This site has some great, free topo's that work with the Garmin Map Source software...
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/
nuvi 1300 and Topo
Does anyone have first hand experience with the Garmin Topo maps on a nuvi 1300? I would like to know if the Garmin branded 24K maps of the southwest are worth the ka-ching. I currently drag out a bunch of paper maps, and hand-heal e-trex for my navigation. It would sure be nice to have a large screen; at my age I can’t see jack sh!t.
BTW: Any novel GPS mounting photos???
BTW: Any novel GPS mounting photos???
1 - 10 of 10 Posts
I have a hand-held old style GPS unit that I've used for years BUT just recently got a Nuvi 1390 or something? Does it support loading maps in it even? Wow-if so, you just gave me a great resource! I'll have to check that site and a few others now I suppose. Can't answer your question, but you just gave me a new hope!
Best of Luck,
Mike
Best of Luck,
Mike
The good; the bad and the ugly..
This is my recent experience with the nuvi 1300. I had been using an older e-trex for my wheeling navigation. This was done by setting waypoints and having a boat load of marked up 24K topo maps. I had also been running an early version of the Garmin Map Source software from around 2005, using this to manage way points and tracks.
This past Christmas, Wally-World put the nuvi 1300’s on sale for under $80.00 bucks. At that price I couldn’t it pass up; bought two.
So now I have this nuvi 1300 with all the bells whistles and cute voices. I did the online registration and started shopping for topo maps. Finding “gpsfiledepot” was a huge help; this is where I found out about updating my GMS (Garmin Map Source) software so that it would recognize my nuvi 1300.
I then proceeded to down-load a topo set of the New Jersey pine lands (Boyd’s) and a full set of Utah maps. All these maps were easily loaded onto a 2GB micro SD card via the GMS software with plenty of room to spare.
Ureka!!! The nuvi 1300 displays the New Jersey maps as if you were looking at a USGS map. Unfortunately, the Utah maps displayed very poorly on the nuvi; elevation lines were broad and trails were hard to discriminate.
I am going ahead and purchase the Garmin topo maps of the South-West and see how they work out for me. (Moab in June). I have a feeling that the Garmin maps are going to fit my needs.
I am sort of excited about this; I wasn’t expecting a nuvi 1300 to be a worthy platform for off road navigation.
This is my recent experience with the nuvi 1300. I had been using an older e-trex for my wheeling navigation. This was done by setting waypoints and having a boat load of marked up 24K topo maps. I had also been running an early version of the Garmin Map Source software from around 2005, using this to manage way points and tracks.
This past Christmas, Wally-World put the nuvi 1300’s on sale for under $80.00 bucks. At that price I couldn’t it pass up; bought two.
So now I have this nuvi 1300 with all the bells whistles and cute voices. I did the online registration and started shopping for topo maps. Finding “gpsfiledepot” was a huge help; this is where I found out about updating my GMS (Garmin Map Source) software so that it would recognize my nuvi 1300.
I then proceeded to down-load a topo set of the New Jersey pine lands (Boyd’s) and a full set of Utah maps. All these maps were easily loaded onto a 2GB micro SD card via the GMS software with plenty of room to spare.
Ureka!!!
The nuvi 1300 displays the New Jersey maps as if you were looking at a USGS map. Unfortunately, the Utah maps displayed very poorly on the nuvi; elevation lines were broad and trails were hard to discriminate. I am going ahead and purchase the Garmin topo maps of the South-West and see how they work out for me. (Moab in June). I have a feeling that the Garmin maps are going to fit my needs.
I am sort of excited about this; I wasn’t expecting a nuvi 1300 to be a worthy platform for off road navigation.
My Nuvi 1390t with the RAM mount and Rock Hard accessories bracket... yeah kinda an expensive mount but I like it much better than the windshield.
Before
![]()
After
![]()
![]()
![]()
Before
After
4
1 - 10 of 10 Posts
