GPS and narrow lanes (again)

[Old Git]

I've now remembered that I found the link on Graham Hadfield's Motorhome Parking site

http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/download.htm

[/Quote]

 

Thanks again Robin. Much appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Frankkia]

When you tell a sat nav that you are a lorry, bus, motorcycle etc the only difference it makes (no matter how cheap / expensive / new / old it is) is that it will not take you down roads that have specific exclusions to that type of vehicle (according to the mapping. I say according to the mapping as the suppliers of digital mapping to the different sat nav manufacturers in turn rely on the mapping data they get from the local authorities who look after the road networks.

 

We started with a VDO Daytona (very expensive at the time) and have since gone thro' Garmin street pilot and 2710 and now the big 7" model with the all singing traffic alerts MP3 player and capable of taking a reversing camera. We allow the Garmin to pick the route but then management checks it against her map to make sure it is not sending us down a footpath.

 

Having said the above we once (before we had sat nav) followed a route in Spain that went through a small town (on a main road). The road got narrower and narrower untill the wing mirrors were about half an inch from the walls on either side - bad enough but then we got to a "T" junction - You try reversing an 8m x 2.2m 'van 3/4 mile back out of a town with alot of spanish drivers blowing their horns at you - I said "Oh deary deary me" or words to that effect.

 

The best thing about sat nav is that instead of management playing heck with me when we have gone wrong she now shouts at the sat nav - priceless!

[Old Git]

Frankkia - 2007-08-30 9:39 PM

 

When you tell a sat nav that you are a lorry, bus, motorcycle etc it will not take you down roads that have specific exclusions to that type of vehicle.

 

The best thing about sat nav is that instead of management playing heck with me when we have gone wrong she now shouts at the sat nav - priceless!

 

Thanks Bernie. That's added a bit more to the story. The mapping data is obviouly the most vital aspect, so maybe your wife and I should stop yelling at the sat nav.

 

Yes - I do too, but try not to do it when we are stationery and with the windows open!

 

Cheers

 

Dave

 

 

[crinklystarfish]

Old Git - 2007-08-30 9:27 PM  The main part of the route is usually not much of a problem - we do the same as you and use a paper map as well, but it's the last little bit where you often need the most help to find your destination.

OG

Here’s where you have to be a bit crafty and navigate on the fly. As you near the destination, manually zoom in or out to so that you can see on screen where you are and where you want to be. You should, at this scale, also be able to see the relative sizes of roads on screen. If the planned route takes to the narrower (on screen) roads, ignore the machine and stick to the wider ones. If you have an automatic recalculation function it might just work and then take you on suitable roads to your destination.

If you don’t have a recalculate function, or the recalculation insists on threading you through improbable places, ignore the swine and drive down the displayed ‘fatter’ roads to get to where you want to go. I sometimes at this point ‘stop’ the routing function altogether to stop the infernal thing talking at me.

You may run into one-way street issues etc, but don’t fret. Be patient and stick to the plan and you will get there without clacking any unsuspecting pedestrians on the back of the head with your wing mirrors.

[Old Git]

Thanks for this Crinkly. An officer and a gentleman I declare.

 

As you may have guessed I'm not very experienced with the sneaky little gizmos. Your suggestion makes such obvious good sense that I shall beat myself with a stinging nettle for the rest of the day because I wasn't sharp enough to think of it myself.

 

Mine does have a re-calculate function, but it's a tenacious brute and often spends at least the next 10 miles insisting that I must do a U-turn and go back to where it decided I went wrong. I have found that switching it off and back on tends to remove the fixation, and it will usually calculate another (though not always better) route. Your habit of gagging the little toe-rag and navigating "on the fly" is a much better idea.

 

The zoom feature and a bit more control at my end of the lead I think.

 

Thanks again - very useful and much appreciated.

 

Dave

[trigrem]

Having a great wife who cannot navigate, who always recognizes the road we want as we are passing it,I have been using TomTom for several years now and have experienced some difficult situations.

To avoid these I do something similar to Darwin but slightly different.

I Plan the route using paper map and then install it as an itinerary, then load the itinerary, inspect the route and modify if I see problems having expanded the map at that point.

It might sound rather pointless to have a navigation system and then use paper maps to plan a route, but I like maps, I like to go the way I want to go not where Tom Tom wants to take me, and with the voice instructions I do not have to look at a paper map on the journey.

More important the Boss is happy.

[Old Git]

I think this just about ends this thread. Thanks to everybody for their help.

 

This might be the version we have all been waiting for.