ZUMO 550 - REVIVED FROM THE DEAD!

[KanadianKen]

Potential public service announcement...... I found a company in Minnesota that does repair work on GPS units - and in particular - they are specialists in the ZUMO 550 repair category.  SInce a lot of folks on this forum have these GPS devices  - thought I'd share some findings.

 

I will wait to receive my Zumos back - and check out the work I had done, before commenting further on the end result.

 

Here's what I had to deal with:

 

I sent a Zumo 550 that wouldn't boot up past the home picture screen - and they were able to fix that issue, load North America maps (all of them), back fill the rubber buttons with urethane to stop them from cracking and allowing water in and install a new backup battery that is apparently hardwired (soldered) onto the circuit board.    The other Zumo I sent had a back up battery installed, buttons back filled with urethane, and all the new North American maps installed.

 

The communication with the company was excellent, the owner was great on the phone and through emails, and the turn around time was crazy good.  I think he received my parcel Friday - and they were sent back out today (Monday) in the mail.  Price to do everything I mentioned above was $160.00  USD.   I'm paying the shipping back to me as well.  Considering these units were mucho $$$ when new - and new units are stupid expensive as well - this little  reboot/ revitalization is a small cash outlay to extend the service life. 

 

Apparently the back up batteries are important to keep an eye on - as when they die - weird things happen to the units - and that likely what happened with the one unit I sent that was basically DOA.

 

It should be about a week or so before they are delivered here - and I'll come back to follow up my findings.

 

 

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[HispanicSlammer]

cool my 550 the buttons broke I found a guy in europe who makes replacement rubber pieces so I bought them. I had to use this two part activator and superglue for plastics to get it to stick but now i have new buttons. 

[bykemike]

The company you are talking about in MN is PalmDr, they just did both my 550's, the whole enchilada , updates, batteries, missing power button and program and installation of a card so the entire United States is on the machine.

 

  You are not able to fit the whole USA on a 550 anymore unless you add the card so for me this was a paramount issue. I was carrying 2 550's on my cross country trips, one for the west and one for the east.

 

  The PalmDr's are prompt, truthful, very, very reasonable and have great feedback (which I happily added to)

 

http://www.palmdr.com/

[KanadianKen]

Bykemike - yes that's him. I was holding off on naming him till I got mine back and witnessed the results but it sounds like you had good success.  And yes - I sent my Zumo's to him with two 8 gig sd cards so all of North America is loaded. 

 

Miguel - my buttons weren't broken - but I was told they were starting to crack from the back side - the urethane back filling solves that issue. 

 

I was was told that his Zumo expert technician is on vacation from Feb 6- 26 or something similar so he has a slight delay right now fixing them.   However he will still receive shipments and has a very fast turnaround time. 

 

Nice to to find someone that is knowledgeable, fair priced and has great communication with customers. 

[Ghostrider1127]

Here no such company unluckily , i had to repair alone my units 

[bykemike]

If you go on the ADV Riders forum Palm Dr is mentioned all the time, what a great resource to have! The Zumo 450's and 550's may be about the best motorcycle specific GPS's around and now that they have been superceded   many times over they are out there in the $250 range in good shape with options as well.

[JZH]

Wow, there's money in my cupboard, then... 

 

Ciao,

[KanadianKen]

A little follow up - both my Zumo's arrived back to me today and the results are excellent. Everything is as promised.   Won't have them on the bikes for awhile but will give them a go in the Pilot and see how they work. Very fast turnaround and I'd recommend Palmdr.com  !

[BonusVFR]

I got my original Zumo 2006 factory refurbished (or replaced) in 2010 and after another seven years the buttons were failing out among other annoyances.  I tried a variety of emergency fixes to included erasers and of course color coordinated duct tape.  Garmin no longer works on 550s.  Even on my KLR (somewhere in Utah) my faithful Garmin was starting to look a little shoddy!  Finally in the Fall of 2017, I succumbed and took a gamble on PalmDr and sent it in for an estimated $100 worth of repairs.

 

Well the process and repair worked so the 550 is as good as new...so I can defer buying a new Zumo for perhaps a few more years.....what a Tale!  Chris or Mr PalmDr and his work is top notch and highly recommended!

 

Checked my GPS on one of my favorite San Diego Winter Rides.  Stopped at one of many scenic spots along the Salton Sea after a couple of days touring to the East .....everybody has to go to Mecca once right!