Garmin 396 LMT-S Review

thughes317

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Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
1,055
Location
The Bluegrass, KY
Build your route in Google Maps, save it as a KML file, download the KML to your PC, convert it to a GPX file with a simple converter (tutorial here, take 2 minutes: https://eatsleepride-support.groovehq.com/help/how-to-plan-a-route-in-google-maps-and-export-the-gpx-to-the-eatsleepride-app" ), upload it to your Garmin (or email it to yourself and use OsmAnd or GPXViewer Pro to open it up on your phone). There are a crap-ton of tutorials on-line about how to build custom routes using Google Map. I'm technology-challenged and this method is the easiest I've found yet.
 

RCinNC

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Aug 30, 2014
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2,816
Location
North Carolina
For me, now that Tyre isn't an option, MyRoute has worked the best. It lacks some of the features of Tyre, like being able to have multiple maps open in tabs at the same time (helpful when planning cross country trips), and its ability to import sections of maps from other files and combine them is WAY less functional than Tyre.

Tyre's best selling point was that it was originally designed by a couple guys who were also motorcyclists, and who understood that guys on bikes aren't usually looking for "shortest point from A to B". They also seemed to understand that some of us plan rides by just looking at roads on a map and saying "I want to go down that road, and then that road, and then that road...". And if you wanted to circle a lake twice on a ride, Tyre made that easy to set up. You just clicked on any spot on the map, and dropped a shaping point, and that's where you were going to go. It allowed a large number of waypoints per map file (1000), so you could plan the most meandering route down all sorts of back roads all the way across the country. I created routes on Tyre for the MABDR that could be read by a car based Garmin Nuvi, and would give turn by turn directions (rather than following a track on the screen). It was definitely a drag when Google changed their policy and made their maps basically inaccessible to Tyre without a stiff fee, and the guys from Tyre merged with MyRoute. They've split apart again and Tyre is again its own entity, but I just don't want to sign up for an API key with Google in order to use it, plus I have the aforementioned issue with downloading the program.

I've tried Basecamp, and Locus Pro, and so far (now that Tyre is off the table), my best way of creating routes was to plan them on MyRoute, and upload the route to my Garmin Nuvi and to a backup to my phone running OSMand. My Nuvi 2455 is old and doesn't have bluetooth, so if I load the same map to both, I can get turn by turn audio directions in my helmet from the phone running OSMand. It saves my phone from the wear and tear of bouncing around on a mount if I'm on some off pavement potholed nightmare of a road, and lets the cheaper Nuvi take the abuse. I can replace an old Nuvi for a lot less than my phone.
 

RCinNC

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Aug 30, 2014
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2,816
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North Carolina
Hey, Fennnellg, that's a very cool feature. I hadn't even noticed it before. I did a quick test route near my house using the most hilly and most twisty parameters, and it planned out a route that follows the sorts of roads I'd have chosen myself if I was mapping out a ride. Thanks for the heads up!
 

XTZELEE

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
66
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Yes, I used Tyre for years and it seems that MyRouteApp is as good (but not as easy as Tyre) as it gets for the moment. Basecamp is embarassing and reflects the musty ethos of Garmin. Life is too short to be learning legacy software.
 

Eville Rich

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Joined
Sep 15, 2016
Messages
464
Location
Wisconsin, USA
I will have to check out Roundtour and Tyre. But I had decent success creating a route in Google Maps, getting into Basecamp, then uploading it to my 595. Did it this summer for the TransWisconsin Trail, which is nearly all back roads and dirt roads. Even handled some questionable state forest trails.

The trick with the 595 was to set it so it wouldn't recalculate the route.

I do agree there is a learning curve that Garmin should just flat out explain. I had to find Thurs party YouTube videos to figure it out. Nothing intuitive about it. But it does work and Google Maps is easy to use. The main issue was the number of adjustments it let's you make to discrete portion over your overall trip. I ended up creating a like mine separate routes to handle my entire trip.

Point is - the Garmin stuff will work with Google Maps and Basecamp. Garmin need to seriously improve BaBasecamp and provide some specific instructions for users that want to do more than just let the GPS pick the route.

Eville Rich
 

RCinNC

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Aug 30, 2014
Messages
2,816
Location
North Carolina
Just for FYI purposes, any mapping program that can create and export .gpx files can create a route that can be imported into Basecamp. The difference between MyRoute and Google Maps is that you can skip the step of having to load the route into Basecamp in order to transfer it to the Garmin; MyRoute has an export function that will load the route directly onto the Garmin (or a Tom Tom) from the computer. Alternately, you can just save the route on your computer as a .gpx file and drag and drop it into the GPX folder in the Garmin. At least you can with a Garmin Nuvi; I've never had a Zumo, so I don't know if they work the same way.

The trick I've found over the years to prevent the GPS unit from recalculating a route created in a stand alone mapping program when you upload it to a GPS is to put enough shaping points into the route to not allow the GPS unit any latitude in choosing how to get from one waypoint to the next. Some of my MABDR routes have over a hundred shaping points, just to make sure that the route follows the original track created by the BDR guys. I've loaded the same route into both OSMand and my Nuvi, and found the route to be different from one to the other; invariably, this has either been because the route didn't have enough shaping points and differences in the software used in each device to calculate the route calculated it differently, or that there was a difference between Garmin's maps, the Google Maps used by MyRoute/Tyre/Furkot etc, and the maps in the OSMand program. Just to illustrate the difference in maps between vendors, I did have some issues with one of the segments in the MABDR; Garmin maps insisted that a particular road was closed, while both Google Maps and the DOT in Virginia said the road was open. That took some silly workarounds to get it to work on the Garmin.

To make the issue even more ridiculous, I've had occasions where the route created in Basecamp didn't match the one on the Garmin after it was loaded into the GPS unit.

The one big drawback in any of these mapping programs is that they're useless if the route you're planning deviates from the road to go cross country, like some areas in a National Forest where a road might not even show up on the map. Then you're back to using an Etrex or something like that.
 
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