What GPS and how hooked up?

[bigred06]

What is a good garmin GPS for a trike and how do you wire them into your system? bigred06

[Bikerbozo]

I have a TomTom Rider. It is a couple years old and out of date but works great. Fully water proof. Uses a handlebar mount. Plugged into lighter socket. Need to clean power contacts on trike every once in a while due to riding in ANYTHING.

[Ozarkryder]

We have a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT. It is pretty basic, I have it on Ram mounts and powered by the 12v power port in the right pocket. It has not bluetooth, doesn't play music, it show pictures but I don't have any, and it has an internal speaker so it doesn't connect to the bike intercom. I personally don't like the voice guidance and even when I use it in the car I turn down the voice. It's not waterproof, but I put a zip lock bag over it in the rtain and haven't has any problems.

What it does have is a 5" screen that is very easy to read in any light. The guidance has been very good, It will show the correct lane to be in and show a visual representation of the interchange and signage of upcoming turns. There is a traffic function and the ability, if you set it, of routing around traffic. It also has lifetime maps and traffic. The maps can be updated 4 times a year, and if I lived where there actually was traffic I would find the innformation and the ability route around traffic useful. It has saved me time in riding through cities, and the maps and basic (upgradeable) traffic came with the price of the unit, a BlackFriday Doorbuster in 2011 at Target.

Garmin says it is $315, Black friday deal was $159, got $10 off for using a Target card and a $10 gift card for some reason. Total cost was $139.00. Well worth the money.

[Lucky]

I have a garmin nuvi40 works pretty good.I plug it in to a lighter outlet.No probs in 2 years.RIDE SAFE

[wimoonshiner]

We have a Garmin 2460LMT, and I love it! We also have a waterproof case that has been put to the test several times! This past winter, we purchased a hard wire kit for it so we don't have to wrap all the power cord around the handle bars any more. Sure the Harley Zumo would be a lot nicer, but my pencil just isn't that sharp yet to purchase. The 2460 is just as good, but it doesn't say "Harley Davidson" on it. I've also found that Garmin is more "User Friendly" for me too. Maybe too much "shine" killed too many brain cells!!!

[0pini0nated]

I bought a Garman GPS last year, after getting lost a few times on out-of-state rides.

I bought a Nuvi 50 5" color touch screen. I bought the lifetime map update option (4 times per year) to see highway lane-splits ("lane assist") and red-light cameras. I turn the sound OFF. It's NOT water-resistant, but I never ride in any precipitation anyway. I mounted it behind the windshield, to protect it from bugs & bird splatters.

I hard-wired it with Garmin 010-11131-10 USB Power Cable Kit.

I mounted on the 1" handlebar with a RAM-brand parts RAM-B-201U-A (short double socket arm) RAM-HOL-GA50U (high strength composite cradle) and a zinc coated u-bolt mount.

Regarding RAM mounts, they have an easy-to-design-your-own at: http://www.rammount.com/Portals/0/Sk...motorcycle.pdf

I love it .

My Nuvi 50 has been replaced this year with something new (Nuvi 52?) and the price went up $10. Online pricing is cut-throat on these GPS items, and there's a lot of price competition for the mounting hardware too.

[Tanker06]

I bought the '11 TriGlide and the Previous Owner threw in the Garmin Zumo 550. It it hard wired into the power system, and hard mounted to the inner fairing. The power cord comes up through a silicone sealed hole behind the windshield. The Zumo is the one Garmin designed for motorcycles and is completely waterproof. It is a little pricy, I think the 550 was around $700 when it was sold(it has been replaces by a newer model), It has your GPS, it includes a MP3 player with a slot for an SD card, and you can buy a Sirrius/XM receiver to plug into it, so you have all your accessories in one unit, so only one power source needed.

Of course, the downside is if the unit stops working, you loose all those items.

I don't know if I would have been able to convince myself to spend that much, but since I got it with the trike, I am really happy with it.

[msocko3]

I use the Garmin 550 Zumo on my Harley's I ran the power cable down the handle bar and in through the rubber grommets that dresses up the hole where the bars pass through the switch cap. I then ran it through the faring down the wire tunnel along the back bone under the tank and tie it into the switch aux outlet. On my 2012 GL1800 I ran the wire along the bar and under the plastic, along the frame and connected it to the aux ports under the fuse cover.

For audio on the Harley's I plug it into the aux port on the front of the radio. On the GL1800 I bough a cable from Wingstuff that is long enough to go from the GPS mount and plug into the aux plug under the left fairing box.

