Gps to keep track of my beehives

[jercalder]

I am a beekeeper and move more than 600 hives all over my area. i need a gps that i can mount in my truck and can add a way point for every hive that i drop off. I have a handheld one but it is very time consuming to stop and look down at it all the time. and it is not compatible with my Mac computer. I am wondering if there is a tom tom that will work for me.
thank you
Jeremy

 

[canderson]

Any of the TomTom units will let you set up a custom POI by hand or on your Mac (your POI could be named "BEES" <g>) and you can create your own list that way. However, understand that most of these automotive units get funny about being very far off road with any destination, and if your hives are too far from a known road, an automotive unit may tell you that it cannot compute a route to your destination. If your hives tend to be out in the sticks, they need to be near at least identified dirt roads somewhere for an automotive unit to help you out.

Check to see if most of the places you go can be found here on the site that TomTom uses for map corrections. It's really for corrections, but also shows you what's mapped. It'll need an email address, but that's because it keeps track of everyone's changes individually, even though you won't be making any.

http://www.tomtom.com/mapshare/tools/

If not, you will be better off with that Garmin handheld.

 

[jercalder]

I think that will work. All of my spots are in orchards with roads nearby. Could you suggest a model for me. I want a big touchscreen, and if possible topographic maps

 

[canderson]

Topo maps are (barely) possible on some of the older units, and not very effective, and impossible on any of the newer units. Can't help there.

When you say "big" touchscreen, how big? The current crop offers 5" screens, but a 6" may become available soon.

There are many feature differences in the current lineup - some include Live traffic (possibly irrelevant for your work purposes) - some include a lifetime map subscription (a good thing) - there are a couple of different mount types out there that might matter if you need to remove it frequently, but don't matter if you can leave it stuck in place all the time - whether you'd be poking at it with gloves or bare fingers makes a difference ... not knowing more about the kind of territory you are in nor whether also you'd be using it for any city driving, etc., it's hard to make a good suggestion.

If we're talking rural-only, fixed (not often removed), then a Via 1535M would do the job pretty nicely. Here's TomTom's link:

http://www.tomtom.com/en_us/products/car-navigation/via-1535-series

The Via 1505M (M for maps) is the one that gets you the lifetime quarterly map updates. Unlike the Via 1535, it doesn't include a slot for a uSD card, but with 4GB of internal memory, it'll hold all of North America without problems anyway. If you don't spot the Via 1505M, the Via 1505TM includes the traffic receiver cable for another couple of bucks. Not sure what they're selling for up north, but on this side of the border, they're less than $110.

http://www.amazon.com/TomTom-5-Inch...FTEW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1336362723&sr=8-9