GPS And Dash Cam.

I was doing some light research and it looks like getting a gps tablet with a built-in dashcam is about the same price or cheaper than getting the cam seperately and a cheaper gps. Does anyone have experience with these that want to chime in?

I've seen how some drivers are around big rigs and want to make sure my ass is covered with a dashcam in case something does happen.

When the GPS tablet dies you no longer have a dash cam. You can get dash cams at reasonable prices.

They don't have an ootion to keep the gps hooked up to a power supply?

I'm with Big Scott on this. If the unit dies, you lose both items. You can purchase both items separately for the same combined cost as the combo, so why put your eggs in one basket?

Another thing to consider is that a tablet GPS requires cell phone service to work where the stand alone GPS units utilize Global Positioning Satellites. There are still many areas out there without reliable cell service. In those areas the tablet may not do what you need it to do. Along as you are not in a tunnel the true GPS will be up and running.

So last year for Xmas my girlfriend bought me the overdryve 7 from Rand Mcnally. Its the newest tablet they make and it has the built in dash cam. The thing has more features than i could ever want, and never actually use them. In order for the weather and traffic to work you have to be connected to Wifi, and its not very good in my opinion. The built in dash cam isnt very good and doesnt have a good wide angle on it, nor does is show GPS speed or the LAT/LONG on the video. Also it uses up tons of storage and you can only use a 32 gig memory card per randmcnally. The tablet constantly freezes on me and lost of time it looses signal. Now after owning it for while im getting some weird screen flashing out when I run the dash cam and use the GPS. Another thing im not a fan of is that it attached to the base via magnet. The base isnt sturdy and it constanly shakes and falls off. I couldnt imagine how bad the issue would be if she got me the 8" tablet. Also its hard to alter the routes it gives you unless you use the trip planner, but that has to be connected to wifi.

The one positive thing I can say from using the overdryve 7 is the mapping software is pretty dang good. Knock on wood it hasnt gotten me in any trouble yet, but I always check my atlas. Now that its dying on me just being outside of the warranty im going to be replacing it with a normal non dash cam gps. Im liking the rand mcnally intelliroute 540. Its just a plane jane truck gps. For a dash cam im got a rexing car dash cam with GPS off amazon. Hope this help ya out.

My dash cam has three different cameras and cost less than $260.

Watch the Rand McNally GPS tablets that have the magnetic mount. It will not hold on bumpy pavement. I used about 4 drops of superglue on mine to keep things together.

Thanks guys. I'm on a budget, so a cheap gps and cheap dash cam it is. Anyone have experience with multiple brands? Do you think Rand, Garmin, or Tomtom are better?