Off-Road Mapping App Thread

@ADM
Please re-title this thread, "This is the Off-Road Mapping App thread."

You just started one, SocalBonza!

For OnX on downloads, I just download multiple areas. So I went out to Moab with a friend, and I knew I wanted offline maps. Though I didn't know where we were going to be wheeling, so I just created overlapping downloadable sections around Moab. You're only limit will be space on your device.

I can’t be the only old guy here who remembers using paper maps, can I?

All popular off road locations have maps and if you are a AAA member, I believe they provide free maps too!

Bschurr

I can’t be the only old guy here who remembers using paper maps, can I?

All popular off road locations have maps and if you are a AAA member, I believe they provide free maps too!

I like the Delorme Gazetteers. Large and well detailed, especially for the western states. First, they have the paved roads and you can eyeball your general route or region and get a feel for the topography. They'll show unpaved roads, and give you a good idea of the type of topography you pass through, plus facilities and attractions, like lodging, gas, boat ramps, fishing spots, campgrounds. Once you've decided upon an area or a quadrant, you can go to a more detailed satellite program like Gaia or onX.

Bschurr

I can’t be the only old guy here who remembers using paper maps, can I?

All popular off road locations have maps and if you are a AAA member, I believe they provide free maps too!

ThoseAAA maps don't usually have much detail for the trails inMoab, for example. Personally, I'm a big fan of the FunTreksbooks. They have a lot of great information on the trails,, as well as maps. But in the end, I prefer something like OnX since it provides me with GPS location so I can follow along and make sure I'm on the right course.

Bschurr

I can’t be the only old guy here who remembers using paper maps, can I?

All popular off road locations have maps and if you are a AAA member, I believe they provide free maps too!

So, I am old, and have enjoyed paper maps for the majority of my life. AND, they don't tell you much about the trail. At my experience level, I need to avoid reds and blacks, and probably lots of blues. The FunTreks books are sort of the middle ground though. Written information, but good trail info.
And, this is sort of the problem with the FunTreks books. I have the ones for CA, AZ, and UT. And I have used them. But the written information was a bit out of date for my recent Moab trip. And the books have only the main trails, AFAICT.

And, as noted, knowing where you are on whatever trail is VERY useful. I have an iPad Mini with cellular capability, so it has a built in GPS, and it has been fabulous the many times my phone gave up the cellular ghost...

BostonBadlands

I like the Delorme Gazetteers. Large and well detailed, especially for the western states. First, they have the paved roads and you can eyeball your general route or region and get a feel for the topography. They'll show unpaved roads, and give you a good idea of the type of topography you pass through, plus facilities and attractions, like lodging, gas, boat ramps, fishing spots, campgrounds. Once you've decided upon an area or a quadrant, you can go to a more detailed satellite program like Gaia or onX.

I really like that Gaia lets me download whatever area I want. Gaia also shows normal road and place names, unlike TrailsOffroad. But Gaia doesn't have much in the way of trail info. TrailsOffroad has lots of trail info, for the trails it has, and is supposed to integrate well with Gaia, but that has been hit-or-miss in my limited experience.

SocalBonanza

I have OnX, AllTrails, TrailsOffroad, and Gaia. I have tried them all, and as best I can tell they all have some major limitation. For instance, OnX lets you download only a very small area at a time for offline use. What do people do to get around that?

In searching, I see a few threads where people have said, I like X, or I like Y, but I did not find any threads where people could talk through the limitations of X or Y.

Is there a thread here where people talk about these sorts of things?

There have been some, but they have mostly focused on which one to pick, not how to use them. However, OnX has an entire YouTube channel devoted to videos that show you how to use OnX. You can find that here. The most recent 101 can be found here. If you want info just on off-line maps, jump to 27:25 in the video, and it starts right after that.

One of the coolest features of OnX is the ability to share your routes with your friends, or anyone who's going on a trail run with you. For example, I created a route, with waypoints for a run I'm leading on Thursday at Big Bear Bronco Bash. Click Here. When you click on that link, it will take you to OnX Offroad and create a folder in your My Contents tab. In that folder is the route, along with all of the waypoints I created. Once you have that in your My Contents you don't need the link anymore. Once you have that route, you can start downloading offline maps that cover that route so that if you do lose internet connectivity, you will have all that info still available.

Finally, if you have specific questions, and the videos aren't helping you, then you can ask one of the OnX Trail Guides that hang out here on The Bronco Nation, including me.

Michael_T

For OnX on downloads, I just download multiple areas. So I went out to Moab with a friend, and I knew I wanted offline maps. Though I didn't know where we were going to be wheeling, so I just created overlapping downloadable sections around Moab. You're only limit will be space on your device.

