ALK Technologies(CoPilot) sold to Trimble?

[04fxsts]

No live traffic, just GPS and used Co-Pilot for a trip to a major city couple days ago. Everything worked as always so as of now quite happy. Jim.

[LarryJB]

Originally Posted by svcattales

Unfortunately, Copilot is not so good at finding campsites as Trip Wizard. When I was adjusting my future routes in Copilot, the only way I could set camp site destinations is to find the campsite address and put that in copilot. I also found the internet search function for finding locations does not work very well. I was forced to look things up in Google to get address to put in Copilot.

I wanted to send some feedback to Trimble on improvements, but not sure how to do that. Has anyone figure that out? Greg

I found that CoPilot did not have any COE, Forest Service, or State Parks in it's POI database. However, you can import POIs from outside sources such as POI Factory and others.

Here is a link on how to import POIs to iOS
https://support.copilotgps.com/en/su...m-pois-on-ios-

Android instructions:
https://support.copilotgps.com/en/su...is-on-android-

This still works with the new version as well.

[reubenray]

I use RVTW for my campground choices and I only use CoPilot for the actual GPS directions between point A to point B.

[Dan_S]

Just launched Copilot, haven't used it since last fall.
It wants to install new version. Says my currant version will not be updated. Plotted a new trip with my old version, seems to work. Will accepting the new version still allow use of previous trip plans? Will there be an added cost? I believe I bought Copilot last April to use on my tablet.
Thanks

[svcattales]

Originally Posted by reubenray

I use RVTW for my campground choices and I only use CoPilot for the actual GPS directions between point A to point B.

Thanks Reubenray. I just finished the trip planning for a 3 week trip we are starting next week. RV Trip Wizard really does a great job for picking out campsites of all types. I focused mostly on state parks and military campgrounds and RVTW had all the ones I was interested in and I could filter my selections to make it easier. I also printed out the map with 7 different stops and it's really nice to have the trip summary on 2 sheets of paper with phone numbers, reservation numbers and gps coordinates for each campsite. Is there a simple way to download routes to copilot? It appears that you can download to a standalone GPS.

[svcattales]

We just finished our first three week, 1600 mile, camping trip and found the state-of-the-art of RV navigation was underwhelming. After 30 years of using numerous boat navigation systems we were surprised that RV Nav systems didn’t measure up to the nautical systems. I’m hoping that if we define our user needs for one complete navigation system, we might eventually get one.

Our itinerary was a round robin from Tampa Bay area to Florida panhandle, southern Alabama, Columbus Ga, Blairsville Ga, Savannah, Starke Fl and back home to Tampa Bay. We purposely avoided most interstates because we were not in a hurry and wanted to see the countryside. The navigation systems we used were RV Trip Wizard (RVTW) for planning; Copilot for turn-by-turn navigation and Google maps as a back-up for Copilot. Our observations were as follows:

RVTW was a great planning tool for researching and choosing campsites and had information on every camp we wanted to use. The “drag route” function of RVTW was an excellent tool for dragging routes to the back roads we wanted to use and this was our primary route planning tool. Having a print capability for the whole itinerary and turn-by-turn instructions was also very useful. Unfortunately, RVTW doesn’t do turn-by-turn navigation yet so we had to recreate routes in Copilot. Our rig is a Class C but with the toad we are 40ft long. Finding gas stations was a challenge for us. RVTW had very few gas stations in the data base for our routes and most were large stations and truck stops next to the interstates. There were numerous gas stations along our routes, but only about one in five were configured so we could get in and out with using reverse. If you pick gas stations on the fly you can’t see the whole layout until you are in it and they can have “mouse traps” that let you in but don’t let you out. We tried to pick gas stations in advance using Google Maps/street views, but this was not foolproof and we sometimes had to reject promising stations. If we had an app that would just identify gas stations with the pump rows parallel to the building with separate entry and exit roads that would be a huge help.

We chose Copilot for our turn-by-turn navigation because it has RV hazard warnings; it doesn’t need a cell signal to show maps (downloaded in device); and it offered flexibility in changing routes to those we planned from RVTW. There were no RV hazards on our route, so we couldn’t evaluate the hazard warning function. One of our stops had a weak cell signal so Copilot was able to map out the next day’s trip from there, but Google couldn’t plot out our route until the signal got stronger. Copilot worked as advertised when cell signal wasn’t available. We found that Copilot was not satisfactory for us to modify routes to those we planned in RVTW. Copilot heads to the interstate faster than flies to a pot roast and we wanted to stay off the interstates. You can place waypoints on your preferred route and then select “route thru here” to adjust route, but Copilot will quickly recalculate and put you back on the interstate at the next opportunity. When our route was parallel to an interstate, we would have to put numerous waypoints to stay off the interstate so we gave up on that and used Google. Copilot needs a setting to “avoid highways” like Google and a means to drag routes like RVTW. In its present state it doesn’t offer the flexibility to modify routes to our needs. On one of our routes we had a major malfunction in following a route we planned. Our distance to destination showed an extra 40 miles and I couldn’t figure out why. At one point our distance to destination started increasing so I may have designated a waypoint as a stop by accident and we probably passed it. Copilot did some irrational recalculations directing turns on dirt roads or turns where there were no roads. My mistake may have caused an issue, but Copilot should not be directing RVs on dirt roads with dead ends. We used Copilot successfully on a couple legs of our trip so it has some good functionality, but it needs some improvement before we will use it again.

