>>575962>ability to load mapsHonestly, that's the main reason to get one. So yeah, pretty important.
24k topo is nice, only time I ever use that is snowmobiling.
CityNavigator covers the entire continent (US, Canada, Mexico) and I find it FAR more useful. This is what I recommend.
There are free maps available, coverage and quality is hit-or-miss. If there's a good map for the area you're interested in, hey, go for it. 24k topo is consistent all across its coverage area.
Also keep in mind ... the older receivers (like the 60/76) have a limited number of maps you can install at once. They'll only read from one map file on the card, and you're limited to 2025 map "tiles". On CityNav, the tiles are teenytiny, so you rail out that tile limit before you hit the 2GB map file size limit. CityNav's "tiles" cover significantly more area 2-3 per state here in the rockies) but each tile containes significantly more data. The North America map I run is about 1.7GB; so within the 2GB limit but still a fairly sizeable file.
You *can* put multiple maps on one card, but the receiver's going to ignore anything other than /GARMIN/GMAPSUPP.IMG. So you'll need a phone/cable or something that can deal with a media card and rename files. Or carry multiple data cards.
Newer receivers upped the limits to a little over 4000, and 4GB/file, and they can read from multiple maps installed on the card.
I do a little pre-planning, load the maps/info I need, squirt a codeplug into my radio for the area, clean off my cameras, and make sure everything's charged the night before.
Pic is from the GPSMap 78 I had - Piece of shit... awful. Had some neat features, but the rest of the UI was so horrifically overcomplicated and hard-to-read that I ended up selling that on ebay a few weeks after I got it.
I could never get topo maps to load correctly either, they always went in all fucked up like >pic related. There's people that like them and made them work.
