Which sat nav is best?

[Rayjsj]

Reading the above about TT poi s, i cant see me upgrading any time soon. Why does an otherwise tech savvy company like TT, throw the baby out with the bathwater when upgrading their software ?? Good old bmp files showed brand icons on your scolling map, so you knew whether the petrol station coming up was a Shell or a Texaco, (provided you kept it upto date) and the posistion of ACSI approved campsites etc,etc, now evidently just a red square?? No thanks. I will be sticking to Old Tech, much more user friendly.

[Barcobird]

It just proves that new technology is not always the best. Also I don't know if it is just me but years ago stuff seemed to last for ever, you got fed up with it before it broke, nowadays it lasts 2 or 3 years and you have to replace it. It's cheaper to replace than to fix! Circuit boards etc etc

[DJA]

colin - 2016-06-26 9:39 AM

 

Well I tried the poi's on my 5100, what a pita, and as tony says only shows a list, not on map.

I'm well pleased with everything else, so for now will keep my old via125 for poi's, far from ideal.

 

Hi Colin

 

On your GO5100 if you tap the Keyboard/Map Icon to the right of the space bar on the keyboard then the listed POI's you referred to are shown on the map admittedly only as circles. However as you have specified the POI's you want to find a specific bmp icon is not needed. You can tap each one to see exactly which POI it is. Also if you tap the Whole Map icon top right you can select to see POI's "Along Route" or Near you or in a Town or City etc.

 

Also for example if I set a route on my GG5000 to say a place in Brittany the search within one of my Imported Aires POI files for places along the route shows the first few from Calais on and they are not restricted to within a very short distance of the route itself. They are the first dozen or so and some are 10 miles plus off the route and if you tap the down arrow for the list it will add to the list if there are any more available.

 

I hope Tomtom do eventually improve this facility on the newer units including creating your own Poi categories and adding places but at the meantime you can search your 3rd Party POI files within various parameters.

 

Doug

[colin]

Well that's part way there and thanks for the tip, but still not satisfactory, on my old TT I have club, certified, listed, forest sites, plus archies, now have to search 5 times to find these!

Ray, TT are not 'tech savvy' Imo, they messed up display of poi's on via series, when I queried this and subsequently pointed out the solution I was dismissed as not knowing what I was talking about.

[tonyg3nwl]

Hi folks, update on my attempts to come to grips with copilot

 

I have it installed on my Samsung 10 inch tablet. First the tabley size and mounting difficulty.. temporary mounted by double sided sticky tape ..not successful after a few hours and road bumps etc, the sticky gave way.

second problem.. unless you actually pass directly through a defined waypoint, it kept trying to force a return to get an exact pass through, not close enough .. so kept on giving "take next left" insrtuction.. solution was to stop and clear all" just missed "waypoints.

 

not sure if maps are up to date, as several towns in france have new bypasses, and this gave the near miss result..accuracy of plotting the waypoint therefore critical

 

using the big tablet, the voice instructions were just audible, but need to be greater volume..tablet audio design problem.

 

initial assessment, ..potentially useful,, but has its weaknesses.

 

Tonyg3nwl

 

 

 

[peterjohn34]

Hi Tony,

This is my first thread on this forum. I have been using co-pilot for the last three years until a few weeks ago the tablet went down whilst away. I am now using garmin camper pleased with the unit so far .Back to the tablet you could use a Bluetooth speaker to give you more sound we use one for our music in the motorhome from a tablet. Hope this helps.

 

Peter

[Barcobird]

Hi Peter, welcome!

Is there any specific reason for you going down the app route as opposed out the box sat nav devices ?

[peterjohn34]

Hi,

The only reason I went down the app route was to use the tablet for the bigger screen, my old sat nav unit screen seemed to small, ideal in the car, but for me to small in the motorhome personal choice. The co-pilot I have been more than pleased with. The tablet unit gave up, but was shopping in aldi a few weeks ago and they had the garmin camper 6 inch screen for sale at £129.99 thought could not miss this deal so that's how I have now changed from co-pilot app to garmin unit and seemed pleased so far but early days.

 

Pete

[Barcobird]

Does that come with life time map updates ? Seems very cheap

[peterjohn34]

Hi,

Yes could not believe it, comes with free lifetime maps & digital traffic. camper 660 lmt-d europe45. All sold out by the following week.

 

Pete

[DJA]

Hi Peter

 

I was given a little while ago the same Garmin as you have which our local Adli was offering for £139.99 last week.

 

I have been a Tomtom person up until now although the units have not been Camper or Truck devices and they have all worked fine for me with very few problems with the routing. I have to say I think there are Pro's and Con's for both. I think that the Garmin is better in its direction advice and search facilities. My only concern with it so far is the Mapping and Routing in comparison with the Tomtom's which does not make the following errors. The Tomtoms have better traffic info and I have had very few problems with the mapping .

