Do you use a GPS? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Trabuco · RV-Dreams Family Member

Do you use a GPS?

RVPAINTER · RV-Dreams Family Member

We just bought the Magellan Road Mate Pro 9165T made for RVers. Have not used it yet other than around town and checked out the Good Sam RV campground etc feaures and they seem to work just fine. Nice big 7 inch touch screen - easy to read - I think it will be a nice unit. Still testing it out - will report back but thus far I'm impressed with it. Camping world had $50 off so we grabbed it.

Serengeti · RV-Dreams Family Member

We don't use a GPS but instead we use "DeLorme Street Atlas"
Even though it is the 2009 plus version it works great for use.
What we like is we can program in our route and check it out and add to or delete areas we want to go.
Also it is in our laptop and we have it on the dash of the MH, and the screen is the size of the laptop.
When we are parked we can make maps of any area we would like to with turn by turn directions as we pick out our journey.
It has so many features it is mind boggling.

-- Edited by Serengeti on Tuesday 11th of October 2011 04:01:00 AM

Bill Adams · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have been using a Garmin GPS since 2003. We bought a new one in late 2005 and still have that one. The new Garmins provide so little information compared to my old 2720 I don't think I will get rid of it until it dies! There are also so many version now being sold I don't know how I would make a decision anyway!
Rand McNally has a new unit out with the 7" version due out momentarily. The early reviews have been mixed but it might be something we would consider in a year or so as they work out the issues.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

We “live” on a Lowrance I-way 600c. Have 2 of them and they are, IMO, superior to anything made. On our trip to Alaska, for example, I never opened a paper map. Trouble is, they are not longer available.

DW bought a new generation Garmin nuvi a month ago and it works, but doesn’t have the street detail when navigating so you can use it like a map. That’s the problem with all the “new” ones I have seen. They don’t allow you to see as much of the map detail as you need if you have to detour off the route line. (As Bill Adams commented as well.)

We just ran into a major road closure around Phoenix. (West loop L101) The Garmin was useless in this situation. The Lowrance allowed me to zoom out a bit, see the streets like a map would provide and to see clearly how to navigate around the major road detour with a big 5er in tow. I never event thought about getting out a paper or electronic "map." It has so much more detail than anything else I have seen; and that what I am going to miss when these units finally fail.

We’ve used GPS’s, along with trip planning on Streets and Trips, for well over 10 years and I wouldn’t be without one. But you have to have another source of information for overall planning and potential re-routing with the new ones especially.

I’ll be interested to see more comments on the “RV”GSP’s but so far none have seemed better or even as good as the 5+ year old Lowrance units.

Safe travels

Bill

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ken and Roxanne,

While Jo and I haven't purchased our GPS yet, we have been reading a lot of forum threads on at least two different forums. Here on RV Dreams, you can go to to the top of the screen to the blue bar just under the log-in box and use the search function to search for "RV GPS" and you will turn up a lot of threads on the subject.

IN addition, I'll provide you a link to the Suites Owners International Travel Club's website where they have a thread category dedicated to GPS topics. You can read through a bunch of threads there as well. In fact, the top one has over 40 comments on a question of "Magellan or Rand McNally." Use the following link:

SOITC GPS Forum Category

Good luck with the research. We are currently on vacation in Colorado and saw the new Rand McNally 7710 and a Cobra model in a truck stop. Both had 7" screens.

Terry

Trabuco · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Terry, I have always used Garmin in the past but it looks like I may be going with the Magellan or Rand Mcnally. Seems Garmin is behind the curve on an RV GPS.

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have been using the Cobra Truckers GPS, if you want the more scenic route you must disengage Truck Route setting, it works well...G

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

GENECOP wrote:
We have been using the Cobra Truckers GPS, if you want the more scenic route you must disengage Truck Route setting, it works well...G

Gene,

Do you happen to know the model number of your Cobra? I saw one the other day with a 7" screen and wondered if it had the ability of keying in the RV's length and height for routing purposes.

Thanks

Terry

RVRon · RV-Dreams Family Member

Serengeti wrote:
We don't use a GPS but instead we use "DeLorme Street Atlas"

Add us to the list of folks using DeLorme Street Atlas on our laptop as well. We go a step further and plug in DeLorme's Earthmate GPS unit so we have real moving maps as we drive the route to our destination. Of course we have a motorhome with a fairly big and flat dash area that makes it easy to set the laptop on. We do have friends who use a similar system with a smaller netbook with the same great results. We really like having the big laptop screen that's easy to see.

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Old thread ... technology has overcome all this info.

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Garmin Nuvi 460 (I think that's the number) Trucker GPS…lets you put in height, length, and weight and will route you around low clearances and weak bridges that it knows about. Works pretty good although it did not route us around a low clearance out in the west somewhere…it was in some small town in Idaho or Colorado or Wyoming and there was a conveyor of some sort across the street that the GPS wanted us to go down. Easy to get around with looking at the map for 2 minutes…just go down another block.

The biggest drawback is that it takes you down the truck route which isn't necessarily the best way for RVs to go…in some places there are commercial truck restrictions and the GPS wants to follow them…hence you end up going the hard way when it's obvious that there's an easier and still safe RV way.

I wish there was one that was designed for RVers so you could put in dimensions but that didn't route around commercial restrictions…but there wasn't when we got ours and I've never looked again.

We also usually take a quick look at google maps to choose our route…and have been known to put in intermediate points to force the GPS to see it our way. Luckily low overpasses are usually marked well ahead of time with alternate routes if need be.

We've also noted that overpass clearance numbers almost always lie. We've been under several that were marked as 13'6" which is less than an inch more than our height…and it was clear from looking at semi's going underneath (most full size moving type trailers are 13'6") that there was 3-4 inches more than that. The last one we went under at 13'6" was after we got our new 5500HD…and I just let the air out of the suspension before going underneath and then reinflated. That lowers the rear suspension…and hence the hitch…4 inches and while we don't get the full 4" of additional clearance at our highest point a little trigonometry told me that we got about 3 and a little bit of net height reduction…our forward A/C unit is the highest point. Crept underneath the bridge and looked at the top of the rig before we got too far in from the truck door and we were plenty clear.

Since 13'6" is the legal road height for federal highways…if we see trucks going the other way we know we're clear. I'm not going to say that all marked clearance numbers are on the low side of the actual number…but at least in our experience they are almost always higher than marked. Not going to go under one marked 13'5" though…not us

Second Chance · RV-Dreams Family Member

Neil and Connie wrote:
Garmin Nuvi 460 (I think that's the number) Trucker GPS…

In the Garmin lines, Nuvis are regular consumer GPSs and the trucker GPSs are branded "Dezl." I suspect what you have is a Dezl. The Garmin 760 has versions targeting both the trucking (Dezl 760) and RV (RV 760) sectors. They work similarly with rig parameters, etc.

Rob