Eagle GPS, Good Brand?

Question

i was planning on buying a used eagle gps for $30

is this a good brand

i was planning on doing a lot of geocaching, but i dont want to buy it if it was a crappy brand

its the best price i can find, but is it worth buying?

Answer 1

I know Lowrance made a unit called the Eagle a long time ago.  I would recommend against purchasing this one unless you're going to geocache only a little bit.  Not many people use Lowrances, and most of them say there is a steeper learning curve to using them than with other units.

If you want to geocache on the cheap, go for either a Garmin eTrex H for $80 or an eTrex Venture HC for $115.  The key is getting a unit that does all you want and then some.  You will also want to make sure you get a unit that connects to the computer.  That makes it easier to load a bunch of caches on your unit.  Much faster than manually entering everything and possibly making a mistake.

Spend more money up front.  You will be glad you did.  I bought a Magellan eXplorist 100 for $100, and I had to enter coordinates manually and there weren't any maps.  Less than a year later, I upgraded to an eXplorist 400 for $250 so I could use maps and turn-by-turn routing, plus upload caches from the computer.  Now I wish I got a color-screened unit instead of the monochrome eX400.  Now you can get an eXplorist 500LE for $130, but I no longer recommend Magellan because of their lousy customer service.

You can get the Eagle for $30 just to get started and see if you enjoy geocaching, but if you enjoy caching, I'm sure you will want something better before long.