Magellan eXplorist TRX7 - Anyone have experience with it yet?

andrewh

/dev/4wd
Im going to attempt a side load of a few apps tonight. Ill report back how successful Waze and Maps.me installs. The former needs internet, so my hotspot will be turned on, the latter is offline capable and very nice
 

andrewh

/dev/4wd
so great news, Waze sideloaded excellently. working on maps.me now. Took it for a drive and performed great, had to have the phone hotspot on and the trx7 connected to it. Maps.me allows offline maps with no connection. required. Put all the apps on a 16 gb sd card and installed via the internal file manager. USB connection to the computer allows the apk to cbe copied directly. I feel better about the value of this purchase now.
 

Cmoxokla

New member
I will say I looked at all of the trails they have around where I live. They say they are all off road 4x4 trails but most are crappy imports from who knows where and are for walking only or totally out of date. 99 percent are not vehicle accessible. This is unacceptable.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

JCRover

New member
I've been using their TRX Android App here & there for the last few months, and I do like their trail layout and options. - So far I've been using my Galaxy S5 phone, but plan on trying it on my tablet soon. (I've also been trying Backcountry Navigator)

I agree that the current TRX site has very limited trails, but it is designed as a social network to be built up by it's users - just not enough of them out their yet. BUT, you can upload GPX files to your own account and device.

I agree that the price is high for what you get, especially as it does not handle on street navigation like every other GPS Navi unit out there. - I hope they add that as it would increase it's value.
- I'm glad to see AndrewH has made some progress on a work around on this.

I was hoping to see a unit on display at this year's Easter Jeep Safari, but no luck (just one vendor selling it, but no display/test unit that I could see).
 

Fursphere

Observer
I'm concerned with the "social" part of this device.

More people know about trails --> more people on the trails --> more people destroying the trails --> more closed trails.
 

LXIV-Dragon

New member
I purchased the unit with a view to using it to do the CDT in July.

Had no issue up loading maps to the TRX site and syncing with the unit and for the most part liked the display / layout.

However I did find the unit had randomly turned itself on a few times...... On the first day of the trip the unit failed to turn on! I did have a Garmin Oregon as my back up unit which did the job. I am guessing the power switch was at fault.

Little choice but to return the unit. On a positive note TheGPSstore.com customerservice were most helpful.
 

Raul B

Explorer
we recieved a TRX to try out and do a review on it... Currently we run an a Ipad Air 2 linked to a dual skypro with many many apps. My first thoughts was Yay its android bases so i can load up all the apps i want additionally but that soon transformed to frustraton after i couldnt find a play store app. Like most people i also run other apps other than GPS like my In reach software to communicate with while im offgrid. It looks like i will still have to bring my ipad or link it to my phone. My second grip was the no street GPS function... I did talk to their tech and it will be in an update next month.

Now not sure if anyone else is having issues with their software but im finding it hard to navigate on my laptop. Im having to track what i want to do on a diff software and load up the GPX file to the TRX afterwards. We are going on our first trip in 2 weeks to test it out and see how it compares to our Ipad running Leadnav, GIA gps and back country....

If they can make the software more user friendly, allow 3rd party apps and have street navigation with traffic alerts then they have a winner.

-Raul
 
Opening it up to Play Store might turn into a disaster especially with the tie into social media sharing of tracks. Next thing you know they will have us chasing Pockemon down a rabbit hole.
 

LR Max

Local Oaf
I'm looking at replacing my Garmin 176c and Mapsource software. However I've discovered that it is hard to replace apparently.

I like the ease of use of this particular unit. Also the large memory capacity is awesome (an issue I have with my 176c). One thing I like about this less fiddling with it, it is plug and play. I'll spend an hour right before a trip fiddling with the garmin to get the tracks and maps I want uploaded. Also it has so many of the forest service roads already uploaded which is very nice.

What isn't good about this:

1. The social aspect. LOL no. I'm not sharing my trails with others. Sorry. Here in GA, we've already had 3 trails shut down this year.

2. How do I modify my tracks? Often times I'll lose signal or bad signal or whatever. So then the track gets all messed up. With Mapsource, I can modify the track manually and smooth everything out. Its pretty handy.

3. Sharing. They say with the online website, it is easy to share. Well I must not be doing it correctly, because I can't figure it out.

Overall, I'm going to keep looking at this. A dedicated off road GPS appeals to me as I've never had any luck with any of the off road apps. Also I like to be able to throw it on the shelf the other 25 days out of the month and be out of sight. The Wifi bit is nice and the online bit is nice. I can modify my track or whatever at work during lunch break, then have it update right before I go. With the device never leaving the garage.
 

REasley

Adventurer
A couple of questions on the Explorist, I spoke with a Magellan rep at SEMA last year regarding the Motor Vehicle Use Maps. He said that they were all pre-loaded into the software, but he could not demonstrate. Does anyone know if it's true? My other question is in regards to the durability of the unit. I purchased a Magellan Road-Mate a couple of years ago. About 2 months in the suction cup mount lost it's suction, the unit fell to the carpeted floor below. It never worked again. When I contacted them regarding warranty, I was told that it was abuse and not covered. $300 out the window. This makes me reluctant to hand over more money.
 

Raul B

Explorer
A couple of questions on the Explorist, I spoke with a Magellan rep at SEMA last year regarding the Motor Vehicle Use Maps. He said that they were all pre-loaded into the software, but he could not demonstrate. Does anyone know if it's true? My other question is in regards to the durability of the unit. I purchased a Magellan Road-Mate a couple of years ago. About 2 months in the suction cup mount lost it's suction, the unit fell to the carpeted floor below. It never worked again. When I contacted them regarding warranty, I was told that it was abuse and not covered. $300 out the window. This makes me reluctant to hand over more money.
This uses a ram mount system which is very good. It did fine on all the rocky trails.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 

mudbutt

Explorer
Rugged Radios just had a sale and I got one delivered for just over $400. I got the TRX-7 CS. The CS has a forward facing camera that takes pics and video. I haven't actually used it off road yet, but I will this weekend. But I have spent about 6 hours playing with it. Every time I turn it on I find several great features that I didn't see before. This thing is AWESOME! I used it today to navigate my way home just to get used to it, so it does have street nav. There really isn't enough room in this thread to list all of the features in this unit. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MP3 player, over 100,000 trails pre-loaded, I can cast it to my ROKU tv, I think I can make phone calls with it (haven't got that far yet), web browser, 2D/3D maps, on and on and on... As for ruggedness, only time will tell. But it seems pretty well built. This is going my Can-Am Maverick...
 

CyberRube2

Member
I know this topic is old but I'm new here and I had to laugh at the earlier comments on phones being IP67 rated. If your Dash deep in water that your GPS navigation is getting wet then you have way bigger problems than a 150.00 TABLET getting ruined LOL. Sorry but the days of dedicated GPS hardware are pretty gone with what can be done on TABLETS these days. I'll never go back to having one.
 
I got so frustrated trying to load large areas on my tablet i wanted decent detail for entire states i hsve been using topo usa and bcn no matter how detail the map isthat i loaded i couldnt get the app to get that much detail so it would default back to like level9 not tne 15 i loaded finaly just gave up and hought the Magellan sans camera for 299 no more problem when you think about jt 299 for the gps 175 plus 90 for a 128 micro sd card anf hiurs ----f------ing with it pretty much a no brainer as far a phone for gps i have an iphone 6plus no gps without cellcoverage i thought it wold work but 2q no
 

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