[Woolie]

I use a Tom Tom Rider2 on the trike and Garmin 1450LMT in the car and Truck. I also have some others (Magellan) that I use at other times. I like the Magellan units but I use Tyre for mapping routes and it works better with Tom Tom and Garmin. I use Ram mounts and have the wire to hard wire the power but haven't gone to the trouble to take enough plastic apart to hook that up yet, maybe someday.

[bigred06]

I just bought a new 2013 Gold Wing. Plan to put a power socket in left fairing pocket. Anyone know part number for it? Also plan to get a inexpensive Garmin GPS for it. What do you do with the extra length power cord when you plug into the fairing pocket? How do you run the cord out of the fairing pocket? I don't want the hassel of hard wiring one into the system as I don't care about listening to it anyway. bigred

[msocko3]

I just bought a new 2013 Gold Wing. Plan to put a power socket in left fairing pocket. Anyone know part number for it? Also plan to get a inexpensive Garmin GPS for it. What do you do with the extra length power cord when you plug into the fairing pocket? How do you run the cord out of the fairing pocket? I don't want the hassel of hard wiring one into the system as I don't care about listening to it anyway. bigred

You should be able to get one at the Honda dealer or the same one from WingStuff.com 12V DC GL1800 Fairing Power Socket - Honda Gold Wing Parts & Accessories by WingStuff.com. As for what to do with the cord, I think there is a notch on the right side of the pocket where the wire can exit. I have mine all hard wired in for power and audio, I have the XM radio for my Zumo 550 and like to also hear the prompts.

[spiritdream]

No fairing, no aux, etc. Suggestions on how to hard wire mine? Maybe pictures? I have a Rand McNally 5".

[Calgary]

You might want to look at the Garmin Nuvi 2595 - not water proof but is voice activated - a nice feature to change settings on the go.

Watch for Garmin reconditioned GPS's - they look like they are brand new. Have full warranty and are nicely discounted.

I find the Garmin Nuvi models are easy to learn to use, are dependable and not particularly expensive. More recent models include lifetime updates quarterly.

[dadorfman]

Spiritdream,

If you are going to hook up a GPS and not run it on battery power, you need to run a wire with a fuse. You might as well run the power on an auxiliary outlet so you can plug in something other than just the gps. Since you don't have a fairing, you can zip tie it to the frame or the handlebar. As for mounting the gps, check out RAM mounts for the handlebar.

[dadorfman]

I just spoke to Garmin about hardwiring a Nuvi with traffic alert. If I cut off the plug to hard-wire to a fuse panel, I would lose the traffic alerts.

[FRR]

I just bought a new 2013 Gold Wing. Plan to put a power socket in left fairing pocket. Anyone know part number for it? Also plan to get a inexpensive Garmin GPS for it. What do you do with the extra length power cord when you plug into the fairing pocket? How do you run the cord out of the fairing pocket? I don't want the hassel of hard wiring one into the system as I don't care about listening to it anyway. bigred

Any power socket with work. Stay away from your dealer since they are always sky high. Any auto parts store has them.

I bought mine for 7 bucks.

My tech installed it in 20 minutes. The aux. cord that Honda wants 37 dollars for can be ordered online from a company in Nashville for less than 15 bucks, AND they will customize the length up to 5 ft. Plug the aux cord into your GPS listen when you need it and plug your Ipod or XM into the cord the rest of the time. The aux input that your buy has the flat connector that plugs right into your wiring harness.

[JWJ3RD]

I have a garmin 2450 I use, ordered extra cradle, and leave it on the bike, so I can switch it back to my truck when needed. Used a RAM mount for a while, but found a nice mount from a small company near Dallas, on ebay, that fits on top of the dash on a TriGlide or any later model batwing Harley fairing and can be adapted to fit Garmin, TomTom, etc. I too don't care about the voice directions. so it works great for me, did change the power cord to a coiled one for a cell phone with mini usb. looks much neater. I too just put a plastic sandwich bag over it in the rain.

[Papa Ed]

I use a Garmin in a RAM mount, had the setup on my 'Glide...

Removed the factory mirrors, installed the fairing mount mirrors. i used the RAM mount that fits into the original mirror mount position, and the Kuryakyn USB outlet for power. It has two ports, so powers both the GPS and XM radio converter or iPhone.

[brcent]

I haven't used it for my trike yet but I use copilot on my smart phone. It costs like $10 for android and you can update the maps easily. I just need to find a mount. Should work with a Bluetooth head set too.

[beautebiz]

I use a Garmin Zumo 660, and have had it for 4 years with no problems. It is hard wired into the bike with a haldlebar mount but i can also move it to my car. I love it and the cheap lifetime downloads from Garmin. They are GREAT to deal with.