Satnav dilemma

[baden87]

Which is the best satnav with motorhome routing i.e. Big vehicles

Thanks

[StuartO]

I've recently bought a Garmin Camper 770 and it's very good, no compalaints at all - but then it costs over £300.

[Robbo]

If you have a smartphone or tablet with GPS, you could always try a navigation app.

 

I've been using Copilot for over 3 years and it does everything I want it to do. You could download a trial copy and see if it suits you.

[baden87]

Thanks is there an app for specific motorhome

[Agaric]

I have used copilot on a 7" tablet for over 3 years.

 

The Motorhome version is here, https://copilotgps.com/en-gb/caravan-navigation/

[Barcobird]

Garmin camper 770 we have found to be very good. One downside, don't rely too much on your vehicle details and where you can go, we've been in some really tight spots!

[Brian Kirby]

baden87 - 2017-06-24 1:31 PM

 

Thanks is there an app for specific motorhome

I posted this a while ago, but AFAIK, it remains the case.

 

"Do bear in mind that none of the units, from whatever source, use mapping that contains actual road width data. All the mapping contains is data on legal restrictions based on vehicle height, width, and weight. There are thousands of miles of narrow roads around Europe - some down to little more than the width of a motorhome and not equipped with frequent or generous passing places (I know this! :-)), that carry no actual width restrictions. The only way a truck type sat-nav can avoid such roads is by avoiding minor roads in favour of major roads. This is logical, but there are many miles of perfectly good, quiet, wide, minor (at least secondary) roads that are perfectly usable with a motorhome. Thus, such sat-navs are likely to propose longer, less scenic, routes, as a way around this blind spot in their mapping."

 

Also AFAIK, the mapping used by phone/tablet apps will suffer the same shortcoming. Sat-navs are clever technology, but they should not be relied upon to select routes unaided. It is always wise to review a proposed route against a good quality, up-to-date, road map, before embarking upon any sat-nav route - unless you are familiar with the territory concerned, and are confident that the route won't involve unfeasibly narrow roads. The "truck" type sat-navs will score regarding avoidance of low bridges, weight limits, and legal restrictions on vehicle width or length but, as above, they are likely to propose longer than necessary routes and avoid perfectly good roads that are not "A" road category or their equivalent.

 

Even then, my own experience tells me that there are numerous "A" roads in the UK where you definitely need to "breathe in" (or pray!) if you meet a 40 tonner coming the opposite way! If in doubt, therefore, deploy map first, and then add waypoints to the sat-nav to force it to go down the roads that look reasonably viable.

[david lloyd]

Have taken the plunge and replaced my old TT Go720 for the new TT Go6200 Professional. There is a 5" version too and these replace the old truck version. It does allow you to choose truck, bus, van or car and input the vehicle dimensions but the advantage of using it as a car device, So far it has proved good and one advantage over some of the previous models is that it accepts third party POI's.

 

David

[Les W]

I always plot my routes using Michelin paper maps, they give the width of roads.

 

When satisfied, I then recreate the route in a suitable mapping program, in my case 'Mapsource', then download it to my Garmin Zumo 660, never had any problems.

 

I personally would never let a satnav calculate the route for me, there are to many issues involved, as already stated, including missing out on some great roads and scenery.