Brian Fairchild

Garmin Rino 530HCX Review and Mount

For the last few years I have been using the cheap plastic mount that Garmin sells for the Rino 530 series GPS. The problem I had for a while is placing somewhere on the handlebars on my Polaris Sportsman. This problem might also be true with several other quads, like Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki etc...  My friend has a different model GPS unit made by Lowrance, and he recently installed a RAM Mount on his quad. So I figured I would order one and try it out, I have taken a few pictures of before and after.

I have 4 quads and every quad has a Rino 530 GPS unit. This GPS device has a two way radio which is great if have kids. Very easy to keep track of your kids when they are out of site. Also they are great when you go camping as the display will show where they are located at all times. I have recently updated the TOPO Maps in all my Garmin Rino's to the latest TOPO Maps 24k West. The detail in the TOPO Maps 24k is much better than the TOPO Maps 2008 100k, your also going to need larger microSD card just to hold one dvd worth of maps. We use these hand held GPS devices for everything from hiking to geocaching.

About:

Ever wish you knew the exact location of friends and family while on a skiing or hunting trip, or at an amusement park? Now you can, with the Garmin Rino 530 HCx, which provides full color map handheld GPS functionality, plus a powerful two-way radio, plus NOAA weather radio, and more. But its position reporting feature is its unique factor. Press the "call" or "talk" keys to automatically send your exact location to other Rino users in your group, or "poll" others' locations from the menu to appear on your map. The Rino's sturdy, waterproof, rubber-armored construction helps it stand up to rough outdoors treatment.

Specs:

• Price: $350 - $480. ( Check Ebay, some are now going for around $250 to $300 )
• Dimensions: 2.3" x 5.1" x 1.8", 7.5" high with antenna (5.8 x 13.0 x 4.6 cm, 19 cm with antenna).
• Display size: 1.3" x 1.7" (3.3 x 4.3 cm)
• Display type: 256 level color TFT.
• Weight: 10.3 oz (292 g) with battery pack.
• Battery: Removable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack
• Electronic compass.
• Barometric altimeter.
• NOAA weather radio.
• Wide range of maps and charts available