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Old 01-08-2017, 12:43 AM   #29
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I don't see any reason to have a separate device if you have a smartphone or tablet. I use CoPilot. You can tell it the height and weight of your rig. It's what I use for trip planning. Then for actual driving navigation, I use Google navigation as long as it's the same route that CoPilot recommended or one that I know well enough to know it's ok. Google will warn you now if a slow down is ahead and suggest alternate routes which you can then make sure are big rig friendly on the CoPilot.
The primary problem with using a smartphone for navigation is your carrier's data access gaps.

Unless your phone can download a full suite of maps, any data dead spots leave you without the map overlay on the GPS at that location.

Had to prove this to the Mrs. when she was sure her iPhone could take us all the way from SoCal to Oregon...nope. There's lots of big holes in the coverage map all over America.

But, the phone CAN be helpfully with the Rand McNally by being a data WiFi hotspot. All RVND's since the 7720 will download and display weather overlays from a WiFi hotspot...very cool and useful for making travel decisions on the road

Safe travels
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Old 01-08-2017, 12:54 AM   #30
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Camping world has the Good Sam unit which is Rand McNally. We've had ours for over a year now and love it. We had a Garmin that was supposedly made for rv as well. That and a good suction mount and you're good to go.

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Old 01-08-2017, 07:01 AM   #31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarab0088 View Post
The primary problem with using a smartphone for navigation is your carrier's data access gaps.

Unless your phone can download a full suite of maps, any data dead spots leave you without the map overlay on the GPS at that location.

Had to prove this to the Mrs. when she was sure her iPhone could take us all the way from SoCal to Oregon...nope. There's lots of big holes in the coverage map all over America.

But, the phone CAN be helpfully with the Rand McNally by being a data WiFi hotspot. All RVND's since the 7720 will download and display weather overlays from a WiFi hotspot...very cool and useful for making travel decisions on the road

Safe travels
Many don't realize it, but you can download Google maps to your phone or tablet, and they will stay there for 30 days. You just need to refresh them once in a while. It's in the menu under "Your places", then Maps. You can download areas and customize them. I have one that I added "Low Bridges" into.
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Old 01-08-2017, 08:01 AM   #32
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Just downloaded CoPilot GPS to my phone to try it out. Have a few places to drive today, and figured I'd give it a go. I can see already that it does have low clearance settings, which is a nice thing!
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Old 01-08-2017, 08:21 AM   #33
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CoPilot for trucks

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Originally Posted by BobGed View Post
The basic CoPilot version only has a height setting when in RV mode. No weight or length parameters to set.
I use the CoPilot for trucks which lets you set height, weight and length parameters. The RV version didn't exist when I got it so I don't know if that version does or not, but it probably does.
It makes a lot of sense to me to get a smartphone app for navigation rather than a dedicated device. Considerably cheaper and I can plan my trip sitting in my recliner or out on the patio. Someone mentioned gaps in cell coverage and if you're traveling a lot in the West and/or very rural or mountainous areas that could be a concern. I generally use CoPilot as a trip planning device to make sure there are no low overheads or low weight bridges or no trucks allowed roads. Then I use Google navigation on my smartphone for the actual navigation and traffic alerts while we're under weigh. It seems to shift to gps in the no data areas.
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Old 01-08-2017, 08:27 AM   #34
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I use the CoPilot for trucks which lets you set height, weight and length parameters. The RV version didn't exist when I got it so I don't know if that version does or not, but it probably does.
It makes a lot of sense to me to get a smartphone app for navigation rather than a dedicated device. Considerably cheaper and I can plan my trip sitting in my recliner or out on the patio.
The version I've installed is the "Regular" version from Google Play, which allows you to select Car, RV, Walking, etc. I did not actually look for the RV version. However, it ONLY allows you to select 12'6" or 13'... My RV is just under 12', so it would be nice if I could put 12' even, but I guess that's not the end of the world... however, I do know of one or two bridges that are marked exactly 12' in our area.
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Old 01-08-2017, 12:42 PM   #35
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This summer I took CoPilot RV on a 3200 mile trip. When I returned I wrote a blog post on my experience. I consider CoPilot the "best of bad choices." You can read my opinion here https://jkcarp.blogspot.com/2016/07/...st-of.html?m=1

Since I wrote that, I've come across Sygic RV but haven't had the chance to take that on a similarly long trip.

