kingcobraandra

HI-

I am replacing an older handheld COBRA unit with a black and white display. It was fun for geocaching, but I'd like to upgrade

I want the new one for use in the car....maps are new for me, and also be able to enter coordinates for geocaching. I haven't found reasonably priced models that can do both.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for your time.

Max

When you say use it in the car, you mean like a big touch screen and auto navigation? or just something you can use occasionally, and non-touch screen is ok?

I like the 60csx/76csx/VistaHcX, but I understand for Geocaching the current hotness is the Colorado series, as they allow paperless geocaching. The other units have spaces in notes but not as much info as the Colorado from what I understand.

I guess like all things it depends what percentage of time you want to spend using it in the car, or for caching?

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kingcobraandra

Truthfully, I think we'll spend more time using it in the car, but stil need to find (and hide) a few treasures in geocaching. We love to geocache, but we don't really hunt as much as we would like.

CharlieHorse

The big thing with units for cars is the battery life is very short mine is only good for about an hour . I am interested in trying geocaching and am looking for a hand held unit but would use the one in my car to get me to the general location . then use the hand held, can anyone suggest a cheap handheld for occasional use geocaching ?

b.b.wolf

Most automotive GPS units are not very good for geocaching. They do not update quick enough requiring excessive movement for a pedestrian, albeit it is a small distance in an automobile. Also, automotive GPS units may lack the proper coordinate resolution, or may be designed with error correction which often places you on a roadway.
I use a Garmin Colorado 400 series for my geocaching. It has changeable profile settings which make it useful for for other modes as well, such as automotive, but you would have to buy an automotive map set.The Colorado has a larger screen than most hiking GPS units, but it is still a bit smaller than an automotive GPS unit.
Originally, I used my Magellan Roadmate for geocaching, but the coordinate resolution is only D,M,S with no decimal. I had only a 50% success rate on cache finds due to the poor resolution.
The only auto GPS that I know anyone to use successfully for geocaching is the Garmin Nuvi, but the owner has returned the unit for repair twice. Remember automotive GPS units are not ruggardized like hiking units.
Your best bet is to buy both an automotive GPS and a hiking GPS.
I recommend a Garmin Nuvi for the car and a Garmin Vista HCX for the hiking. If money not not a major concern, either the Garmin Colorado or Garmin Oregon. The Delorme units are also fine, but there are many free topographic maps for the Garmin units.

HumVee

There is one model of nuvi's I'm aware of that is ruggedized (IPX7 water/dustproof) and not terribly expensive ($260 on Amazon), and that's the Garmin nüvi 500. There's also a nüvi 550 series, but it does not come with a topographical basemap (you have to buy it). Instead, the basemap it comes with covers a larger geographic region. These units appear highly regarded and well reviewed, and I'm planning on getting one for my wife this winter. That said, I would also say that I agree with b.b.wolf that having a dedicated mapping handheld GPS would be the ideal solution....