Budd Stanley photo
High-tech to get you home
Yeah, it’s just a tablet, but this can be a powerful tool inside a 4WD.
Story & photos by Budd Stanley
Gizmos and gadgets that help keep you safe on the trail
It is absolutely incredible what technology is capable of achieving these days. We found some cool technologies to help us go farther with confidence and stay safe.
iPad
Yeah, it’s just another tablet, something every home now possesses. However, like many facets of life, the tablet has revolutionized the amount of information available to the off-roader while in the field.
It’s not just about having Angry Birds available to play in the bush, the possibilities an iPad can provide an off-roader are just about endless. While we are going to focus here on GPS and communications, there are apps to display inclinometer information, speed, vehicle systems analysis, secondary digital gauges and even performance tuning.
For my requirements, I took ownership of the new iPad Air 2, an extremely light and powerful tool to join me on future adventures. The iPad Air 2 is a miniscule 6.1 mm thick, weighs 444 grams and the 9.7-in display is the perfect size to have in the truck. I grabbed the 128-gigabyte model, which gives me a ton of space to save maps, trails and waypoints. I also got the cellular equipped version that come s equipped with Assisted GPS and GLONASS, which means it has a “real GPS,” that uses different satellites and can operate outside cellular range.
In the Samurai, the iPad Air 2 has become the nerve centre for the vehicle. It runs my GPS and mapping, gives me a secondary digital dash (since most of my gauges are either broken or not hooked up), and it is the vehicles sound system; pushing music out to a Bluetooth speaker system. The iPad Air 2 will also run a split screen that allows the user to run and monitor two different apps at the same time.
While the Air 2 is nice and light and tucks away well, it is a bit fragile for the environments that I subject it too. A good protective case should be one of your first investments. I initially mounted the iPad to the windshield, however it blocked too much of my vision. An easy fix was to attach it to a Ram mount that connects to the passenger side windshield support bar. This places the iPad up in the ceiling out of the way of the windshield.
Part Number: Several Options - Price: $549.00 – $899.00 www.apple.ca
Budd Stanley photo
High-tech to get you home
Quite likely one of the most powerful mapping apps is Gaia GPS.
Gaia GPS App
There is no shortage of incredibly powerful mapping apps available for your tablet, however not all apps are built the same. A search through the App Store will yield a myriad of GPS mapping apps. Many are free, some cost very little. Then there is the Gaia GPS app, which costs a whopping $27.99 CAD, but don’t let that deter you.
While the free apps are tempting, they really only work if you are within a connected Wi-Fi signal to keep a detailed base map. If you have cellular, you can run off of that, but you will have a hefty bill from your cellular provider. You must download maps to use them offline when you have no connectivity, and this usually comes with its own fee’s. Before you know it, you can be well above $30.00 just buying maps.
The Gaia app charges are all upfront, and from there on it’s clear sailing. You can download as many maps as you like, and they have a massive collection. Whether it’s topo, street or satellite, Gaia has more maps than you will know what to do with, and you can download in detail as fine as 1:12,000 scale and as zoomed out as 1:1,536,000. The system even has a button allowing you to automatically download the offline maps that cover each route you map or download.
Gaia comes with all the features one would expect from a dedicated GPS device. You can track and record your own trail. The app records a ridiculous amount of statistics like altitude, ascent, five different speed calculations, course, pace and time. Use guidance to follow a previous or downloaded trail, import and export your own tracks from other devices, place waypoints or take geo-tagged photos much like most apps. But Gaia also allows you to see real time popular points of interest around you on the map and offers NEXRAD radar. NEXRAD provides up-to-date weather information for the coordinates that you are located at, or of your choosing.
Now that I have become comfortable with using the app, I can now honestly say you get more than what you pay for. If I had to do it all over, I would happily hand over the $27.99 for this app rather than play around with the freebies.
Part Number: NA - Price: $27.99 www.gaiagps.com