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BRP Garmin GPS kit qustions....

3 Wheel Addict

New member
I'm considering add the GPS kit to my RTS, is this a kit that can be installed by me or must be dealer installed? Also can this be operated by the handle bar controls since it ties into the factory wiring?
 
Garmin System

I'm considering add the GPS kit to my RTS, is this a kit that can be installed by me or must be dealer installed? Also can this be operated by the handle bar controls since it ties into the factory wiring?

I put a Garmin 660 on my 2010 RTS and it was fairly straight forward. If you are handy and comfortable working on bikes, electronics and such, it is not too bad a job. You just have to find the connections in the wire harnesses. They don't give you much information to work with. I actually went to a Harley store and bought the Garmin harness because I had the 660 from my Harley. Can Am would not sell me just the harness with the plug in connector that the 660 mounts into. I am not sure exactly what you get when you purchase the Can-am complete Garmin kit.
 
Many will swear you need the BRP model Garmin 660. But if you aren't afraid to do a little online shopping, you can save a fair amount of money with a non-BRP Garmin 660. Ram makes a mount to mount it about any place you want . I put mine up on top of the dash on the left side. You will need to purchase the BRP plug to get it to work with the Spyder sound system. If you are handy you can fabricate your own . Or you can just let the voice directions come out of the GPS speaker.
 
I purchased the mount/wiring harness for my garmin665 from BRP. The hardest part was running it to connection just by the right compartment. The instruction that came with the kit were pretty good. They just didn't mention that there was a cap to remove to connect the harness to the bike. Putting the mirror back on was also a bear.

Bill
 
I have the Garmin 660 on my 12 RTL and it falls short of my expectations. I would much rather have the Garmin 665 with Sirius XM, weather and traffic. I say this because you can simply Bluetooth your headset to the 665 and your phone to the 665 and you have a system the rivals most upscale autos. It would be nice if BRP would offer this upgrade. To my knowledge the only interface the 660 has with the spyder is overriding audio through the spyder's speakers. At this point I use my smart phone for weather and have to chose between tunes from the phone or directions from the 660 as you can not Bluetooth both into a headset. Confused:gaah:so am I:cheers: FYI Garmin accessories, mounts, and cables are available through Garmin.com
 
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Many will swear you need the BRP model Garmin 660. But if you aren't afraid to do a little online shopping, you can save a fair amount of money with a non-BRP Garmin 660. Ram makes a mount to mount it about any place you want . I put mine up on top of the dash on the left side. You will need to purchase the BRP plug to get it to work with the Spyder sound system. If you are handy you can fabricate your own . Or you can just let the voice directions come out of the GPS speaker.
Got any pics of how you mounted it??
 
Got any pics of how you mounted it??

Here's how I did it wit a 350. It has the advantage of keeping the road in your peripheral vision, versus looking down at the center of the handlebars.

High-res version of these and more installation photos are available here:

http://bchauvette.smugmug.com/Forums/Spyder-Forums/n-r9Fvb

...Ben...

i-GLs4gSF-L.jpg


i-PJWKhRc-L.jpg


i-jj2JqGc-L.jpg
 
I like it!! Great idea, how bout the wiring? Is it inside the upper dash, looks like a super clean install. Is that a RAM mount? If so what part numbers would I need to get to duplicate that setup.
 
Here's how I did it wit a 350. It has the advantage of keeping the road in your peripheral vision, versus looking down at the center of the handlebars.

High-res version of these and more installation photos are available here:

http://bchauvette.smugmug.com/Forums/Spyder-Forums/n-r9Fvb

...Ben...

i-GLs4gSF-L.jpg


i-PJWKhRc-L.jpg


i-jj2JqGc-L.jpg

Do you think you could explain the wiring part a little more. You mentioned tapping into fuel gauge power, how did you do that. Did you cut and splice and if so where, etc. I have a STS and I'd like to do the same. Does the kit have good installation instructions? Thanks!
 
I purchased the mount/wiring harness for my garmin665 from BRP. The hardest part was running it to connection just by the right compartment. The instruction that came with the kit were pretty good. They just didn't mention that there was a cap to remove to connect the harness to the bike. Putting the mirror back on was also a bear.

Bill

+1 on the above. The 665 is the way to go for a complete, functional install. I just got home from an 1,100 mile trip with nav, XM via the GXM 40 antena, phone, and bluetooth, bike-to-bike intercom with my SENA helmet headset.

