Garmin Montana 650-680 replacement

[Wazza]

Greetings and all the best for 2024.
I am a fan of the Montana 600 series, reasonably reliable, considering the flogging it gets most weekends dirtbike riding, pouring rain, never hail and mostly hot. The fagility of the 600 series is the digitiser/display. These can be sourced out of HK for around aud100 and rejuvinates things.
I have bought a 700 series montana and found it not realy related to the same family. Ok but bigger but nowhere as easy to set up. What was the old catch phrase "plug and play", bring it from Aus toThailand, add a map= time sorting, more like "plug and pray". It works adequitely once sorted but I really miss the usability 650/680. The 700 is more about turning off functions you dont need, to get what you want. Ive used the 650/680 on numerous Thai adventures. The old maps from 600 series didnt transfer over either. Im a topo map man and the 700 was an effort to get functional the way I wanted it. It does have some auto function option, swapping maps as your trip evolves. I use Waze as a navigator, on a phone when in town, so I dont require the gps to do the same. I don't think i'd use the 700 on the wr450 in the bush either. The Oregon looks similar, good batt life, takes maps.....
Are there good alternatives out there?

 

[Oddvar]

Garmin calls the Oregon and Motana a 'Handheld' unit and has the Nuvo routing. Not as good for navigation as the Sumo.
However, numerous maps can be displayed at the same time.
The first Montana lasted about 150k km before the display showed lines across the screen.
The second had the same after just 100k km.
Time to buy two new displays and have someone replace them. Amorn in Pattaya, basement of Tucom, does the job. Guess there are someone in CNX that can replace the screen. Never had any issues with charging. But it is good for 3 days on battery alone, and 4 AA batteries keeps it running.

But Oukitel might be a good alternative..

 

[Dodraugen]

Which Oukitel model do you recommend Oddvar?

 

[Oddvar]

I have not gotten one yet. But most bought the WP6, I think.
About 6-8k bath and a huge battery. Alixpress have a better selection than Lazada.

 

[Wayne66]

IMO I would stick with the Montana 700 even in the bush. I am a fan of the Montana, I’ve had my 600 since they first came out and at the moment it’s still going strong although it doesn’t like getting too hot and the battery need replacing.

If you know where I could source a battery then please let me know.

Wayne

 

[Wazza]

One of the reasons for this thread was my 680 had moisture on the screen, so I opened up to allow it to dry. On closer inspection I saw the screen was cracked, that'll do it. No worries, I have a spare screen/digitiser on the shelf, so I fitted it up but did'nt connect it, thats a job for the local phone repairer. It turns out the ribbon cable connector was also damaged, this would have been it's 3rd screen.
So I started hunting, I almost bought a GPSMAP 276cx, quite expensive plus mount. Anyway I stumbled across a brand new 680T, not cheap either and I bought it. Every where else was nil stock and discontinued.
I was also able to pull all the data out of the old 680 and save it in Basecamp, to be loaded into the new one when it arrives. Small consolation.
Warwick