort of advice. So, off-road the GPS becomes more of an electronic map allowing you to plan your own route and record progress. However, these are my assumptions. Perhaps one of the world travelers here can offer some advice on this.

If I am correct, a laptop or similar (PDA, mobile phone) which can store and present maps is as good as a pile of paper maps. If it can also give you your current location on that map you have most of what you need. Hence the suggestion of a simple mouse type GPS receiver plus Oziexplorer or similar.

By the way, I think most US electrical gadgets expect 110volt 60Hz supply while we have 'a (Europe wide) 220volt 50Hz one. You would probably need a new battery charger power supply thing for UK/European use. However, if it's for car use it's 12v DC in the US as well as here (hooray!).

Willy

[Desperatezulu]

[lucky]

Andrew.

if your PDA runs Windows Mobile (5 of 6 preferably) then it is easy enough to set up to use Memory Map - install the ap and download the planned routes onto it. You still need to create the route and add waypoints on the PC.

To use for normal Sat Nav, get a copy of TomTom or Co-Pilot.

I run both Co-Pilot live 7 and Memory Maps on my XDA which is also my Mobile Phone. However an IPAQ or similar will do the job just fine.
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1999 Land Cruiser Amazon VX Active 4.2TD Auto
Gloucestershire 4x4 Response
Landcruiser-rocks

[evansw]

I have just bought a LC5 landcruiser and am really pleased with it, but the Sat Nav is confusing as hell.  Setting up the destination appears to be a real challenge and requires the use of a manual and about 3 hours patience before I can get it to do what I want.  Is it just me, or does everyone feel like you need A level quantum mechanics before you can operate the sat-nav?

[Nuclear Chicken]

[evansw]

Am I right in thinking you can only put an address in if the car is parked up?   The wife tried to enter an address while I drove, but it was having none of it.

[Nuclear Chicken]

You betcha. Another annoying feature I forgot to mention, dictated by the H&S nannies. Some models have apparently have this feature removed, presumably newer ones than my '04 LC5.
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'04 KDJ120R LC5. Died 17th Dec 2010. RIP.

[evansw]

Mine is on a 56 plate and woudnt let me do it, so it is probably the newer models (invincible?).  Why make it so complicated.  Sometimes less is more!