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Yes, I believe that will install Mapsource on your computer with a very crude basemap. Give it a try, but there may be some other issue since what you have encountered seems very odd...

I would say the Oregon is best and Colorado is the weakest. But I have only used the Oregon. The Colorado is like an Oregon without a touchscreen, and personally I dislike that "rock n roller" wheel. Touchscreen interface is a huge improvement, especially for "exploring" the map by dragging it around. The Oregon and Dakota also have faster processors.

I have a 60csx and Oregon 400t. Never use the 60csx at all anymore. I am not obsessed with accuracy - I don't do geocaching. If I'm just trying to find may way back to my car after a hike, I don't really care if I get an error of 10 or 20 feet. All of Garmin's handhelds are spec'ed at 10 meter accuracy.

The Oregon screen has 2.5x the number of pixels as the 60csx so the maps look great. The new custom maps feature changes everything IMO. Sooner or later you will want this and I don't think it will ever come to the 60csx.

I doubt that any of these new units are "better" in terms of accuracy than your 60csx, but they should be pretty comparable. The Oregon is definitely faster at zooming and scrolling the map due to the faster CPU though.

I think REI has some kind of satisfaction money-back guarantee, don't theY? Check it out, I'm not sure. If so, then you don't have a lot to lose if you buy from them.

No address search with ibycus. If you want to search for addresses or have the GPS give you turn-by-turn directions you will need to buy Garmin City Navigator maps. The only other possible alternative is routable Open StreetMaps. I have not used these and don't know how well they work, but you can see what's available here: http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php

If you really need to use your GPS for navigating to addresses, I think you will save yourself a lot of grief to "bite the bullet" and buy the "real" garmin maps....

I'd suggest having a look at either the Garmin Oregon, Colorado or Dakota series on the basis that these are the only units which are compatible with Garmin's new "custom map" format. See this thread: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,589.0.html and also some of the maps I've been making: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/byuser/282/

REI has a sale through Nov 30 on the Oregon 300 for $250 - lowest price I've seen so far. The Colorado is older and has had some issues in the past, although they may have been resolved for now.

REI also has the Dakota 10 on sale for $250. None of these units have any maps pre-installed, but the Dakota at REI might be of interest because it includes Garmin's City Navigator Maps on DVD. THese will give you driving directions in the car, and they cost almost $100 by themselves, so this looks like a good deal also.

But many of us feel that driving with a handheld GPS leaves a lot to be desired because none of them provide voice prompts and their screens are not as large. You might look for a Black Friday sale on auto GPS'es, like the Nuvi 205. These have full City Navigator maps pre-installed, voice directions, and can be had for about $100 - which is about what you would pay just for the maps themselves on DVD.

Everything here is in Garmin format...

The .exe will install the maps into Mapsource. IF you don't have mapsource, download and install it first: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-install-mapsource-if-it-didnt-come-with-your-gps/

In mapsource, select the portions of the map you want to transfer to your GPS, connect either the GPS itself or a memory card reader, and use the transfer menu to send it. I don't recall, but I suspect the entire ibycus US map may be too large to install the whole thing.

I can't imagine that there's anyway to do this since the map format is completely different. Even if you could, there would be copyright issues since the product isn't intended to be used this way. I am not very familiar with the DeLorme PN-40 GPS, but perhaps it can be used there?

The problem is, you must select the memory card in mapsource. If you're getting that error, you have chosen the Nuvi's internal memory instead.

The Nuvi 2x5 series does not support custom routes - see this: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,687.0.html. But the Nuvi 5x0 does - you can use Mapsource on your computer (if you have City Navigator installed) to send routes to it.

I also have a Nuvi 205 - are you really seeing an "active route" in current.gpx? If so, that's interesting. Regardless, there isn't going to be a way to send it a route. Current.gpx is only an output file, the actual data (waypoints and tracks) are stored internally in an area where you can't access them. Everytime you startup the Nuvi, it writes a new Current.gpx file which contains the latest set of waypoints and tracks. Changing this file should have no effect on the internal data structures.

However, if you put waypoints in a file named temp.gpx (or actually anything.gpx EXCEPT current.gpx), the Nuvi will read it when it boots and add the waypoints to the internal data. You can use mapsource to send routes to the Nuvi 2x5, but they will not be accesible on the unit since that feature isn't supported.

