iOverlander and Garmin

iOverlander™ has partnered with Garmin® to provide our points preloaded on several of GPS devices. Below are some details on what this means for iOverlander users.

Which devices?

iOverlander points are available on the following devices: Garmin Overlander, Garmin RV 780, 890 and 1090, Garmin Zumo XT and Garmin Tread. Note that some devices in certain regions may not include our points, if you are outside the USA, please confirm before purchasing. As usual, all of our points are downloadable from our website (limited to one category and country at a time). If you wish to manually load points on to a different device, you still can.

Which places and what data?

All iOverlander points for all categories are available on the above devices, except for places that are closed or flagged for deletion. Each point includes the place location, name, description, amenities, and date last verified. Garmin devices do not display check-in comments.

How often is the Garmin data updated?

Usually every 2 months. If there are very few changes in a region, then an update may be skipped. But it will never be more than 4 months between updates. Currently our database is changing and growing at such a rate that it is likely updates will occur every 2 months for all regions except Australia (because we have very few points in that area). You are not able to make changes to places or create check-ins directly from the Garmin devices, you’ll have to do that with the iOverlander app or website.

Why did iOverlander agree to license their points?

For two reasons. First, we need the income to build an upgrade for our apps. The time and skills required for this are outside of the realm we can expect from volunteers (we know, we’ve been trying for years!) Our income from Garmin will help fund developer time to build new features for our apps.

Secondly, it’s pretty handy for overlanders to have our points preloaded on a Garmin device! No, we don’t expect everyone to go out and drop big bucks on a new GPS! But, if you were planning a long term trip and were in the market for a new GPS anyway, it’s a convenient option to have iOverlander points already loaded for you.

What changes at iOverlander because of this?

Mostly this agreement brings stability to iOverlander. We now have a bit of income to sustain our apps, pay our expenses, and fix some major issues that have been annoying users since the beginning of iOverlander-time.

Garmin and iOverlander are (and will remain!) two separate companies. Our free apps and website are not going away, nor are we changing the way we accept or reject places. Garmin is simply licensing our data for a period of time. It’s there for your convenience, but without obligation. You can still access points just like you always have, for free, on either our apps or our website.




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About iOverlander

iOverlander is a free website and app created to help overlanders on the road find their next destination. Please help us improve our data by updating and adding places you have been.

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