Satellite Navigation

[Nick54]

I an looking at buying a Sat Nav for the motorhome where I can put the dimentions of the motorhome in and which includes European Maps. In the magazine's the Snooper S6450 receives a lot of advertising space & it also has free lifetime map updates. Is this the best one?

[lennyhb]

Don't bother not worth the extra cost, the navigation is only as good as the mapping. The mapping only has height & width data for major roads so if you input a larger vehicle it will only route you via main roads and motorways.

[crbtaylor]

We use the TOMTOM Go live Camper/caravan, it meets al your criteria and at the moment comes with lifetime map updates

 

http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/your-drive/camper-caravan-navigation/

 

you can select Car/motorhome/trailer and put in the dimensions of your vehicle.

[Corky 8]

My sat nav was playing up when in France this Sept, I mentioned this to a fellow brit on an Aire , he showed me the one he had bought some 8 month ago and was pleased with it, it allowed him to put in his Height ,length, weight , as do the costlier HGV one , Ive since bought one and find its as good as my previous tom tom if not better, and far cheaper.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-Truck-Sat-Nav-2-in-1-Navigation-Bluetooth-Mp3-Movie-Player-Lorry-HGV-Car-/260903648566?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_GPSSystems_GPSSystems&hash=item3cbf11bd36

 

[mildi]

we have the Snooper S8000,

Six month trip towing a car so we didn't want any Satnav problems of going down the wrong roads. You can put in the H-L-W +trailer and so far we have had nor problems with the satnav side.

The reason we wanted this one was that we like to listen to music while we drive. for our car we have a Garmin that has an MP3 player so you can listen to the music while driving but it mutes the music to give you the direction so you don't miss any. The S8000 will do this while the new Garmin camper will not.

Normally we plug the satnav into the Aux in, in the MH cd player so it just uses the MH speakers.

Problem with the Snooper was that the MP3 player part packed up after about the first month and has to go back when we get back to the UK. (not impressed).

The volume is not great so I wouldn't bother with a snooper unless you can put through the MH stereo.

 

It came preloaded with ACSI , camper stop, which was very good.

Also came preloaded with lots of other rubbish you will never need unless you are looking for a Vietnamese take away in St Malo???

S8000 also has a TV WHY I do not know, as a camper satnav would like it to have been loaded with motorhome dealers or LPG filling stations. Did have lifetime map updates, don't be fooled by the speed camera thing, No good to us as most of Europe you can't use it and you have to pay to load it (con)

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

Nick54 - 2013-10-26 12:13 PM

 

I an looking at buying a Sat Nav for the motorhome where I can put the dimentions of the motorhome in and which includes European Maps. In the magazine's the Snooper S6450 receives a lot of advertising space & it also has free lifetime map updates. Is this the best one?

Much will depend on where you want to go. If wanting to get to small, out of the way, places that lie on small roads any sat nav will take you down small roads. Those that allow you to input vehicle size and weight will/should :-) provide routes that avoid and legal width/weight restrictions, but there are many thousands of miles of narrow road around Europe with no such legal restrictions, along which you may legally travel, and along which you may be routed.

 

If such roads are unlikely to be on your itineries then, unless you have a motorhome with a MAM exceeding 3.5 tonnes, any sat nav will give you broadly similar routes.

 

If your motorhome exceeds 3.5 tonnes MAM you should gain some advantage from the type that allow vehicle details to be input, in that you should not get routed where restrictions apply, but do not expect perfection. All mapping tends to lag events on the ground, so it will remain possible that a new restriction that has not ben mapped may confront you somewhere.

 

So, do not assume that any sat nav "understands" road widths: they do not. As said above, the way the "truck" type units avoid narrow roads is to prioritise main roads and dual carriageways. This means that many miles of legally negotiable, adequately wide, minor roads will be rejected until the last possible minute, meaning that longer than necessary routes are liable to result.

 

There is nothing wrong with them, it is just that the extra price seems excessive in relation to the relatively modest benefits they actually bring. But, they are an evolving technology, so it seems very likely that the mapping will become more spohisticated and it may then become possible to specify, in addition, the minimum carriageway width that you wish to travel. Who knows?

[Rayjsj]

When I bought an expensive Tom Tom, go1005 Camper version I naively assumed that some form of 'Laser Road mapping' using something similar to 'Google Earth's' camera vans had been done. Silly me !

Of course it hadn't, as Brian as pointed out, they only feed in Legal and Physically noted restrictions, NOT actual road widths that are unsuitable for the 'entered' vehicle. In other words 'You cannot trust them' NOT to take you down an unsuitable road. (experience). I would have done better just to stick to my Tom Tom one 'new edition' , It was just as good, and better in some respects. I still keep it in the car. dissapointed with the expensive one. Ray

[Billggski]

Having bought second hand an all singing dancing motorhome sat nav/radio/DVD/ tv/ reversing camera/ iPod/cd/etc head unit I would say keep it simple. The handbook is about 60 pages and I haven't sorted it all yet. If one bit goes the lot has to be repaired.

Yesterday in rural Devon it took me off the A38 and to a cart track I refused to go down. It may have been 10' wide, but I am 9'8" with the mirrors.

Use a map or google for most of the journey and a sat nav for the details. You can see the potential width of a road on an ordnance survey map.

 

[Tony Jones]

We use the Garmin "camping" one now. "DESL 560" I think. Bought it via the CCC before we left.

It allows the use of smaller roads, but if it doesn't know their status for larger vehicles it puts up a "lorry-questionmark" icon. Hasn't led us astray yet!

[Brian Kirby]

Though to be fair Tony, your van is not exactly at the extreme end of motorhome sizing! :-) Not many places a normal car can get to that you can't reach, I'd think? Still, I gather you're thinking of changing all that, so the lorry question mark may yet earn its keep.