Using Tablet For GPS

NCJeeplover

NCJeeplover

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Location
Claremont, NC
After being a Garmin faithful for many years, I've finely given up on them.

On our trip to Harlan, we go a little out of our way to avoid pulling 2 grades. I like having the gps pulled up because it keeps me aware of arrival time, distance to turns, all the normal stuff. With my Garmin, you have to either manually set the turns as waypoints, or go online and set the route with Basecamp. Basecamp is one of the most confusing peices of software I've tried to work with. I give up. On google maps, you just click where you want to modify the route, and upload to your phone. Easy peasy!

I don't like using my phone as a GPS because I receive way to many calls during my drive to be able to constantly watch it. Some of my calls are about what time I'm going to arrive, which makes it even harder to check.

On my last trip to Harlan, I used an old phone just for the GPS along with my hotspot. It was like a breath of fresh air, until the phone started doing crazy stuff. I can't blame it, its old and doesn't work with most apps nowadays (its an S4). I started thinking about buying a phone dedicated to GPS work, and then I thought what about a tablet? Larger screen than a phone, significantly cheaper than a phone, and I believe I read something about the ultra 4 guys using them in the race cars.

Cliff notes; Are any of you using a tablet for GPS? If so, what are you using and how does it work?
 
New head unit that will do Android Auto.
I put one in my work truck and gave been very hapy with it.
Plug phone in, stick out of sight in center glove box, and everything goes through the double din touch screen display. Streaming music, google maps or Waze, and my phone w/ contact list available.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
Chris_M said:
New head unit that will do Android Auto.
I put one in my work truck and gave been very hapy with it.
Plug phone in, stick out of sight in center glove box, and everything goes through the double din touch screen display. Streaming music, google maps or Waze, and my phone w/ contact list available.
Click to expand...

Android Auto is a very good solution, as you will have the phone capability and GPS at the same time. There will be issues if you want to switch a private phone call to handset mode (instead of speaker), because (if I remember) you'll lose GPS/nav audio when you do that as well. We use that all the time on trips in rental cars that have native Android Auto, and my truck (2015 Colorado) was supposed to have Android Auto support but they postponed until 2016 with a more powerful infotainment processor (not bitter at all......).

If you want to keep everything portable between vehicles (no aftermarket head unit) and have completely separate phone and GPS functions, the tablet is probably the way to go. There are tablets with a cellular modem built in (like a phone) instead of just WiFi hardware, so you can buy one that doesn't need a separate hotspot, unless you want to save money and use your existing hotspot.
Any Android tablet will work almost exactly like an Android phone, so there's really not much difference between using one versus using the other except for the larger screen.

Plus, you can watch movies during those long uphill sections! :D
 
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I use a Samsung tablet with AT&T. Works well for me. I use one of the cd slide in phone holders that has a magnet mount.

20190704_170216_HDR.jpg
 
Chapel Hill Tire said:
I use a Samsung tablet with AT&T. Works well for me. I use one of the cd slide in phone holders that has a magnet mount.

View attachment 298675
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I like this set up. I believe its what I'm going to go with, just a wifi only version. I want to keep the hotspot because I use it for my laptop while I work.

What map apps are good and user friendly? Would a gps antenna help keep signal? What app are you using for the weather shown on there?

Does the magnet mount hold well? Like good enough for a 1 ton truck on rough roads (think south carolina roads)?
 
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Also, I don't know if there are still any tablets on the market that are WiFi-only but don't have a built-in GPS receiver, but it's worth checking specs before you buy just in case. There used to be a few that didn't.
 
Fabrik8 said:
Also, I don't know if there are still any tablets on the market that are WiFi-only but don't have a built-in GPS receiver, but it's worth checking specs before you buy just in case. There used to be a few that didn't.
Click to expand...

There still are. All the Amazon Fire tables don't have gps. I think I may just go with a Samsung tablet. It seems to be the best mix of bang for buck, also I've had good luck with there products before.
 
NCJeeplover said:
There still are. All the Amazon Fire tables don't have gps. I think I may just go with a Samsung tablet. It seems to be the best mix of bang for buck, also I've had good luck with there products before.
Click to expand...
If prime.days is still running there is a Samsung tab a with Gps for 157
 
NCJeeplover said:
After being a Garmin faithful for many years, I've finely given up on them.

On our trip to Harlan, we go a little out of our way to avoid pulling 2 grades.
Click to expand...
How did you go??
 
1-tonmudder said:
How did you go??
Click to expand...

The first change is instead of going up 181 from Morganton to Newland, I go up 321 through Boone and Blowing Rock. Takes a little longer but towing up 181 does not sound fun.

The second change is the same one that alot of people do. We go straight at the light in Duffield and through Big Stone Gap.

On a side note, we went up on the 4th of July this year and when we went through Big Stone Gap they were getting ready for the parade. I'm talking cops at the intersections and people all up and down the sides of the roads in lawn chairs. The parade couldnt have been minutes from starting. We roll though with about 4 rigs and trailers. Right in the middle of downtown! Everyone start looking and pointing, so my son just starts waving like he's on a float in a parade!
 
NCJeeplover said:
I've only went the other way once. I much prefer the Big Stone Gap way. I really only adds 10 minutes to a 4 hour trip, so I don't mind.
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Yeah I've mentioned it here a few times but your the only one I've ever heard of that went that way besides me.Alot easier on a truck.
 
When we travel, we use our Ipad Air 2 with Verizon service. I love it because it gives real time traffic updates and will re-route accordingly. We were heading to Atlanta one time and after we had stopped for dinner, the GPS said 2 hours left to go. We drove for about a half an hour and it still said roughly 2 hours left. As we drove further and further, the time never clicked down, but the miles did. All the sudden, about 20 miles outside of Atlanta, it offers a re-route that will shave an hour and 45 minutes off the travel time, bypassing a 6 lane wreck that closed the highway that had happened a while back. Our arrival time was still within minutes of the initial ETA.
 
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