You can also send tracks, either with mapsource or temp.gpx, but they will not display on the unit. The only tracks which you can display are the active ones which were recorded on the Nuvi. This is one reason why you should think carefully about whether the Nuvi 5x0 will really meet your needs for hiking. Handheld models have much more support for this kind of advanced feature.

I don't have a Nuvi 500, but if it's like the other Nuvi's there will be a setting somewhere like Menu > Tools > Settings > Map > Trip Log. You can either hide or show your track here. Then there will be another setting someplace like Menu > Tools > My Data > Trip Log > Clear Trip Log. This lets you erase the stored track and start from scratch.

But regular Nuvi's don't have any other controls over track recording. They are ALWAYS recording your track and your only options are clearing, showing or hiding the track. Maybe the Nuvi 500 has some additional features? Check your owners manual. "Real" handhelds have a whole track management screen which gives you much more control.

Both the 500 and the 750 have the SIRF chipsets

Are you sure about that? According to this, the Nuvi 500 uses the ST Micro Cartesio chipset: http://gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=259

On the Nuvi 700 series, it appears to depend on where and when you bought your unit. Older ones were SiRFStar III and newer ones seem to be either MTK or Bravo. See this long thread: http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=2070&start=0

The 60csx specs only call for 10 meter accuracy (without WAAS). So, imagine that your deerstand was buried at the center of a circle with a 10 meter (33 foot) radius. When you created a waypoint, it would fall somewhere inside that circle. So (worst case) the waypoint could have been off by as much as 10 meters.

Now when you returned, the GPS is also subject to the same amount of error, so (worst case again), you could be 20 meters (66 feet) away from the deerstand and the unit would still be functioning within specs. 85 feet is just a bit worse than that, and probably caused by poor satellite reception. Could also be influenced by weak batteries.

Bottom line is that consumer GPS'es are modern miracles, but you can't expect pinpoint accuracy from them all the time.

I was under the impression i could load Mapsource and Topo to my Nuvi, then follow a route imported from a gpx file.. like i would any other road on the City Nav program.

Now you are really mixing apples and oranges.    You can load topo maps onto your Nuvi - either from Garmin or from this site. But most topo maps do not support routing, you need City Navigator for that.

To use routes which others have made, you need a GPS which support that feature. Your Nuvi can calculate a route from your current position to a destination, and you can add stops along the way if desired (via's). But this isn't a "real" route because you cannot save or edit it on the GPS. Once you reach the destination, it is gone forever.

On a Nuvi which supports routes, you can create them on the GPS if you like and you can save them for future use and edit them as desired. You can also import/export them on your computer with Mapsource. To see which Nuvi's support routing, use the "compare" feature at Garmin's site. Here's an example:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do?cID=134&compareProduct=30986&compareProduct=63932&compareProduct=13431&compareProduct=14933

Scroll down the the "routes" item on the left. In this example you will see that the Nuvi 255w and 1200 do NOT support routes (indicated by "0" ) annd the Nuvi 755t and 1450 DO support routes (indicated by "10").

Also note the row titled "Auto sort multiple destinations (provides most direct route)". You will see again that the 1450 and 755t support this while the 1200 and 255w don't.

Is there an explanation on how to "make a transparent map and convert the tracks to "roads" if you want to display them on the map."

Just remembered this. I have not tried myself, but it might be an easy way to do what you want: http://malfreemaps.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=901

Start mapsource and go to File > Open. The dropdown menu to the right of the file name field usually defaults to "Garmin GPS Database Files". Is that what you see? If so, pull the menu down to the last choice, "All Files (*.*)". Then you should see any .gpx files which are in the current directory. This is usually the fix for what you describe.

As far as installing on your Nuvi 255w, the news is not so good. I don't know exactly what you have downloaded, but the only things in a .gpx file which can be installed on your model Nuvi will be waypoints ("favorites" in Nuvi-speak).

Your model does not support routes, so you cannot import them on the Nuvi (other models have this feature).

Your model is capable of displaying your track on the screen, and you can copy that track to your computer. BUT you CANNOT send a track TO the Nuvi and have it displayed on the screen. It can only display the track of where you have actually gone.