I ordered the BRP mount and harness along with an extra cradle from garmin, mounted the GXM 40 in the trunk headspace, routed the harness back to the radio beneath the right rear bag, and slapped the 665 in place. Looks like the Can Am installatioin but with much greater functionality. Good luck. ...Don

P,S, It was a fairly easy install.
 
Anyone know if the BRP harness and mount can be adapted to other Garmin models? We already own a pretty upscale Garmin 2797LM for our RV and would be nice to use the same unit on the Spyder.
 
I like it!! Great idea, how bout the wiring? Is it inside the upper dash, looks like a super clean install. Is that a RAM mount? If so what part numbers would I need to get to duplicate that setup.

Do you think you could explain the wiring part a little more. You mentioned tapping into fuel gauge power, how did you do that. Did you cut and splice and if so where, etc. I have a STS and I'd like to do the same. Does the kit have good installation instructions? Thanks!

I cannot tell what comes with the 660, but my 350 came with a gazillion parts for various RAM mount options, but no flat plate like I wanted. I ended up investing $6 for the plate (RAM-B-347U SKU:RAMB347 at GPSCity.ca) and a few dollars for the stainless steel hardware to mount it. The rest came in the box.

In terms of wiring, there again the complexity is far less on the 350 compared to the 660. The 660 interfaces with the Spyder radio and controls, so it need to tap into the Spyder harnesses and requires the OEM connectors to do so. This is where the 660 BRP kit will differ from the Garmin kit. The 660 cradle has far more connections than the 350, which only has power.

With the 350, the GPS unit is simply connected to flying leads for ground and power, via a small power supply. As the 350 was a generic model not dedicated for the Spyder, there are no instructions as to where to hook it up to your bike, besides "find yourself a 12V source" type of paragraph.

This is why I followed other member's suggestion and tapped the power from the fuel gauge wiring using simple hardware. On the picture below, the black 3 lead connector is the BRP fuel gauge connector, and the 2 blue plastic connectors are just snap-on splices connecting the Garmin power leads to the Fuel Gauge power. The fuel gauge power gets switched off with the key, so it prevents the GPS from slowly draining the Spyder battery while not in use.

As other members pointed out, there is very informative thread where I got most of the info I needed for the installation:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/showthread.php?27123-Mounting-a-Zumo-up-high

...Ben...

i-Hdrn7xM-M.jpg
 
+1 on the above. The 665 is the way to go for a complete, functional install. I just got home from an 1,100 mile trip with nav, XM via the GXM 40 antena, phone, and bluetooth, bike-to-bike intercom with my SENA helmet headset.

In my case, I did not care about XM radio or playing songs from the GPS itself, so I bought the 350 instead of the 66x series.

I installed the SENA Bluetooth adapter from BRP, so I still get the Spyder radio (or iPod via the aux connector) in my helmet, along with my phone, GPS and Bike-to-Bike intercom.

As far as I know, the only drawback is that I cannot initiate a phone call without taking out the phone, while I understand you can do it via the 66x if your phone is paired to the GPS instead of to your helmet. But then again, rumor is that SENA is working on a new firmware release for the intercom that will give a few quick dial numbers.

Considering everything, I find there are no real advantages to the 660 over the 350 series if you get the bluetooth dongle from BRP and don't need the OEM XM radio. You actually have the advantage of being able to stream your Spyder radio to both rider & pillion with the dongle.

...Ben...
 
Question: I have been told that the bRP 660s come with a full set of dealer's and their locations preloaded into them; is this true? :dontknow:
 
I purchased the mount/wiring harness for my garmin665 from BRP. The hardest part was running it to connection just by the right compartment. The instruction that came with the kit were pretty good. They just didn't mention that there was a cap to remove to connect the harness to the bike. Putting the mirror back on was also a bear.

Bill

Just getting ready to install my 665LM. Where did you install the XM4 Hockey puck for the WX and XM radio???

Jack
 
Yes dealers are installed , on mine , when I checked. Used it a couple of times , when I took a trip out west .
 
Question: I have been told that the bRP 660s come with a full set of dealer's and their locations preloaded into them; is this true? :dontknow:

It's true but the last update was 2009. I used the GPX
file made available here on SL. Much more up todate.



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