I will give that a shot! Thank you!

And, I still wish they let me choose the area I want downloaded... 😀

(First world problems, eh? 😂 )

I ran a GROK AI against OnX and GAIA. Over all GAIA got a better rating. I like GAIA, use Google Earth from time to time when on the trail. I tried GAIA using the car play. It was nice to see it on the bigger screen, but it lost a lot of the map detail. I generally pick an area an start driving. My wife used to complain about all the side roads I took. I can't remember which one I left her on. Maybe I should use GAIA more??

Since we re talking about offline maps, one of the challenges some folks have run into with OnX in fringe area (i.e. where you have only 1 or 2 bars, etc.) is that OnX starts acting strangely and burns a lot of battery.

If your iPhone still has cellular data enabled, other parts of iOS or the OnX app may still try to reach the network in the background — particularly for:

• Syncing waypoints
• Cloud backups
• Layer updates (if toggled)
• Live traffic or weather data (if any)

Just putting OnX in offline map mode, doesn't solve the entire issue. Here's some suggestions for when you're in the back country and in fringe areas for cell coverage:

To truly eliminate the “fringe coverage penalty,” do all of the following:

1. Download all necessary maps (all zoom levels, wide radius) to your iphone, iPad, etc.
2. Manually enable Offline Mode in OnX.
3. Go to Settings > Cellular and turn off Cellular Data — this is the key step that makes iOS stop trying to help with network services.
4. Keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ON for CarPlay to keep working.

This gives you:

• GPS + offline tiles
• CarPlay map display
• No unnecessary network retries
• Better battery life and app stability

I've got Gaia, trails off road, onX and now the Polaris Ride now.
While Gaia doesn't give trail ratings. I use the Gaia the most when I'm just out in the desert in the bronco or sxs. When hiking and even finding my way back from a bar in Mexico.

I've just learned by trial and error.
I got a lot of help with onX in Moab from the folks we were with. Over dinner no less.
They all have so many options, I think you just focus on one and then just make it do one thing.

I'll follow this thread for sure.

For those of you who mostly use OnX...

TrailsOffroad has a feature where people who add trip reports can say whether they thought the trails was easier, harder, or spot on the rating. Then there is a graph showing the average of what people thought of the given rating.

In looking in OnX, I saw ratings, but I did not see a way for the community to give feedback on that rating.

So, two questions:

1. Does OnX have such a feature, and if so, how does one access it?

2. How does OnX get its ratings?

JoergH

There have been some, but they have mostly focused on which one to pick, not how to use them. However, OnX has an entire YouTube channel devoted to videos that show you how to use OnX. You can find that here. The most recent 101 can be found here. If you want info just on off-line maps, jump to 27:25 in the video, and it starts right after that.

One of the coolest features of OnX is the ability to share your routes with your friends, or anyone who's going on a trail run with you. For example, I created a route, with waypoints for a run I'm leading on Thursday at Big Bear Bronco Bash. Click Here. When you click on that link, it will take you to OnX Offroad and create a folder in your My Contents tab. In that folder is the route, along with all of the waypoints I created. Once you have that in your My Contents you don't need the link anymore. Once you have that route, you can start downloading offline maps that cover that route so that if you do lose internet connectivity, you will have all that info still available.

Finally, if you have specific questions, and the videos aren't helping you, then you can ask one of the OnX Trail Guides that hang out here on The Bronco Nation, including me.

368 videos! Yep. Lots of content. Mostly, it looks like the Pros sharing trips/routes. IMO, there should be a pinned video that says, READ.ME or some such... 😀 That way total newbies like me have some clue. Even looking at just the "Masterclass 101" there are dozens of them, and about 1 hour each. And they are answering random questions from those who joined. I think I need a "Novice Class 1." 😀

JoergH

Since we re talking about offline maps, one of the challenges some folks have run into with OnX in fringe area (i.e. where you have only 1 or 2 bars, etc.) is that OnX starts acting strangely and burns a lot of battery.

If your iPhone still has cellular data enabled, other parts of iOS or the OnX app may still try to reach the network in the background — particularly for:

• Syncing waypoints
• Cloud backups
• Layer updates (if toggled)
• Live traffic or weather data (if any)

Just putting OnX in offline map mode, doesn't solve the entire issue. Here's some suggestions for when you're in the back country and in fringe areas for cell coverage:

To truly eliminate the “fringe coverage penalty,” do all of the following:

1. Download all necessary maps (all zoom levels, wide radius) to your iphone, iPad, etc.
2. Manually enable Offline Mode in OnX.
3. Go to Settings > Cellular and turn off Cellular Data — this is the key step that makes iOS stop trying to help with network services.
4. Keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ON for CarPlay to keep working.

