Read my thoughts if you like, bottom line up front is, the unit is being returned for refund. The myriad of reasons why are detailed below.

Google Maps, while not perfect, is light years beyond this product. I don't intend to have $500 laid out for a product that takes me down wrong roads, tries to refresh through construction zones and gives bad weather information when it is advertised as having real time traffic and weather. It could be my expectations are too high for the device. If that's the case, oh well. I can buy a lot of paper maps for $500.

The only pro I found with the unit is that the screen is large, bright, and can somewhat be used with gloves. When used with Base Camp, the device pairs nicely and the software is fairly intuitive.

One of the biggest reasons for committing to the purchase was this feature, advertised by Garmin

LIVE TRAFFIC AND WEATHER
Access3 real-time traffic and weather, share routes with other riders, and get phone notifications via the Garmin Drive™ app.

I thought that would be the breakthrough that would put me into a dedicated GPS over the iPhone and Google Maps. In reality though, the device was limited when searching for establishments and even the Garmin Drive app, which was marginally better, still does not compete with Google Maps.

e.g. When at Mt. Rushmore, I wanted to head towards something called the Number 10 saloon in Deadwood. I didn't know the exact name. I tried a couple different names in both the XT and Garmin Drive. Never did find it. Reverted back to Google. Later I tried to find a St. Martin Chapel in Sturgis. Same thing. Google prevailed, Garmin failed.

The first night I plugged the unit into the wall in the room, the rubber plug fell out for the USB outlet. Never did get it back in.

I had paired the device to my iPhone, back in the room that night, I was getting the JBL speaker I take with me setup so the iPhone was playing iRadio. It was going through the XT as that was the first bluetooth device it found. Audio was horrible, kept cutting in and out, didn't like staying connected. I wrote that up to more of a Bluetooth issue though with too many things going on. I never did try the audio with the Bose wireless headphones.

Everything so far, while minor, contributed to the decision. Now for some meat and potatoes.

The first unit issue I had was getting from Flora, IL to South County St. Louis. Before leaving Flora, I put Rich and Charlie's restaurant in as the destination. I assume the GPS knows where to go, right? And how to get there? It does advertise real time traffic when using Garmin Drive which I was.

So I take off for MO. As shown in the two pics below, I did what the device told me to do. It tried to shortcut me off of I-57 over to I-64. About 4 minutes after I got off I-57 there was a sign about a railroad crossing and road closure. It looked as if though, that was going to happen in the upcoming town so I stuck with the GPS. Oh hell no, was that ever the wrong decision. I get to this railroad crossing and the road is closed with detour signs. The detour took me all around the corn and bean fields, up and down gravel roads that were paved in some places in the 60's and tarred over again in the 80's. Major fail on the part of that "real time" traffic.

The tracks you see are from the iPhone recording and using Spotwalla for the .kml file.





Later, I think it was Sioux City, IA maybe where there is a lot of construction going on, the device was updating and refreshing trying to figure out where it was right in the middle of all the lane changes, etc. through the construction area. I can have a little empathy and understand these things aren't perfect, but at the same time...it is supposed to have real time traffic and these construction zones for the most part don't change overnight. Another fail.

Rushmore to Deadwood - again. Took me down some road about 6 miles then had me to do a u-turn. By now, there's little doubt about what the decision is going to be on whether to keep or return the device.

On the way back from Rapid City, again, the unit doesn't know where it is. I end up getting routed off of I-29 into west Omaha (and no, I didn't miss any turns, just followed the directions) into residential neighborhoods and end up at some toll bridge. I'm madder than damnit now, looking for .50 to give the guy so I can get back to the interstate.




Another feature is that with Garmin Drive you get weather on the device. Nice, right? I think it can be. Approaching St. Louis Monday night, I can see some thunderheads off in the distance, probably in Illinois. Forecast was about 10% rain chance but the clouds are real so I look them up on the XT. It shows something, maybe off in the distance, but right around me it was green everywhere. Well crap, maybe I'm going to get caught in some rain? I'm right outside Hermann, MO so not too far to the hotel. And I'm on the final 75 miles of a SaddleSore 1,000. It's dusk, and I look around, stars everywhere. Just those thunderheads in the distance. So I don't know what the green stuff was on the radar.

Finally. When I was planning out the route on the Garmin device to get the mileage from Rapid City to St. Louis, I knew I had to get to at least Worthington, MN to give me more miles before turning back to Kansas City and across Missouri. Google maps was pretty close on this. But on the Garmin, using the same waypoints, I was going to come up short and would have to extend on out another 70 miles or so before cutting back to KC. I'm glad I didn't follow that advice. I would have been on the road another two hours for no reason as I came in and 1,054 miles by sticking with the original plan.

