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As a Victorian, both these maps are now quite out of date as we have had two major bushfire seasons in the last six years.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

Tip:

Driving Technique<br> With a mental picture of your route, or better still, with markers in place, and all your vehicle preparation done, its time to start the crossing. Before you enter the water, remember to take off your seat belt and wind down your window. Using low range second gear at 1500-2000 rpm (for most 4x4 's) creates just the right bow wave. Its important to get the speed just right as too fast will send water everywhere while too slow may flood the engine bay. Hopefully you follow your markers and get to the other side with no problems. But if you do strike problems avoid using the clutch as this may allow water to get between the friction plate and the flywheel, resulting in limited drive. If the wheels start to slip, its important not to over-rev the engine but back-off the accelerator and hope the wheels regain traction. Excessive wheel-spin will not help. If the engine stalls, put the 4x4 in neutral without using the clutch and attempt to restart. If luck is on your side the engine will fire up. Now is not a good time to wish you had already disconnected the fan belt, as your engine bay will be flooded. Its normally best to use 1st gear low range and with a minimum of clutch usage, try and extricate yourself from this predicament.