Since this spring CoPilot hasn't delivered a new map update despite advertising quarterly map updates, so that's an issue too.
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Old 01-08-2017, 06:16 PM   #36
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How does co-pilot operating on cell service operate without cell service. The province I live in has cell service on less than 10% of its total area so I see that as a definite disadvantage.
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Old 01-08-2017, 06:39 PM   #37
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CoPilot is fully functional offline except for live traffic. As long as you buy traffic and check the ActiveRoute setting you should still get the benefit of historical traffic data even when not getting live traffic.
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Old 01-08-2017, 09:15 PM   #38
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CoPilot is fully functional offline except for live traffic. As long as you buy traffic and check the ActiveRoute setting you should still get the benefit of historical traffic data even when not getting live traffic.
I wonder if the proof would be in the pudding. If you were to travel through the province's north parts for several days with no cell service I would think the copilot system would fall apart. When you can travel for days with no cell service something has to give. I have no intention of proving my hypothesis as I am just curious if it holds true. Denise and I traveled with a friend who relied wholly on an IPhone system and that too fell apart after a couple of days of no cell service hence my curiosity.
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Old 01-09-2017, 07:21 AM   #39
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What makes you think it would fall apart? It's a fully offline solution. It runs on my tablet that doesn't even have a cellular connection.
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Old 01-09-2017, 07:35 AM   #40
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I wonder if the proof would be in the pudding. If you were to travel through the province's north parts for several days with no cell service I would think the copilot system would fall apart. When you can travel for days with no cell service something has to give. I have no intention of proving my hypothesis as I am just curious if it holds true. Denise and I traveled with a friend who relied wholly on an IPhone system and that too fell apart after a couple of days of no cell service hence my curiosity.
Both CoPilot and Google Maps allow you to download maps to the devices, so aside from "Live" information, such as traffic, AS LONG AS you download the maps, in theory, all should be fine. I would suspect they did not know that, or download appropriate maps for the mapping system they were using.

I cannot verify this for a long trip, however, as I seldom travel anywhere for more than a short amount of time (hours) where I don't have service.
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Old 01-09-2017, 08:11 AM   #41
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There's a key difference between CoPilot (and Sygic and TomTom) and Google Maps when it comes to how maps are handled.

CoPilot is true offline maps. The app does not work without downloading maps and running those maps off your phone. There's nearly no difference between that and a satnav device.

Google Maps is basically caching the file to your phone. There are a multitude of reasons why that cache could disappear.
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Old 01-09-2017, 11:00 AM   #42
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I'll toss in a short review of testing CoPilot with my car, on two short (one hour each direction, three total locations).

First off, you can download several maps to your phone/device. I downloaded Eastern USA, which was about 477MB.

The "free" version has NO SOUND, so it's basically useless to "try" while driving... We thought my phone was broken, because we turned the volume up to MAX, and still nothing. Then we realized the free version has NO SOUND, so we ended up getting the "7 Day Free Trial" of the purchased version. Even after doing that, CoPilot kept stopping at the "7 Day Trial" screen, but since we had already opted into that, there was no "noticeable" option to "continue", so you have to just "back up" out of it, and it continues with the trial version.

The free version also has NO option to show the 2D view of the road, only an aerial view, which is not nearly as good.

We noticed several times where it told us to "in .3 miles, turn around...", when we were already AT our location, so the accuracy of the maps and/or endpoints is suspect to me. I'm not sure what that is about.

I liked the screen, it looked good at night.

After going to the 7 day trial of the paid version, still only three options for the RV height. "No restrictions", "12 feet 6 inches" and "13 feet". Not a deal-breaker, but someone with a 10 foot 6 inch vehicle might take offense.

The "default" female voice was hideous... actually kind of scary. We immediately changed it to the Google voice. Much better.

Aside from the height restriction addition to CoPilot, which DID find a bridge that I know to be 11 feet, and other RV apps have MISSED, I still prefer Google Maps for travel.

I'm sure there are other positives and negatives, but this is all I can say about it at this time.
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