This gives you:

• GPS + offline tiles
• CarPlay map display
• No unnecessary network retries
• Better battery life and app stability

I have a mount attached to the passenger grab handle that holds my iPad. And then I run a charging cord to the iPad. In theory, I never run out of battery.

Do most people NOT plug the iPad into power?

SocalBonanza

368 videos! Yep. Lots of content. Mostly, it looks like the Pros sharing trips/routes. IMO, there should be a pinned video that says, READ.ME or some such... 😀 That way total newbies like me have some clue. Even looking at just the "Masterclass 101" there are dozens of them, and about 1 hour each. And they are answering random questions from those who joined. I think I need a "Novice Class 1." 😀

Check out the one that I linked in my previous post. That's the most recent 101 Class. That should be a good starting point for you. In general, they tend to make updated videos a lot, so just look at the dates and grab the most recent one for the topic you're interested in.

SocalBonanza

I have a mount attached to the passenger grab handle that holds my iPad. And then I run a charging cord to the iPad. In theory, I never run out of battery.

Do most people NOT plug the iPad into power?

I use my iPhone, plugged into power, and connected to CarPlay. With the large screen, it's easy to read and see where I'm at.

SocalBonanza

For those of you who mostly use OnX...

TrailsOffroad has a feature where people who add trip reports can say whether they thought the trails was easier, harder, or spot on the rating. Then there is a graph showing the average of what people thought of the given rating.

In looking in OnX, I saw ratings, but I did not see a way for the community to give feedback on that rating.

So, two questions:

1. Does OnX have such a feature, and if so, how does one access it?

2. How does OnX get its ratings?

#1 OnX takes a different approach. In OnX the TrailGuide that mapped that trail (note, trail, not a route that contains parts of multiple trails) decides what the rating should be based on objective criteria that have been laid out by OnX what the ratings should be for trails. The current criteria are:

🟢 Easy (Ratings 1–3)

• 1: Dirt or rocky roads with gentle grades; suitable for most 4WD and high-clearance 2WD vehicles.
• 2: Unmaintained dirt or rocky roads; may include shallow water crossings and obstacles under 12 inches.
• 3: Uneven, rutted dirt trails with potential for loose rocks, sandy washes, and obstacles up to 12 inches.

🔵 Intermediate (Ratings 4–6)

• 4: Rutted dirt trails with loose rocks, sand, erosion, and obstacles up to 18 inches.
• 5: Similar to rating 4 but with obstacles up to 2 feet and potential water crossings up to 18 inches deep.
• 6: Very rocky, rutted, and off-camber trails with obstacles up to 3 feet and potential for deep water crossings.

⚫ Advanced (Ratings 7–8)

• 7: Off-camber trails with deep holes and large rocks; obstacles and ledges up to 5 feet and near-vertical grades 8–10 feet tall.
• 8: Similar to rating 7 but with obstacles up to 6 feet and near-vertical grades 12–14 feet tall.

🔴 Extreme (Ratings 9–10)

• 9: Trails with obstacles and ledges up to 8 feet and near-vertical grades 15–18 feet tall; vehicle damage and roll-overs are likely.
• 10: Extreme caution advised; obstacles exceeding 10 feet and near-vertical grades over 18 feet; vehicle damage and roll-overs are extremely likely.

Note that these are objective based on the conditions of the trail itself, and are based on the most difficult obstacle for which there is no bypass. We use these in order to avoid "opinion" on the part of the TrailGuide based on his/her vehicle, etc.

#2 If you go to a trail, you'll notice that there is a tab called Trail Reports. That's where people can post info about current trail conditions. Trails change over time, so this is a way to get more updated information on that trail including if it's gotten more difficult, etc. I do suggest you be careful in looking at these since there's no guarantee that the person posting it is using the same criteria as above, and there's a high likelihood that their opinion is based on what kind of vehicle they are driving and not objectively based on the trail itself. I can't tell you how many times someone has complained that the trail rating is too high, and when I look at the vehicle they are driving a built Jeep with 40's and One-tons.

SocalBonanza

I will give that a shot! Thank you!

And, I still wish they let me choose the area I want downloaded... 😀

(First world problems, eh? 😂 )

I maybe misunderstanding your second thought, but when you create a downloadable map in OnX, you can select which ones you want. You don't have to download every single one. Once I was done in Moab, I removed the maps from my device. But they are still available to be redownloaded.