Trails Off Road vs. Gaia GPS

[DanW]

My premium subscription to Gaia is expiring in October and they are raising the price. So I'm deciding whether to continue with it, or not, but I've also heard good things about Trails Offroad.

My main purpose is finding and running good trails. With Gaia, I mostly have to find them myself and upload the GPX files, which works well with Gaia. I love the map overlays and the 3D nav feature, but I'd like to have more trails with more detailed info that is right in the app and for which I do not have to search. I want to be able to be out in the wild and discover new trails as I am in the area, right on the app.

One other thing I like about Gaia is that it works well with Android Auto and the display is great on the 8 inch Uconnect screen. Does Trails Offroad work well with Android Auto?

Any feedback is appreciated! I will digest the info, do more research, and decide which way I will go with a subscription.

Short term, my plans are Colorado in October and then Kentucky/Tennessee throughout the winter, off and on. I've heard Trails Offroad works exceptionally well in both areas.

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[John VonJeep]

I will add that the Trails Offroad folks are people like us. They value off-roading and overlanding and support the community. A good friend knows several of them personally and has nothing but good things to say about their dedication to this hobby.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Trails Offroad is more of a tour brochure of trails, giving you pictures and details of obstacles on a given trail. It does have some high level GPS mapping capability of those trails.

While I currently subscribe to GAIA, I really haven't used it or learned it yet. But my understanding is that it's more mapping/navigation oriented and less touring information.

 

[Mocopo]

I currently use both OnX and GAIA. Here's my assessment (and why I will be switching one of these to Trails Offroad soon here)

GAIA - This is the overlanding App. The overlays are amazing, and you can very easily plan out a route with waypoints. This app also works almost seamlessly with Android Auto, and looks great on the vehicle screen. I use this to track my camping and overlanding routes. One downside is it does not have every road on it. It tends to miss the smaller and less traveled 2-tracks, of which there are thousands here in AZ. Downloading offline maps is extremely easy as well, for as large and detailed of an area as you want.

OnX Offroad - this is supposed to be an awesome trail guide. It has "all the popular trails" already in it. But it falls short these days. The rating system can't really be trusted as it doesn't get updated often enough, and most of the difficulty descriptions are canned verbiage instead of specific details about that trail. Additionally, I've noticed the trails are changing. They used to call certain trails based off of what the locals knew it as... but you can tell they have been editing stuff, and they've even dropped some trails off the list entirely, including some that are locally popular. The one good thing about OnX... they have the most complete trail mapping of everyone. Even those small 2-tracks, even the trails that haven't been used in a few years... they're on the map (even if there is no clickable description). Another unfortunate thing about OnX is it does not work very well with Android Auto. It just crashes pretty much all the time. Additionally, saving offline maps is a little more limited, and you have to download multiple usually to get the full area you want.

I use both of these in conjunction, and I plan on swapping out OnX for Trails Offroad and use them in the same way. I need a better trail guide app. I watched the following youtube video and feel like I got a good description of Trails Offroad vs OnX:

 

[John VonJeep]

Let me also suggest that people consider doing it the old fashioned way sometimes, with a guide book or paper map. Get a little lost. Put yourself in a position where you have to really understand the lay of the land and where you are relative to certain landmarks. I have found that I “feel” the landscape much more when I do this, rather than just following a blue line on a digital map. Some of the best campsites/views/trails I’ve ever found have been happy accidents.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

onX

 

[DanW]

Let me also suggest that people consider doing it the old fashioned way sometimes, with a guide book or paper map. Get a little lost. Put yourself in a position where you have to really understand the lay of the land and where you are relative to certain landmarks. I have found that I “feel” the landscape much more when I do this, rather than just following a blue line on a digital map. Some of the best campsites/views/trails I’ve ever found have been happy accidents.

I use those heavily. I have the Moab books, including the latest editions. They are great, but I've read that On-X just basically copies that info into their app, so that's a little bit of a downer, for me that they would rely on that and not have more of their own sourced stuff. The books are great, but they become dated quickly. I also use National Geographic paper maps and the Delorme Atlas and Gageteer books for Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

I agree with you about getting the feel for places that way. But I'm an information-holic. The more, the better, and I like details.

Thanks!

 

[Mocopo]

I just found something awesome! After reading your post, I went ahead and just pulled the trigger and paid for Trails Offroad, I've been meaning to anyway. Well, in the app, they have a feature to upload the trail route and info straight to GAIA GPS... I didn't know it could do that!

I tried it on a trail I plan on running this weekend, Elvis trail in Florence, AZ. Trails Offroad had the route, along with detailed waypoints with descriptions of all the major obstacles. I selected the button to upload to GAIA, went to that app, and now I have the route and all those waypoints on my GAIA map!

This is huge for me, because when I am out on the trail, GAIA has the best interface that tells me what I want to know, with the right overlays. So now I have an easy way to keep my GAIA maps, but import awesome trail info. I'm very happy right now =)

 

[DanW]

I just found something awesome! After reading your post, I went ahead and just pulled the trigger and paid for Trails Offroad, I've been meaning to anyway. Well, in the app, they have a feature to upload the trail route and info straight to GAIA GPS... I didn't know it could do that!

I tried it on a trail I plan on running this weekend, Elvis trail in Florence, AZ. Trails Offroad had the route, along with detailed waypoints with descriptions of all the major obstacles. I selected the button to upload to GAIA, went to that app, and now I have the route and all those waypoints on my GAIA map!

This is huge for me, because when I am out on the trail, GAIA has the best interface that tells me what I want to know, with the right overlays. So now I have an easy way to keep my GAIA maps, but import awesome trail info. I'm very happy right now =)

Wow, that's a great feature! Maybe I'll be prying my wallet open for both!

 

[LAM]

You can probably get an introductory rate for Trails Offroad and try it out for a year.

I ended up signing up for Trails Offroad, OnX and a couple others, but ended up paying for Gaia as well.

Gaia’s ability to load and store maps probably means I will renew it next year. Trails Offroad does have a lot of information and updates and integrates well with Gaia. But for a lot of the dirt roads I like to drive in Nevada I can’t get information from any of these apps so all I can do is create a route based on a map (Gaia) then go out and see if they are passable.

As a 4 wheel drive novice it’s nice to get as much information as I can but next year I need to decide whether to renew these app subscriptions. Current thinking is maybe just Gaia but I might even decide to cancel it as well and just use forest service and BLM maps downloaded from Avenza.

 

[GladiatorPilot23]

Nice info here thanks! Going with Trails Offroad and Gaia

 

[DanW]

Nice info here thanks! Going with Trails Offroad and Gaia

I used the combo exploring West Virginia a few weeks ago and it worked exceedingly well. Find the trails with Trails Offroad and upload the GPX to Gaia. Easy as pie.

 

[GladiatorPilot23]

I used the combo exploring West Virginia a few weeks ago and it worked exceedingly well. Find the trails with Trails Offroad and upload the GPX to Gaia. Easy as pie.

Nice thanks for tips! So the Free version or Premium?

 

[LAM]

You pretty much need the Gaia paid premium subscription to be able to load offline maps and interface with Uconnect. But play around with the free version first.

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