Thor Forums

[TyCreek]

A couple weeks ago I went to install some pending updates to my old Nuvi 3790 and it connected to my computer but wouldn't connect to Garmin Express. Unplug/reconnect and it died. Messed with it without success. Not totally unexpected due to previous revivals have left it without voice capabilities and a prompt for reboot that I've had to answer no to for the last couple years. Now what to do...? I previously told myself that I'd probably never buy another dedicated GPS and would use CoPilot or other tablet/phone app solutions that I've messed with off and on for a while. All seemed to have more extra steps/work needed than my hop in and go navigation on the fly ways I've been accustom to.

Long story short ... I got the RV770LTM-S. Wasn't completely happy with the choices because I've been using Topo maps with the 3790 when we hit the back roads where street maps often end. Alas no Topo maps are listed as compatible with any of the RV choices I could find. So in getting the RV770 setup and ready for travel I accept the fact that this new GPS doesn't have a powered dock capability or Topo maps, thinking it's a road unit and swapping it to the Jeep for Topo travels wasn't going to be in the cards anyway so I'll just leave it mounted in the RV all the time.

Well fast forward to nearly bricking my Jeep's built in Nav unit with updates the other night, I was on a roll and got the crazy idea to attempt loading topo maps into the new RV770 anyhow. Some google searching turned up nothing related other than some basic SD card information. Dug out my unused micro SD cards and had an old 4GB, 8GB in the old GPS and a more recent 128GB as candidates. But wait, Garmin site says max 64GB compatible, so a fast 32GB card got ordered without delay... Ok so of course I couldn't stop and wait for it to arrive and started messing with the 128GB card! After several attempts to get the stated over max capacity card recognized by both my mac and the RV770 it finally worked when I formatted it with the last possible combination method, from the mac while the GPS was connected in usb drive mode. With the full capacity registering I attempted to use map loader and to my surprise Topo maps loaded! Even better, they appear to be working just like with the 3790 being listed and selectable in My Maps.

More good news is that I pulled apart the old 3790 and disconnected the battery for a couple hours and when I plugged it back in, the GPS started working again. After 3 pending updates, the nagging reboot prompt went away leaving only the voice command option still dysfunctional. So to the Jeep it will go for full time Topo use where voice capabilities don't work anyhow.

The RV770 has a noticeably larger screen (very nice). Both pictured use the same suction type mount on the Axis dash trim making the touch screen any easy reach.