The New Garmin Overlander Positive Seems to be Like a Worthy Off-Highway Nav System

If, like me, your concept of navigation whereas off-roading someplace means a window rolled down, big paper map flapping unhelpfully within the wind, whereas parked in a two-track attempting to match what I believe this sidewinding path is that I’m sitting in to a dotted line on the map that I hope it’s, cursing loudly but in addition secretly loving the analog connection to navigation of the previous, then a turn-by-turn four×four GPS steerage system could seem a bit like dishonest.

However if you happen to like really attending to the middle-of-nowhere campsite or vista you’ve fastidiously deliberate, with out having to wish a fellow adventurer ambles previous so you possibly can flag them down and sheepishly ask for assist, then you definitely’re in all probability gonna be actually interested by Garmin’s new GPS gadget, the Overlander.

We haven’t been capable of get our fingers on one but, however the specs and capabilities are fairly attention-grabbing.

It’s a seven-inch touchscreen unit that appears a lot sturdy. It might probably mount to your automobile’s sprint or, if you happen to desire, you possibly can join it by way of bluetooth to your smartphone and toss the Overlander within the glove compartment and function the tech along with your cellphone. The unit comes loaded with topo maps, four×four trails, and public lands boundaries throughout North and South America. It’ll additionally show public lands campgrounds and factors of curiosity just about anyplace you go.

It has 64 GB of onboard storage and a micro SD card slot so you possibly can construct your individual routes and cargo them into the system.

Whereas plotting these routes, the Overlander will, in response to Garmin, will let you plug in your automobile’s dimensions (size, width, peak, weight) to create customized routes that your rig can deal with. It consists of pitch and roll gauges too, hoping to assist preserve your wheels down and your roof up.

Whereas a number of preliminary reviews on the market have mentioned the Overlander can even ship and obtain textual content messages by way of satellite tv for pc, this isn’t correct. You’d want one thing just like the inReach Mini for that. Paired with a messaging gadget. the Overlander would make a cool mix of a strong GPS unit with the power to name for assist if wanted.

The unit retails for $700. That’s loads.

Is it higher than a pill operating an off-road navigation app? Exhausting to say with out with the ability to use it. I’ve used an iPad operating customized off-road routing software program and had no points, however the element and devoted options like pitch and roll gauges and public lands and four×four roads already baked-in to at least one single gadget are compelling. The unit is more durable and much more mud proof than most tablets, additionally a win. Hopefully, we’ll get an opportunity to get method, method on the market with one in every of this stuff quickly and might report again.