I’ve had my Garmin Nuvi 760 for around eight months now.  I am very happy with the unit itself and the Sensis base map that came with the unit, but as an avid Four Wheel driver, it wasn’t long before I had T4A and Shonky maps installed.

As a Victorian, both these maps are now quite out of date as we have had two major bushfire seasons in the last six years.

This has meant a major realigning of a lot of tracks so they are more accessible for fire trucks.  Instead of straight up/down the side of a mountain, the tracks now snake around the mountains and sometimes have multiple hair pin bends.

I soon settled on Shonky maps and just put up with the missing or realigned tracks until I couldn’t stand it any longer.

I have now started a project to re-map all my trips onto the Shonky maps.

This involves a lot of work, but there is also a lot of pleasure in getting the tracks right.  I have even started noting extra steep sections of track and in future will note those magnificent little camp spots that you can never remember exactly where they are.

Perhaps if any of you run Garmin GPS units that are capable of breadcrumbing, you could send me the file and I could add thes to the maps also.

Any other ideas or thoughts, just let me know.

See you out there!

Walking the Crossing When walking your water crossings its best to walk in the intended wheel tracks to find if there are any hidden rocks or potholes, as well as for checking the depth. Potholes at common crossings are often caused by previous 4x4 spinning their wheels after hitting a submerged rock. So if you find a pothole, check for submerged rocks. It's a good idea to place markers at these points so you can avoid them. Its been known for a vehicle attempting a relatively easy crossing to suck in water when a single pothole has caused the hood to momentarily dip below the water level, causing water to enter the air intake, resulting in hydro-lock and a damaged engine.