Garmin inReach, What Plan and Why?

[BDK]

I've decided to invest in a Garmin inReach. I know a few people that have them and are happy with them. I like the idea of a small communication device that I can have in my pocket. I do a lot of very remote solo off road travel because I enjoy the solitude. I have a very capable rig. I camp on a fairly big piece of property with no phone signal away from the RV and the booster. Even after I build the house on that property, most of it will not have a phone signal. I go hiking in remote places with no phone signal. I have a CB and Ham radios in the trail rig. I try to stay off trails that I would consider difficult when alone unless they are a short walk to help, but my rig makes me brave. I take some long distance from a paved road or phone signal type drives, and shit happens. I'm 59 and not getting any younger. Wouldn't want to have a Ivana Trump type accident and die because I couldn't call for help.

As the title says, for those of you who already have a inReach, what plan did you chose and why?

 

[Island rules]

i use the unlimited plan. still not 100 percent satisfied with how sometimes messages dont go out for hours and up too a couple days sometimes. but im using it off shore way out of your normal service areas.
zoleo is a bit better for getting messages in and out but u need to keep a phone or tablet charged to use it since it has no way to text from the device itself.

we use them both personally i find zoleo more consistent in delivering messages.

some people say u can contact a garmin from zoleo but no one has shown me how.
thats y we keep both running. seems like the canadian boats use inreach and Americans are primarily zoleo.

zoleo also lets u type 1200 characters compared to 160 for garmin per message.

garmin notifies your message recipient like a normal text message, where as zoleo only goes into the app of who you are trying to contact and really doesnt give your recipient a direct notification unless it is sent in email format.

overall the garmin app is more user-friendly but zoleo has alot of advantages in my experience. ymmv

 

[kf4zht]

I just use the basic plan. The pre-made messages are most of what I need and 10 messages is usually plenty for a couple weather reports and when I need to send something important. The people who get them are smart enough not to send back dumb crap and waste messages.

As I recall you can upgrade to another plan for a few months if you are on one. If I was headed out for a couple week backpack/kayak trip I would go to the plan that allows tracking. So far that hasnt happened

It does make me feel better about being solo in the woods. Used to not care but with dependents now I don't want to croak doing something stupid and leave them screwed. At least this way they can find the body and life insurance will pay out.

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

I have the cheapest plan and just leave it active year round, though there are plans you can start and stop if you only wanted it for something like skiing, etc. If you exceed the included text messages it will still send them, it just charges you like $0.50. I might have led my wife to believe the individual texts were more expensive than that, to prevent full blown conversations from happening.

Normal example on a hunting trip for the day would be…

Me: “Saw three elk today, no shots. Miss you guys, love you. Everything ok?”

Her: ”We are good! Good luck, love you too!”

I have experienced issues with it not sending texts before, but seem to have figured it out based on reading. These things need at least a partial view of the sky, mine will not send a text from inside my house right next to a pair of French doors. The satellites also orbit obviously, so there’s a chance one isn’t directly overhead in the “window” the thing can see all the time.

IIRC they are supposed to cover most areas within 15 minutes or so. What I think happens is people hit send on a text when they are back at the trailhead, and jump in their car and drive somewhere before the text could send, and it usually won’t from inside the vehicle.

Same deal if you’re hiking in a canyon, the satellite won’t be overhead long enough if you’re constantly moving. I’ve found if it’s an important text, try to be somewhere with at least a bit of sky visible and wait unit it sends, it will chirp to let you know it has. Trees don’t seem to be a big problem for it.