Messages

Ed, I have tried to do the same thing and have not figured it out either.  Hopefully someone will have an answer.

JB, your are welcome to download my maps on this site and add my tracks.  When you install my maps you are given the option to install the original tracks.  They are very clean and color coded by difficulty.  My maps are for Taylor Park, Co, Moab, UT, and Hatfield McCoy and Outlaw trails in WV.

The program Boyd mentioned works well, it just has some limitations.  Depending upon what you want it may be just fine.  The biggest problems with it are line styles and color control, POI icons, and it is not distributable.

I have used it to make a quick and dirty map for a weekend ride.  I think the free version has some limitations but the pay version is on $20.

Indiana, I have made several maps of ATV trails that are posted on this site.  The link below will take you to a very detailed Tutorial on how to make a transparent map from GPS tracks.  Most of the map authors on this site make mostly TOPO type maps which are a lot more involved.  It is nice to put the ATV maps on top of their maps.  It is really not that difficult, just start out with a simple one to get to know the process.

Map Making Tutorial
http://www.mediafire.com/file/b7mfd8rkabwzdd9/Garmin%20Map%20Making%20Tutorial.zip

Download one of my maps to see what it looks like below.  This is big one.
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/500/

PM me if you have any questions.  Where do you live in Indiana, I grew up in Evansville.

Boyd, my Colorado died and I just got my Montana, what a fantactic unit.  Garmin said your commission check was in the mail.

Boyd, great demonstration.  My Colorado is dying and I was thinking about the Montana as replacement.  Call Garmin and ask for you commission.

I would not get the Rino, it is a radio and GPSr and does neither well.  The radios are always out of date regarding range and the screen is too small to be a good ATVing GPSr. 

As eaparks said, the Nuvi's do quite well.  And the Montana is an excellent unit.

We also use the cheap GMRS radios with earbuds, they are much better than the Rino. 

Very Nice!

I do exactly what you want to do.  Look on this site, I have three maps made from tracks.  They are Taylor Park, CO, Moab, UT, and WV ATV Trails 3.0.  Download one of these maps and if it is what you are looking to do you can go to the link below and download a very good tutorial on how to make one.  Don't be intimidated it is really not that hard, just follow the directions.  If you have any questions you can PM me on this site and I will give you my email address.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/b7mfd8rkabwzdd9/Garmin%20Map%20Making%20Tutorial.zip

I have also attempted to attach it.

I do this all the time and have been asked several times so I made a screenshot video on how to do it.  You can download the video at the link below.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mn54e4g0shxu80u

The people I ride ATV's with mostly use Nuvi's.  Some of also have the higher end ones for tracking.  I run a Colorado and a Nuvi 1300.  Some use the 500 which is waterproof, but most use just the regular ones.  We all use Ram Mounts and most of just leave them exposed.  We do all have screen  protectors.  I think we give them a pretty good work out since we ride rough trails and a lot of water and mud.  I have had mine exposed in a thunder storm and it still works, its a 1300.  A few of the guys have gotten waterproof cases from Ram that has a flexible plastic on the front and it works great with the touch screen. 

Most of the Side by Side ATV riders use Nuvi's but theirs are more protected from the elements.  Everyone is using Nuvi's for the larger screen, especially the new 1450 with a 5" screen.

Hi Adrian, it's Bob.  I just gave my Explorist XL to my son in-law a week ago or I could test it for you.  However I think the link below will convert gpx to Magellan.

http://www.tracegps.com/en/gpsbabel/convert.htm

Thanks!  I convert my maps to Mac and was wondering if that was the same file.

I have seen on this forum a lot of discussions regarding the new Garmin format .gmap that doesn't use the registry.  I see that some of you have made maps in this format.  I am curious on how you do that.  I use cgpsmapper, gpsmapedit, and MSTK and don't see how you would do it with these programs.

Attached is my IS script that I have been using for years.  It was before the new version that allows you define variables.  I would just use find/replace to change the names.  In this script you will see a section called [Type] and [components] that let a user select certain items they wanted copied to their computer, mainly original gps tracks.  You need these to view in Google Earth.  The sections is the registry section where I write to the registry.  I did not use the new gmap format.  This may are may not be of any help to you in your quest.  You can install one of my maps on this site to see how it works.