A group of us are taking a trip next month from Texas to Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP and South Dakota. The guys, me included, will be riding the entirety of the trip with the wives and kids following in my wife's SUV. My wife's SUV doesn't have a GPS so I am going to get one for her because I expect there to be times that those of us on the bikes will be well out of sight, lol.

I would like to get her a GPS that I can load the same trips onto that I load onto my Limited so I don't have to create them twice.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a car GPS that can use the same files as the bike? In this case it means the GPS will let me upload the files to it instead of building the routes and syncing them using proprietary map software. I would also prefer one that doesn't break the bank.

I would especially like to hear from those that have already done this without any issues.

Thank you!!!

 

Any garmin that will allow you to import GPX files will work just fine. Some of the less expensive units do not allow you to import waypoints so double check that.

 

Thanks!

 

I called Garmin support and they told me all 2015 models support importing GPX files from an SD card or computer via micro-usb cable.

Would still like to hear a 'real life' success story, lol.

 

I have a Garmin Nuvi 55LM (lifetime maps) and use it with the bike. I make my maps on harley ride planner and export the GPX to the GPS manually, works like a charm. GPS has a big screen and only costs about $120.

 

Perfect, thank you!

 

I have a Garmin nüvi® 2455LMT. I have successfully loaded the GPX files via cable and have been very happy with it. I use it on both my bike and car. As a side note the POI Factory has a custom load that will load all the HD dealerships into your GPS a great feature if you are broke down or need to find a shop while on the road.

Here is the link to that download.
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10463

 

I am not the OP but dude, THANK YOU.

 

Nice, thank you!

 

As for real life example: I concur that Garmin is straight up easy.

Before getting a Zumo for the Road King I used a Nuvi in a handlebar zippered pouch. I could load a GPX file directly to it and take off.

Now I have my Zumo mounted on my 2015 FLHTK and use it there. I use the onboard navigation sparingly because the maps do not include some of the roads that have been completed here in the last 2 years where the Zumo is up to date. I did a 500+ trip a couple of weekends back and loaded the same GPX file on the Zumo as I did on the Boom system. I ran the entire trip with both active and saw where the Boom was missing roads and would try to re-route me of think I was "flying" or something.

On Thur I'm leading an all day ride where we have a specific time that we need to be at the last point. I am loading the ride segments onto the Zumo and a "full" ride onto the Boom. That way I have navigation with estimates to the "end" of each segment from the Zumo and an ETA via the Boom for the last stop of the day.

Back to your use case: Yes the same file that is put on the Boom system can be loaded on most modern Garmins and I assume other units like the Tom Tom. The GPX file is just a text file with a list of longitude/latitude points that the GPS routing software draws pretty lines to.