 

I have reported 3 major concerns about the Garmin Campers mapping and routing in the area where I live which is 2 miles south of the A2 near Gravesend. I have got the latest mapping and software on the unit. The concerns are as follows.

 

If I ask it to set a route to say Margate then:-

 

In Car mode it directs me from where I live to the A2 via a single track road with 2 blind bends and which if there has been any heavy rain will be flooded too deep for a 4/4. It is a route nobody would contemplate taking and is not suggested by Tomtom.

 

In Motorhome mode it takes you to the A2 by the obvious route but then asks me to turn West towards London and take an unnecessary detour of nearly 2 miles. The mapping does not know the new road layout at the A2 junction that has existed for 2 years. With the Mapping they have it should be obvious that you can just cross the A2 and go round a roundabout the other side then join the A2 going East

 

Finally in Motorhome mode if you put in a route from Borough Green to Longfield it completely ignores the A227 but takes you on detours either by the M25 or via Snodland both of which involve 10 miles plus extra. Interestly if you test it with a route from Meopham Green to Longfield it is fine except it ignores the Left Turn B255 towards Longfield and asks you to take a turn 20 metres after it drive along the narrow road in front of a row of shops then turn right out of the little lane and then turn right into the turning it ignored in the first place. The road in front of the shops is not wide enough for a Motorhome if there are any cars parked there.

 

So as you can see my only reservation is the mapping and routing on the basis of if thats what it does where I live what will happen elsewhere.

 

On the only major journey I have used it on it was perfectly fine I have yet to try it in France etc which hopefully we will do fairly soon.

 

Happy travelling

 

Doug

[peterjohn34]

Hi Doug,

I understand the odd route seems to happen with the garmin . The garmin for the car always tried to send me through the centre of Chichester not the ring road, when using co-pilot on the motorhome that picked the ring road. Have used the camper sat nav to Bradford on Avon which seemed fine, the route I use to a New Forest site takes a different road after going through Lyndhurst I continue down my usual road then it re-routes. Lets hope it works fine, when we go to Great Yarmouth in July, I will also be taking the car sat nav unit as a spare, which came in very handy when the tablet went down.

 

Pete

[g3ttc]

I bought a Garmin Nuvicam LMT D a few months ago and use it in my car and Autosleepers Executive 2011. I agree about having to mount it higher than usual to get the camera to look through the windscreen.

There are two things I don't like about it:

1. On my old Garmin I could have the map set to 'north up' while stationary and looking for a place on the map, then it automatically switched to 'track up' (so the vehicle always moved up the screen) once I moved off. That was fine, but on this satnav it's always one or the other, whichever you select in Preferences. This I find very annoying.

2. If you tell it to go to a certain place, and it finds a different route to the one you want, it can tie itself in knots when you try to alter the route. Aargh!

Keith, currently in the Peak District.

 

[tonyishuk]

Just adding to my diatribe on the TT5000;

 

Using TT's MyDrive Connect (For Win10, & similar, but not IOS or android)

 

There is a choice where you can enter large vehicle's details and the App will route fairly well. There is a debate about how this transfer via the TT Cloud and is recived and plotted on the TT satNav itself. But it seems to work for me.

 

You can download MyDrive Connect and you have to sign up and password, (Free.)

 

Run MyDrive and choose Routes. There are two icons, a car and a lorry, If you click the lorry icon, a drop down menu appears so that you can enter details of Vehicle.

 

The above does not seem to be advertised by TT, but is a useful tool to have and does make up for some of the ommissions in other areas,

 

Rgds

 

 

 

[mike19841]

As my fifth Snooper in not many more years has gone kaput I was interested in this debate. However I do not appear to be much further forward. My requirements are :- 6/7 inch screen, dimensions of vehicle, speed camera data, lifetime Euro maps, caravan club/acsi sites, traffic information and of course reliable mapping. Above all a reliable unit.

Can anyone help.

[Derek Uzzell]

This website may be of general interest.

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/satnav/best-sat-nav-which-one-is-right-for-you-936587

[colin]

Derek Uzzell - 2016-06-28 6:49 PM

 

This website may be of general interest.

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/satnav/best-sat-nav-which-one-is-right-for-you-936587

 

Lists 'my' 5100 as the best, as posted before, for general use I think it's great, but if using 3rd party poi's not so good. If TT sort out poi's then I would wholeheartedly agree.

[Colin Leake]

mike19841 - 2016-06-28 5:24 PM

 

As my fifth Snooper in not many more years has gone kaput I was interested in this debate. However I do not appear to be much further forward. My requirements are :- 6/7 inch screen, dimensions of vehicle, speed camera data, lifetime Euro maps, caravan club/acsi sites, traffic information and of course reliable mapping. Above all a reliable unit.

Can anyone help.