Google Maps worked pretty well for us and the setting to stay clear of highways was a good function. It didn’t have the flexibility to make all the route adjustments we desired, but it was very good at recalculating routes to follow the ones we put in Copilot. As a back-up it worked very well and a few times it became our primary navigator.

For our next trip we are going to look for a Garmin dedicated GPS that gives us route planning flexibility and good turn-by-turn capability. We will keep Google or Waze as our back-up. If anyone has any recommendations for improved RV navigation systems, we would love to hear it. Greg

[4ina4x4]

Appreciate the detailed information, Greg - thanks for sharing. We've toyed with the idea of going back to CoPilot, but I think we're going to end up sticking with our current system - a regular Garmin GPS unit combined with the Motor Carriers' Atlas for guidance on height restrictions. We've considered a GPS unit designed specifically for RV use, but the reviews don't exactly inspire confidence and the prices are quite high.

Mary

[04fxsts]

The CoPilot on our I-Pad is still working fine and have had no request to up-date unless it happened when I didn't notice. It also has a "avoid this highway" feature although I don't ever remember using it. I just planned a trip to Indy and it showed a kind of round about route to where I was going near down town. Then I noticed it was still set for the MH but I was taking the F-150. Reset for automobile and the route changed to a direct route so that feature still works for me. Lots of traffic so didn't look to see if there was any low clearance hazards but it routed me down streets I would not have wanted to be driving the MH. Still happy, Jim.

[svcattales]

Originally Posted by 4ina4x4

Appreciate the detailed information, Greg - thanks for sharing. We've toyed with the idea of going back to CoPilot, but I think we're going to end up sticking with our current system - a regular Garmin GPS unit combined with the Motor Carriers' Atlas for guidance on height restrictions. We've considered a GPS unit designed specifically for RV use, but the reviews don't exactly inspire confidence and the prices are quite high.

Mary

We decided to use a similar set-up for navigation. At this point we just want a good turn-by-turn system that gives lots of flexibility in planning routes. The RV specific GPS have lots of bells and whistles we really don't need; a high price tag; and not very good reviews. We have been researching dedicated auto GPS and I think we will get a Garmin DriveSmart 51 NA LMT-S. It has settings to avoid highways; a "route shaping" function to adjust routing; and a capability to accept downloaded routes from RV Trip Wizard (RVTW). It should give us the route planning functions we need and it won't break the bank. Amazon is selling it for $149 so it's considerably cheaper than the RV version. RVTW does have height hazard warnings so that should keep us out of trouble in the route planning phase. With a Garmin for turn-by-turn, RVTW for hazard avoidance, and Google Maps for back-up and finding gas stations we should have everything we need. Thanks for your input Mary. Greg

[chiefneon]

Howdy!

We fulltime and have been using Co-Pilot for several years. Started with CP Premium as our 5er was 13’. When we purchased our toy hauler 5er it was 13’4” so I purchased the truck version of CP. I run CP on my iPhone and iPad and have notice the recent change in the format on both. I turned on my android tablet the other day and checked the CP truck version on it and it is still running the old version of CP which I like. Not sure it has anything to do with one being Apple device and the other being android device. I just glad I’m grandfathered in to CP RV and truck Verizon. I will continue using CP I don’t want to buy another gps.

“Happy Trails”
Chiefneon

[svcattales]

Originally Posted by chiefneon

Howdy!

We fulltime and have been using Co-Pilot for several years. Started with CP Premium as our 5er was 13’. When we purchased our toy hauler 5er it was 13’4” so I purchased the truck version of CP. I run CP on my iPhone and iPad and have notice the recent change in the format on both. I turned on my android tablet the other day and checked the CP truck version on it and it is still running the old version of CP which I like. Not sure it has anything to do with one being Apple device and the other being android device. I just glad I’m grandfathered in to CP RV and truck Verizon. I will continue using CP I don’t want to buy another gps.

“Happy Trails”
Chiefneon

If it works for you I would keep using it, Chief. I heard that older version had a "route drag" function that is not supported in new version. CP claims that using waypoints and "route through here" will do the same as route drag, but that didn't work for me. It would do a temporary route change, but would recalculate back to an interstate at the first opportunity. Greg