Anyone have any thoughts on the Garmin Montana 650T??? Pro's and Con's?

[Chachi]

Anyone have any thoughts on the Garmin Montana 650T??? Pro's and Con's? I have just bought a 2014 Super Tenere and I'm looking for a good GPS unit that handles on and off road tracks. I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about the 660's and 590.

 

[KeithE]

I bought a Montana a months ago. Appears to a great option for the S10. One negative is there is not mapping software included. So expect to buy this as a add on from Garmin.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

 

[tubebender]

Is there a particular reason you want the 650t model? Buying it for the camera may prove to be problematic as you would have to remove it from the mount to take a picture.
If it's for the preloaded Topo maps, I think it would be better option to by the 600 model.

I have been using the 600 for 4 years and only had 1 problem (2 months ago). The touch screen was acting up and I had to send it in for a refurbished unit.
I use it my cars and have the Rugged mount on a RAM ball setup on both my bikes.

The touch screen works with my gloves, but sometimes you may press the wrong icon due to the glove fingertip being so wide.
I admit the Montana has more features than I need but some of them are really trick, like setting up shortcut icons to pick a pre-configured profile.

Using Basecamp for offline route and track creation does require a bit of a learning curve. I like the fact I can keep my routes in separate categories and only load what I need.
Creating a route on the unit is fairly easy. BTW, Basecamp is free to download.

I prefer to only load the map segments that I will use rather then the whole country as it speeds up some of the search functions.
Besides the Garmin City Navigator and Topo maps there are also third party maps (OSM) and device managers that can be used (I like JaVaWa).

Over all I been very pleased with the Montana. It's a decent compromise between size, features, and cost.

 

[summitboy]

I love the Montana. Been using it for years. I use it backcountry sledding, dirtbiking, S10 riding, snowbiking. Its a versatile piece and does everything i need it to well. I have a 600. I would never use the camera in a 650. I like it powered with the Apps mount. You dont have to use the Garmin maps if u dont want to. I have 20 some different base maps. One thing to remember is the City Navigator maps will not allow other topo maps to display at the same time. U have to disable the ciy nav map if you want to use other garmin or 3rd party topo maps. There is a great Montana website. Just use google

 

[Chachi]

Tubebender,
The only reason I was looking at the 650T was for more storage and the maps already came pre-loaded. 3 to 3.5GB really isn't that much of a difference as far as storage is concerned but does help. I would never use the camera so that seems like a waste. Thanks everyone for your comments.

 

[Bryce]

Tubebender,
The only reason I was looking at the 650T was for more storage and the maps already came pre-loaded. 3 to 3.5GB really isn't that much of a difference as far as storage is concerned but does help. I would never use the camera so that seems like a waste. Thanks everyone for your comments.

You can stick a microsd card in for more memory.

With the announcement of the new 610 and 680 Montanas there should be some smoking deals coming up on 600 and 650s soon.

 

[nitronori]

I have a Montana since 2012 and love it: easy, rugged, reliable.
It is not a really complete equipment (missing bt audio or traffic info for example) but it does greatly what it's made for.

Regarding maps I heard lots of people enthusiast with OSM but i never took time to install them on my device, since it's not very easy

 

[Checkswrecks]

I simply put OSM maps on a microSD card that I plug into an adapter in the computer or tablet's USB port, and insert that in the GPS.
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl


The one thing you need to be careful about is not to use too big of a memory card. The Garmins try to load ALL of them and then not show what ever you de-select. Unfortunately, it chokes when trying to do the load and you won't see all of your maps. There's a lot of discussion about this, what works, and what doesn't over on ADV.

 

[Bryce]

the Montana 600 and 650's prices should be dropping soon with the announcement of the 610 and 680's coming out.

http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2015/08/introducing-the-montana-610-610t-camo-680-and-680t.html#.VehRrZfBVfw

 

[AVGeek]

I also have a 600, and use it on my bike (with the powered rugged mount), my quad (with the simple handlebar mount) and my truck (using the automotive mount).

 

[Karl]

I have the Montana 650 and I am very happy with it. There is a newer unit to consider that is similar, the Montera.

 

[nitronori]

I simply put OSM maps on a microSD card that I plug into an adapter in the computer or tablet's USB port, and insert that in the GPS.
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl


The one thing you need to be careful about is not to use too big of a memory card. The Garmins try to load ALL of them and then not show what ever you de-select. Unfortunately, it chokes when trying to do the load and you won't see all of your maps. There's a lot of discussion about this, what works, and what doesn't over on ADV.

so it is only a matter to drop in the SD?
I heard that mapsource or similar was needed

 

[MAD]

I replaced my 278 with a Montana 600, two years ago. Although I still love the 278 (very rugged and reliable), the Montana is a good replacement.
One of it's nice features is that it can be used as a pedestria e.g. when visiting a city, I use it to find my way when on foot. It also is therefore very handy to find your way back where you have left your bike / car etc.
Conclusion: A good, multifunctional GPS with a good battery life.

 

[Checkswrecks]

so it is only a matter to drop in the SD?
I heard that mapsource or similar was needed

Sorry not to see your question when you posted it.


Yes, you can load a MicroSD elsewhere and then put it in the slot, which is under the battery. Map source and similar are for routing and planning. Once the card is in though, you can do what you need right from the 600's route planner. It's limited in number of waypoints but works fine in the real world and you learn to live with it.


Again, the limit is that all of these 600/650 units will try to load all maps possible (even if you do not have "enable" selected) and they run out of ram.