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Will the Montana 700 work mounted on a bike but NOT drawing power?

Garmin64OffRoadADV
over 1 year ago

One of my favorite features about my battery powered GPSMap64 is that it takes AA batteries and can simply mount in a cradle without drawing power.  I really want a larger screen and the Montana 700 appears to be my perfect option, but only if I can mount the unit in the same manner, again that being just in a cradle but not drawing power from the bike.  I just assume disconnect the unit in the evening and plug it into an AC outlet in my hotel.

I could always run power from the bikes battery or a fuse box (Thunderbox seems to be a popular go to) but it seems there are a lot of issues with the unit losing power and shutting down.  And if it shuts down after losing power then that says the unit cannot be used when connected to power.  Then again the battery life is listed at 18 hours so there should be a way to use it free standing without power.  I would just assume buy a ram mount like my GPSMap64 uses but I cannot see that they make one.

Any insight is appreciated.

Greg

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    There are various mounts, some of which can optionally supply power and some of which cannot.

    https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/699779#accessories

    Bottom line is that, yes, you can mount the 7x0i without supplying power. I cannot personally confirm Garmin's runtime estimates. Typically, these are bit optimistic. And they do depend on just how you are using the unit. (Map display, map orientation, routing or not, sending points or not, and so forth).

    Note that this is the only iR unit with a battery which you can change out. They are expensive, but if you need really extended runtime, you can buy an extra battery.

    There are two separate "power off" problems with the 7x0i units. One has to do with problems with the powered mount. The other does NOT have anything to do with the powered mount. Garmin is tracking these two issues separately. If you have problems with the unit powering down, open a support ticket. The more people who report problems, the more attention Garmin will pay to the problems. In addition, you will get notified if/when there is a fix for your issue.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to twolpert

    Thanks.  Some have said battery life is more like 3-4 hours if you want all the functionality.  I may be better off just connecting to the bike's power and just wait and see if I have any issues.

    I read through the mounting instruction and they are clear about needing to use the little rubber dampers which I assume is to minimize vibration.  Whenever I have mounted a GPS to my bars I have always used an oversized U-bolt with thick rubber tubing pushed around the bolt.  Then when I clamp it down it is rubber dampened in this manner as well.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin64OffRoadADV

    IIRC, the issue with the powered mount was that the pins on the mount eventually damage the pads on the unit. But I could be wrong about that.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin64OffRoadADV

    3-4 hours? My Montana will last +- WHOLE DAY when mounted on my quad without supplemental power.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Hicks

    I can confirm; I use Montana 700 extensively on MTB and I'm getting around 10% of battery drop for 1 hour of ride (screen on, bluetooth on and connected to Garmin Connect for live tracking). So in total with screen on you shall get at least 10 hours of ride, which is a lot