Reloading tracks on Nuvi 500

[xcspxlt]

So far from what I can find out this is not possible. I have spent hours on the phone with Garmin and they now tell me in order to load a track that I have saved it must be changed to a route. ???Is this true.
when I send the tracks that I see in pamsource to the unit it creates the new temp.gpx file on the unit but when I power it on no tracks show up.
If I change one of the tracks to a route and send the same stuff to the unit, that one route shows up. So I know the temp.gpx is being read in the unit but it seems to ignore tracks.

[Boyd]

None of the Nuvi series can load tracks. Period. I never understood why, but that's the way they are. This is a serious limitation of the Nuvi 5x0 and a good reason to get a "real" handheld if tracks are important to you.

You could convert the track to a route, but it will be pretty badly mangled because routes can't have very many points (50 maybe vs 10,000 for a track).

The other solution would be to turn your  tracks into transparent maps. This is a clever little program for that purpose: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1438.0.html

[alpine]

I have a 500. The Track/Route thing is true. You can only backtrack a track you are currently on (the blue line).

Here is what I do. I use mine for ATV riding. After a ride I download the track to the computer, and name it and save it as a gpx. From there you can make it into a route.

Once a month I save the Waypoints stored in the 500, and edit out the unwanted ones. And save the file as month / year.

I can't use a handheld, as the screens are to small for us old guys eyes.

[xcspxlt]

  thanks guys, Bummer, now I have to decide if I want to keep the 500 and use gpxtimg or not.
Sounds like I could use that with a cheaper large screen verion instead fo the 500???

[Boyd]

Yes, gpx2img should work on any Nuvi. But it's a bit of a kludge. Garmin's "real" handhelds have more advanced track management functions built-in.