Trail Tech Voyager

[memphis2857]

I am sitting here waiting very impatiently on my brand new Trail Tech Voyager and I have tons of questions. Anybody on here use one? If so where do you get your trail maps? I do a lot of CAD work and I can take lines off of PDF. trails maps and convert them to gpx. format but I am wondering with the voyager can I number a trail and have it show up on screen or is it strictly lines and way points? Another question overall do they work very good or did I waste $225?

 

[earlystock]

I believe that it is worth the money without doubt. I have one on my 300 sense it is plated and I can monitor the temp and hours on it. I have never tried to import any maps on it, I tend to just ride everything and let it do the mapping for me. Downloading maps I think would be overwhelming when trying to find a way back out of the woods, even with just the single track and main trails that I have recorded where I do most of my riding it gets confusing. The one huge advantage that I have found for the voyager is races, I tend to make wrong turns when its dust or following someone who turns the wrong way in front of me, just put in a different card if you already have the trails marked there and log the track on a prerun and makes getting lost a thing of the past.

 

[Moto7man]

I've had one for about 3 years and I like it very much. Its simplistic but good. Before I bought it, Neil, here on the board, suggested a Garmin Montana. Neil was correct, the Garmin Montana would be a vastly superior device. However, the Trailtech is specifically suited for an offroad/competition rider, but an adventure rider probably needs to go to a Garmin Montana or something similar.You can number or name waypoints and set "routes" as opposed to "tracks". When you set convert a track to a route the color on the screen changes from bold to faded grey, then as you proceed along the route your new tracks turn it black. regardless whether the tracks are converted to routes or not, there is always a direction triangle showing your position. Here is the site to upload and download maps. You can upload and dowload gpx files by using your mini SD card and adapter. Now, I don't think I could get use to riding without one.

http://www.ohvtrails.net/trail_systems

 

[Neil E.]

The concept of the Voyager is good for a trail rider. Bascially it records where you go and it's up to you to manage the tracks. I save my rides each time and compare them to my master file. I add any new tracks, so the master file keeps growing. My Voyager is getting slow because I have maxed out it's memory. It's useless as a traditional GPS, but excellent as a track recorder.

You can create some tracks from maps or rework other files into gpx tracks. Rather tedious to do, and the track editing tools leave much to be desired. My biggest complaint is that it only shows a track as a normal line or a dark line. If they added the ability to have a dotted normal and dotted dark line, it would be very useful for denoting types of trails. I have an early unit, so more features may have been added in recent units.

I keep waypoints turned off because they overwhelm the tiny screen. The Voyager is good value as long as you don't expect much regular GPS functionality.

 

[liv2day]

I'll throw my $.02 in since I've been using the one that came with my bike when I purchased from the previous owner.

It's a great unit and money well spent - especially since my bike didn't come with any type of bike computer. I was spoiled on my orange 300, that kept track of mileage, hours, etc. I missed having this on the GG and getting the Voyager working was a bonus.

I think the biggest drawback for me is the inability to load TOPO maps (not sure if the current model allows this - think it was talked about when I originally checked, but don't know). I purchased a Garmin 60CSx to track rides and routes when I first jumped back into the sport and still use that as my main GPS logging/mapping/route planning tool.

The ability to load tracks and keep logs works very well in the Voyager, but without the reference of a topo map, it didn't work all that well for me. If this has changed (and you can load maps), please disregard - haven't checked into it in over a year as I use my Garmin.

It might not be that big of a deal in your area, but where we typically ride, there are tons of logging roads and spurs cutting between trails - the ability to "see" these really helps when trying to figure out where the heck we are in the woods (lol).

The only other issue I've encountered is battery life - not so great. It would be nice if they made their system to hook into the power generated to run lights, etc, but I learned that even though their documentation used to say to do this, their support folks said not to as it fries the circuit - and it did it to mine. That said, their support folks are outstanding and they shipped me a new unit when it was determined that it was toast.

I rely on mine to keep track of mileage, engine temps, etc and it's great for that. A bit overkill given I don't use the mapping function, but it's a great unit and I haven't had any issues after setting it up for (internal) battery power only

 

[earlystock]

Mine is the newest version and they still don't do topo, but without color screen it would get too confusing. Like I stated earlier, works great for races such as hair scrambles and enduros, but if navigating through new terrain then I use a paper map. A second GPS with topo would be nice at times but paper works fine for me. This is not a turn by turn GPS, the waypoint is useless unless you are out in the dunes and trying to find the way back to where you parked.

 

[memphis2857]

Kind of what I was expecting. I mainly wanted it for recording tracks and the ability to put a simple route file in so I don't get lost. I ride 4 or 5 different trail systems that are mapped very well on paper. I can take these maps and convert them to PDF and then convert to simple line work and overlay them on to Google earth and align and scale them to be accurate. At this point I can spit them out as gpx files. I guess at that point I could use a single waypoint at each trailhead to identify trail numbers. It sounds complicated but I use this software everyday creating 3d surfaces for GPS machine control technology and I enjoy it so kind of a win win for me lol. I am not looking for turn by turn. more of a reference and database building.

 

[memphis2857]

The one trail system we ride us Redbird Crest in eastern KY it is a 80 mile loop if you do all the old single track stuff. There is about 35 miles of singletrack and the rest is 50" or less. It is an amazing trail but very easy to get lost on because there are "access" trails all over the place

 

[Neil E.]

As a reference tool for a specific riding area, it should work very well. You can update your files with the recorded track once you complete the ride. I have no issues with mine connected to DC bike power (which peaks at about 15.3 volts).

 

[Moto7man]

My bike has the estart and battery, I've never had a problem.

 

[bukwheat]

I've had mine for almost 3 years now and its a handy little bundle of information. I've mapped some of our riding areas and enduros. Its really cool to put in Google maps and see a satelite view of your ride.

 

[memphis2857]

So....should I not hook the external power up to my bike? I have an acerbis headlight and was just gonna tie right into the power supply for it

 

[liv2day]

So....should I not hook the external power up to my bike? I have an acerbis headlight and was just gonna tie right into the power supply for it

I'd talk to the Trailtech support folks for a decision one way or the other.

I was told that they were changing the user documentation to remove the option of wiring into the charging system if a battery wasn't present. I didn't put a fuse between the power connection and the voyager and perhaps that might have saved it, but the support peeps said the board in mine was fried by doing so.

 

[Neil E.]

I was told that they were changing the user documentation to remove the option of wiring into the charging system if a battery wasn't present.

The specification is 12VDC to 60VDC input. It's likely the Voyager can't tolerate some instantaneous voltage spikes that would normally get filtered out by a battery. Note that when the Voyager was introduced, the documentation stated it could be powered with AC or DC voltage.

 

[HydroDog]

So....should I not hook the external power up to my bike? I have an acerbis headlight and was just gonna tie right into the power supply for it

Check your voltage going to your headlight. Not sure what year your bike is but if it is regulated down to some where around 12 volts AC or DC you are good. On my 07 I have a unregulated yellow wire also that was putting out 45 volts. I bought a Moose voltage reulator and tamed it down to work with my heated grips and charge the voyager.

 

[memphis2857]

I ended up hooking into the headlight power wire and so far so good