The New Garmin Tread 2 Overland Sat-Nav Is Both Super and Superfluous

Do you still need an in-car GPS in 2026? Does it even do anything different than your phone? Casey had the same questions and answered them by taking the new Garmin Tread 2 out on the open road.

When I think of an in-car GPS or sat-nav, I imagine a laggy, dull screen, giving me directions through confusing city streets in a stilted American accent. And these days my phone does this all much better.

The Garmin Tread 2 Overland is none of those things. I’ve been genuinely impressed by its huge range of features, but that doesn’t mean I’d necessarily buy one.

Let me explain.

Locked in solid on the Prado

What does the Garmin Tread 2 Sat-Nav do?

Firstly, it’s much more than just a simple sat-nav.

Obviously, it’ll direct you from A to B, and in the Garmin’s case, with a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) it’ll work anywhere without phone reception. This is a huge plus if you’re out exploring in the more remote parts of the country.

The part I was really impressed by was the huge range of different maps. Not just animated, but HD satellite imagery, and the bible of off-road and touring maps, HEMA Maps, which can all be layered over each other on the fly.

If you’re spending a lot of time out of phone reception a sat-nav might still be necessary

If you’re not familiar with HEMA Maps, these are not just accurate maps for 4WDing and touring, but maps field-checked by people in their 4WDs, and they include useful things like 4WD track grades and campsites.

On top of this, it has some impressive functionality that every soon-to-be middle-aged male will love, like barometric pressure, elevation (my personal pointless favourite), and a live weather radar that even displays as a layer on your route to indicate wet or icy roads.

Forecast is looking slippery!

The pitch and roll feature was a fun standout for me, to check your car’s angles when tackling steep terrain. You can also set alarms at certain angles, based on, say, the manufacturer guidelines of when your car would likely tip.

Pictured here keeping it level AF

If you really like to nerd out, it’ll even show you which satellites you’re receiving information from and where they are in the sky relative to your position (a real must-have).

While it’s designed to run on the 12-volt lighter socket on your car, the Tread 2 Overland also has a built-in lithium battery which Garmin says will keep it powered in use for around six hours.

In rare or emergency circumstances, this could be useful, like if your 12V system is down (though no modern car would still run without it) or navigating the last section on foot after a breakdown. But for me, the additional weight and size this probably adds is not worth it.

Good to know

An unrealistic, but awesome feature, is the ‘group ride’ mode, which lets a group of adventurers (using compatible Garmin products) be tagged and tracked on a mini-map just like a video game. If you can convince all your mates to get one for a trip, it’d be a 4WDing dream come true.

You can even have your dog on this mini-map if they’re wearing their Garmin dog collar!

What’s the Garmin Tread 2 like to use?

Straight out of the box, the unit powers up instantly on battery power and all the maps and information are ready to go, without the need for updates or WiFi connectivity.

The one thing that stood out to me was how solid the mounting system is. The screen itself is quite heavy, but the arm that suctions it to your windscreen is impressively over-engineered. I purposely went on some terrible dirt tracks at speed and I don’t think it even wobbled.

This thing is bomber

One small, yet clever addition, is the locking 12V power cable, which has no chance of jiggling off, even under days of driving on chattering corrugations.

But on that note, it is big. Too big for my liking and it felt awkwardly large stuck to the windscreen of my 2018 Prado. Maybe I’ll get used to it, or maybe I take driving and road vision too seriously but still, at over 20cm across this thing is BIG.

Because of its size, it has great screen visibility without being distracting and is significantly better than the factory navigation display on my vehicle. The GPS display is easy to read at any angle with buttons and writing are all spot-on for checking on the fly.

The big screen is easy to read and use though

The touchscreen works well but it’s not as nice as using something like an iPad (but what is?).

While the main navigation and map are easy to use, I can’t say the rest is user-friendly. I don’t put this down to poor design, but rather that it has so many features, it needs as many menus and sub-menus to support this.

What are the pros and cons of the Garmin Tread 2 Overland sat-nav?

Pros

The features and functionality of this unit really are impressive, and I think it really will accurately map and direct your adventure better than anything else I’ve seen around.

If you are going overland and need a sat-nav, the Tread 2 is top tier

The GPS is rugged and clearly well-built and you could happily clip it on an outback motorbike adventure through rain, dust, and mud, as it’s IP67 rated, and can even be submerged in water if ‘incidentally exposed’.

Like I mentioned before, even right down to the plugs and mounts, it’s very well-thought-out, designed, and built.

Cons

The Tread 2 Overland comes in at $1,769, $580 more than the smaller Tread 2 Powersport that’s designed for motorbikes and ATVs. This is the main con for me. While it’s not expensive for what it is and what it can do, it is expensive for what I feel like I actually need, which really is none of these amazing features.

It’s also quite large and heavy. The weight isn’t an issue due to the great mounts, but I can’t imagine I could ever get used to anything so large hanging off my windshield.

And this is in a Prado, in a Jimny you’d be nuked

To Sum It Up…

The Garmin Tread 2 Overland is an incredible bit of tech with a wealth of features, none of which I feel I actually need, especially for the two or three times a month I go camping and 4WDing.

If I was doing another big lap of Australia, I tell myself I’d consider buying one. But when I think back to all we did with the very little we had, I realise even then I don’t need it – I just want the cool features.

I remember being perfectly happy asking for directions, trying to remember to download offline maps, and just figuring out the weather from looking up at the sky.

If I had an endless budget and endless windscreen space, I’d undoubtedly have the Garmin Tread 2 in my car, but since my world is constrained by both those things I don’t think I could justify it.