 

Caravan Club have dropped the snooper and now sell an Avtex/Garmin with a 6" screen that mets all your requirments with a price of £299 is good value and should be more reliable. Don't get to hung up on having the caravan club sites included we simply put the ones we use in as POIs. Our present TomTom is 8 years old it battery is kaput but other than that it still works fine. The ability to put outfit size in is a bit overrated as the width of most roads is not on the mapping they all use. If I need to replace ours it will be with a simple big screen TomTom with free map updates and maybe traffic though that can be a mixed blessing. If your held up on a motorway being directed down minor roads to avoid it doesn't always work.

[DJA]

Hi Tonyishuk

 

I had not spotted that the Truck option that appears in the Win10 etc Tomtom Mydrive. When I create a route having input the Motorhome dimensions the route it creates, in the example I have tried it with, is more realistic for the van and different if you select tge car option.. I note however that when I send that motorhome route to the Go5000 the route then reverts to the car route. However if I save the route to MyRoutes before I send it to the GO5000 then when I select it from the units MyRoutes after it has syncronised the route then is as it originally showed I have not been able to then confirm that the route does not suggest a quicker route during the trip and then revert to the car route. I may be able to test this in the next few days.

 

Doug

[Robbo]

The CoPilot app for offline navigation has recently brought out a new version called CoPilot Caravan. You can input the dimensions of your Motorhome which also includes campsite POI's.

 

I've been using the basic version of CoPilot for 3 years on a tablet and have found it to be very good. When planning an A to B route it normally gives you 3 possible routes and you choose which one you prefer. Once you have your preferred route, you can modify it further to suit, by a drag and drop facility.

 

The CoPilot Caravan app retails for less than £50 with full European maps and automatic lifetime updates. You'll obviously need an android tablet or smartphone or iPad/iPhone with GPS.

 

My current basic system does everything I need, so I imagine the Caravan version should be even better (possibly similar to the more expensive Truck version).

 

[Matrix Meanderer]

Just a point but whichever sat nav you chose I suggest you check exactly when (ie which month) the mapping updates to ACSI etc are issued.

 

I now know that SNOOPER issue their updates in November and June. The Ventura mapping update was made available today on their website and I am currently downloading it.

 

This is the update that contains the 2016 ACSI sites data that ACSI issued in hard copy and soft copy in December 2015.

 

Yes I know you can use the app and the website or the book but surely Snooper are providing very poor customer service by making us wait to June for an update that was available last December!

 

Caveat emptor :-D

[tonyishuk]

>> DJA

 

I am still trying to get my head around MyDrive Connect.

 

It seems that MyDC, seems to work with Routes and Tracks when you use it, both are "Clouded" to the TT Sat Nav

 

As I understand it;

 

A Route can be used and the Satnav will advise and change the route for you if it encounters a hold up for any length of time that makes a divirsion worth while.

 

A Track does not have this ability, The TT SatNav will indicate a hold up, but will not change anything. The Track is a series of points and is not dynamic as the Route is. So having calculated the way to go for the dimensions of the vehicle, it sticks with them. Any change, could take you down car suitable, but not large vehicle diversions.

 

This may be the difference with the Camper version maps, that they hold more information, so a route can be recalculated on the go.

 

I could be corrected on the above ?

 

TT advertise Camper maps for the TT 5000 / 6000 SatNavs, but then you are back to £100 a year for subscriptions for map updates and traffic info.

 

Rgds

 

 

PS

For those who may be interested;

TT5000 is 5 inch screen with Europe Maps, TT5100 has world maps.

TT6000 is 6 inch screen with Europe Maps, TT6100 has world maps.

 

I brought my TT500 from Halfords on an offer for about £175 including a case and sticky base dashboard mount.

 

 

 

 

[tazdog6007]

do NOT buy the aguri.it is the most complicated bit of kit.it does so much as well as sat nav which makes it slow and hard to use .i sit on the driveway for minutes while going through the routine of start up and putting in the required info.it is pre-loaded with loads of campsites,but i have yet to find the path to this.worst and most expensive thing i've bought.in france...useless.had the thing three months so probably to late to send back. >:-(

[DJA]

HI Tonyishuk

 

Just to say that the TT website does not list the Go5000/6000 as compatable for the Camper Map.

[Matrix Meanderer]

Matrix Meanderer - 2016-06-29 2:11 PM

 

Just a point but whichever sat nav you chose I suggest you check exactly when (ie which month) the mapping updates to ACSI etc are issued.

 

I now know that SNOOPER issue their updates in November and June. The Ventura mapping update was made available today on their website and I am currently downloading it.

 

This is the update that contains the 2016 ACSI sites data that ACSI issued in hard copy and soft copy in December 2015.

 

Yes I know you can use the app and the website or the book but surely Snooper are providing very poor customer service by making us wait to June for an update that was available last December!

 

Caveat emptor :-D

 

UPDATE: Just finished loading the Snooper update and all the campsite maps are dated 03/2016 - nearly four months old. WHY??

 

Will be buying any sat nav that offers a true "updating" service not the poor belated, delayed service that Snooper offer.