So there you have it. It's a nice device, looks good, but is not for me. As I said, maybe I'm expecting too much but with Garmin advertising real time weather and more importantly traffic, this thing fell way short of my expectations. Especially for the cost. I'll stick with the iPhone and Google Maps, and if I'm going someplace where I don't think there will be cell service, I'll have a paper map with me.

 

Sounds like state of the art. In 1950.

 

and it's waterproof. That's the only advantage it has over the phone. The phone I have to put a rubber over it in the rain. The Garmin you don't.

 

That sounds very frustrating! Nothing anybody wants on a trip! The 396 uses their older "smartphone link" app and it's spot on with construction and traffic when compared to Waze or Google maps when ran side by side. I thought I knew better than Garmin once and ended up getting stuck in worse traffic! The biggest problem I've had with having the phone on the handlebars is it overheating and shutting off! This has happened with an iPhone 5 and galaxy s8. My note 10+ has been on the handlebars.

I do agree that searching for businesses in Garmin for some reason is severely lacking on the device but is much better with the "smartphone link" app. For some reason Garmin wants to use "Foursquare" in their on device database searches. Sometimes, it will have a business address at a place where it was years ago and has since moved. I don't remember when Foursquare was ever popular! If I need to I will search on Google maps and then copy and paste into the app. But it would be nice if that wasn't needed. Fortunately, you can add a lot of custom POI's from POI Factory

For me the 396 is hands down better for trips or custom routes. And the screen is much more readable in the sun. For point A to B in town I prefer Google Maps or Waze.

It is unfortunate that the databases, especially while connected to a phone with a live internet connection is not up to date with everything!

The 396 can be had for 230ish from GPS City during sales. I do wonder how much nicer the screen is on the XT. It's not terrible on the 396 but could be better. I thought that the smaller screen would bother me but it's not as bad I I thought it would be.

 

what experience with a Garmin GPS (and Basecamp) did you have before purchasing this unit?

 

I'm still using a Garmin 60cs and MacGPS Pro fwiw

The XT was the first time I've had a need for Basecamp

 

I've been using the various Garmin GPS products for awhile now and I like them. That's not to say there isn't room for improvement. I use the Zumo 595 on my motorcycle and find it to be a very useful tool. When I'm on a ride being lead by someone else and I find the roads to be unknown to me and interesting, I use the tracks feature and convert them to a route so that I can review the roads and ride them again in the future. I also use Basecamp to generate all sorts of routes that I download to the GPS. Keep in mind there are a number of different navigation settings on the GPS that can effect the route that is generated on it. It's important to understand calculation mode and the various avoidances that can be set. But there are bugs in these devices. A couple of different times I found the GPS generating a route that didn't make any sense. I've even reported these issues to Garmin technical support and they didn't understand why the GPS was generating the route in a particular way. One can place the GPS in simulator mode to re-generate a particular route for any start and end point. Garmin tech was able to duplicate the issue I had and he had no answer what caused that particular route choice. Issue was supposedly escalated.

The end result is I like the ability to look at a fairly convenient screen to follow a specific route/roads instead of looking down at a piece of paper taped to my gas tank.
Other features of the Garmin GPS that I actively use are the MP3 player and the service history application.
NOTE: I do not and have never linked a smartphone to my GPS so I can't comment on that functionality.

 

hugely critical. without appropriate settings the GPS may route one through alleys and the like to get the 'shortest route' or do things that are more confusing.
An example I read back when was a story of a guy who turned off U-Turn mode (don't know which device it was) so the GPS took him on a huge, long route only to put him back where he started 50-100 miles later. The device was doing exactly as it was programmed to do.

One almost has to train a bit on a Garmin GPS to learn the ins/outs of how it works and re-navigates if you go off route and the like. Same for making a Basecamp route and transferring to the device.

 

just because, I'll add this

Calculation Mode = Faster Time
Off-Route Recalculation = Automatic
Avoidances = U-Turns, Carpool Lanes, Unpaved Roads
Toll Roads = Allow

this is how it was configured when I left the house. Maybe it's wrong, right, or I just don't know

 

What I believe to be a major issue with the Garmin GPS systems is the poor documentation. Garmin should invest some resources to create web based documents along with good YouTube based training material. To get the most out of these devices, there is a fairly steep learning curve.

If you are creating your routes via Basecamp, you should set "Off-Route Recalculation" to NO (only do this when navigating via a Basecamp generated route). Setting it to Automatic can totally screw up your route. When you create a route via Basecamp, you can use shaping points to alter your route. Plus, the route created in Basecamp is going to use your Basecamp settings for creating the route. If you go off-route, the GPS is going to dynamically figure out the path to the next waypoint via the GPS settings if Off-Route Recalculation is set to Automatic. This will in all likelihood change your expected route.

If you are creating routes via the GPS interface, disregard the above.

Maybe set the "Toll Roads" option to: Always ask?