Nate Meyer's Weblog

Garmin GPSMAP 60cx Review & Mounting Guide

September 15th, 2007 Nate Meyer 4 comments

It was a long process for me to decide weather or not to buy a gps. I didn’t know much about them at all. I didn’t want one that just showed me my coordinates, or showed me which direction I was heading, or showing the line i’ve travelled on, on a blank looking map. Those options seemed useless to me.

I wanted a GPS that had EVERY road on it, small or large, and showed me driving on the road, and displayed when to turn, and how far the turn was away. I Also wanted it to display my speed, tripometer, distance till destination, time till destination. Using it for the motorcycle would be awesome as well, as I could use the computer and complete a route that I want to take, then upload it to the GPS. I would use it for hunting to mark good huntspots, and use the topographical maps to see elvation and lakes and streams. But would there be a unit that does all this, and in my pricerange?

I started researching Garmin GPS units on their website, and searching on Google for any reviews of specific models I was interested in. I realized that all the options that I was hoping for, are available in a handheld unit, at a decent cost. The first unit I bought was the Garmin eTrex Legend cx. It was a great unit, and exactly the same as the 60cx that I bought after, except the legend had the standard GPS receiver on it and it didn’t work so well under the canopy of the forest. I returned it and decided to spend the extra money on the 60cx. This unit has the “High Sensitivity-Receiver”, and found that it received it’s sat signal alot quicker, and worked alot better under the forest canopy. I walked through the forest, under large trees, and the unit never lost it’s signal, and was never interrupted, it even gets a signal in the basement of my house, which has only 1 window.

Instead of going through each and every feature, and screen, i’ll list below some of the ways that I used this unit. I think this will give you a better understanding of what it’s capable of, and wheather it’s good for you.

I recently went up to Ten Mile Lake in northern Ontario for a vacation with my wife Michelle. I used the computer and the software that came with the GPS to create a route to the destination. I also used the software to add waypoints to specific spots that I needed to mark (the desired campspot, the lake, backup lake, closest gas station, closest grocery store, etc). I also created a waypoint for a small lake that we could hike to while we were there if we wanted. I created a second route that went from Ten Mile Lake up Nipissing road and into Magnetawan in case we wanted to go for a drive. I uploaded all this information into the unit. Going up highway 401 it would display the highway on the map, and a purple line showing me the way to go. It would also display the ‘time-to-destination’, and ‘distance-to-next-turn’, etc. It also leaves a ‘breadcrumb’ that shows me where i’ve been, in case i need to turn around and follow my steps. When we got up to the lake, if i wanted to hike to that other lake, i would just create a route from where i am, to the waypoint that i create on the computer, same if i need a gas station. I also used the GPS when i was canoeing, as the topographical maps show all lakes and streams, and i could draw a line that showed me the distance till the end of the stream lake. It was VERY useful for this trip. The below picture is a pic of the map, in the software that came with the GPS. It just shows one of my routes, my ‘breadcrumbs’ on ten mile lake, and a waypoint that i makred called Ten Mile Lake.

This summer a few friends of mine decided to take a long Motorcycle trip through-out northern Ontario. It was about 1500 kms, and we did it in 3 days. As you can imagine, that’s alot of turns. We could’ve used a paper map, and draw on the route that we wanted to take, but we would then have to pull over every 10-15 minutes to make sure we’re on the right roads. The GPS would work perfectly. Again, I used the software that came with the unit to create route for the 3 days we would be travelling. I seperated the routes into 3, friday’s route, saturday’s and sundays. On Friday morning I loaded Fridays route which ended in a Hotel in Huntsville. I waypointed the hotel, and restaurants that were near and did the same thing for Sat and Sun. The gps never failed the whole time, and if ever i got off-route, it would automatically create a route to get back to my original route. Worked perfectly, and IMO, way better then paper maps. It even rained on occasion and since the GPS is waterproof, I had no problems. The below pic is the route that we took through ontario. I created this route and uploaded it to the GPS.

During the turkey hunting season I was especially glad to have the GPS. A couple weeks before the season started, I walked into the forest to scout for signs of turkeys, and to find decent areas where they might exist. Everytime I found an area that might hold turkey, I marked it on the GPS as a waypoint. I also marked the exact tree that I would sit against when the season started. I had the trackback feature turned on, so I could find my way out of the forest, and back to my Jeep at any time. A friend also drove me around to a couple different areas where he thought there might be turkey, and again, I marked all these locations. The 60cx worked great under the thick tree canopy, and never cut out. The below, again, is a pic of the map inside mapsource. It shows a walk I took through a bush, and along the way, i marked some key-spots.

accrossfromrentspc

Battery life on this unit is pretty good. I have Panasonic rechargable batteries, and they will last for 2-3 days of driving 4-5 hours a day. �
Mounting the unit turned out to be fairly simple as well. I needed it to mount to the Jeep, Escort wagon, Motorcycle, and needed a carrying case for when im hunting / hiking. I turned to gpscity.ca where I purchased all the mounts that i needed.