Will the GXM30 work OK in the car?

[twilmotte]

I have a Zumo550 and I'm thinking of getting the GXM30 for XM satellite radio. I plan to use the GXM30 on both the bike and in the car on long trips. Will the GXM30 receive a strong enough signal inside the car if I set it on the dashboard in front of the Zumo (as far forward from the roof of the car as possible)? Anyone have experience with this set up and can recommend it? Just curious. Thanks.

[randy]

I used mine almost every day for a long trip that way. I lost a little reception in the TN mountains heading up to Illinois. However it was late around 10pm and raining. I bet I lost all of 10 minutes total. However there is another option, you can get an attenna extion. Run it up your dash, and outside. Hook your 550 to the one end, plug your GM30 on top of the car and plug into the extension. I was thinking about doing that to our mini van.

[Beemer_Nancy]

Use ours in the cars all the time, even on an across country trip. Works fine in the car. What IS an issue is the sound. You will want to route the sound through your car's speakers. Depends on what outlets your car has. In one car we use a cassette setup but which works pretty well and costs almost nothing, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005T39Y/ref=oss_T15_product

 

In a van we rented this past summer to move a friend 1200 miles there was no cassette in the van, but there was a stereo plug. We stopped at Radio Shack and for about the same price plugged it right into the aux port and away we went.

 

You will need to turn the sound high on the zumo itself and then can adjust the sound on the radio dial.

 

Works fine on the dash.

 

I believe if you use the sound built into the zumo mount you will hate it.

[Effjay]

++ to the other comments...

 

When I move my GXM30 hockey puck to either my jeep or pick up truck, its used with Garmin 2730 GPS unit which also has built in XM interface (Zumo stays on the bike full time). On the dash next to the windshields, reception is mostly OK but sometimes drops signals. An extension cable is included with GXM30. For longer trips in my truck, I run the cable out the rear slider window and mount the puck on the rear roof area.

 

I added aux input adapters to both cage radios and listen to XM with Garmin voice over nav instructions during routes. This set up works great!