What is a reliable RV gps?

[znt1186]

A few years ago, we were trying to get to the KOA in Corbin, KY. The address was listed on East City Dam Road. East and West City Dam Roads were created when I75 cut City Dam Road. The maps were labeled wrong, and East City Dam Road is shown on the west side of I75. We were taken down a two lane road that narrowed down to one lane with no good place to turn around. As we were sitting there trying to decide what to do, a nice lady whose house we were stopped in front of came out and said "You must be looking for the KOA". She said it happens several times a week, and if we continue down the one lane for a mile or so, we would get back on a two lane and go back into town. Then we did go on the west side of I75 to East City Dam Road.


That was only part of the directional mishaps that day, but at least we did discover the original KFC which we went back to in the toad. It was really interesting.

[AFChap]

Originally Posted by Mr_D

Also have the Rand McNally 7720 that so far has not steered us wrong.

Have been using my RM for 3 years now with no problems. But I never trust ANY GPS 100%. I normally also use maps I print out from Streets & Trips and ALWAYS use my head to think ahead. I have a couple of old, old atlases but haven't touched them in years..

[JohnBoyToo]

some of the mishaps reported here sounds like
the maps and programs were not updated (a brand new gps is out of date before purchased - so update it online !)
your personal settings were not optimal, like no left turn, or shortest distance, or NOT set in RV mode (just because you change the icon to an rv picture does not mean it is in rv mode )

so check your maps, updates, AND settings - 99 times out of a hundred my garmins have been great...

[dennis45]

I have three of these handy little critters. None of them are 100% reliable.
So I take each one with a grain of salt and check my Truckers Atlas etc just to keep the things honest. I also check for updates a couple times a year which helps.
Except the one in the CRV which is The Worst GPS of all I've owned. Honda really missed the mark on this one.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by dennis45

I have three of these handy little critters. None of them are 100% reliable.
So I take each one with a grain of salt and check my Truckers Atlas etc just to keep the things honest. I also check for updates a couple times a year which helps.
Except the one in the CRV which is The Worst GPS of all I've owned. Honda really missed the mark on this one.

Dennis, I check for updates before EVERY trip, and about once a month even if we're not traveling!

[dennis45]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

Dennis, I check for updates before EVERY trip, and about once a month even if we're not traveling!

What with my Busy Schedule and all, I just have to fit it in whenever I have an empty slot. Being retired is not easy.

[TwelveVolt]

Originally Posted by JohnBoyToo

some of the mishaps reported here sounds like
the maps and programs were not updated (a brand new gps is out of date before purchased - so update it online !)
your personal settings were not optimal, like no left turn, or shortest distance, or NOT set in RV mode (just because you change the icon to an rv picture does not mean it is in rv mode )

so check your maps, updates, AND settings - 99 times out of a hundred my garmins have been great...

Fair enough when talking about a new road, but when the campground has been there for more than ten years and the Garmin has had several updates since new, is it overly optimistic to assume that the next update will be the magic solution?

Perhaps Garmin should focus on the integrity of the existing data and algorithms instead of new cute features like "Turn left at the Texaco station" (i.e. the one that hasn't been a Texaco station for years).

[TonyDi]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

We've been using the RM RVND7710 for several years now. Yes, it sometimes does some crazy things, turning us off a 4-lane road to a 2-lane running parallel, or just trying to send us through the middle of a town when there's a bypass around it!

We would not be without a GPS, but we would also not be without a trucker's atlas to use with it!

I feel better knowing this has happened to someone other than me. Last summer I was on I-90 going through Chicago and my RVND7710 kept trying to get me to exit and get on city streets. It tried at every single exit. (It was very persistent). I finally turned it off. As a rule I do like GPS especially for lane change alerts, but I don't blindly follow their directions. Like you, I also update before every trip.

[az99]

If everyone has so many issues and bad routing with these RV GPS units, why waste your $300+ on them and all the time updating and learning them? You still need to check on paper or computer what they tell you to do.

[Scatterbrain]

Originally Posted by az99

If everyone has so many issues and bad routing with these RV GPS units, why waste your $300+ on them and all the time updating and learning them? You still need to check on paper or computer what they tell you to do.

Because 95% of the time they work fine. Everyone has a story of a screwy GPS route. I've put close to 10k miles on my rig with my Garmin and only had one serious routing issue. Granted it was a pretty serious routing issue, but according to the campground we were staying at it's an issue that all GPS systems seem to have. Most of the time it works just fine, and I've found that my Garmin is often a bit overly cautious. Apparently none of the roads in my neighborhood can accommodate a large RV.

[Sky_Boss]

I agree with the majority of comments...basically I trust after verifying.

When planning routes into new territory I run it through both my Garmin RV760 and then through Google Maps. Typically I will have to drag routes on GM to match the GPS because of the "truck" routes. As an example, I run the I-75 bypasses around ATL that my GPS takes me on while GM wants to keep me on I-75 through the middle. In a couple cases where I knew of a "better" route the GPS didn't like I would hardball a route with proper intersections to force the route I wanted.

Conversely, I use GM to validate destinations and tricky parts of the trip. It is not normal but on a couple occasions I have a CG address in the GPS be off a bit or even on the other side of a road. With information from GM I will create a new destination with Lat/Long coordinates when needed.

BTW...GPSs do have some limitations in how they determine location. As an example, in places like TX where there are long stretches of frontage roads, sometimes very close to the interstate, the GPS may not be able to recognize if you are on the frontage road or the interstate. It will simply make a "guess" (my highly technical term) and put you on one or the other. I can't tell you the number of times in the Rio Grande Valley after entering I-2 it would tell us to take then next entrance onto it.

On other specific case is in the Austin area. Last summer we we were staying at Austin Carefree CG on the south side of Austin and would take I-35N to get to the downtown. Every time we left the CG onto the frontage road it would speak, "turn right onto I-35 South" even when going north. I figured it was a glitch and followed the northbound frontage road until we got onto I-35N where the GPS seemed to agree with me. After a few days I figured it out. On the map it showed the the frontage roads on either side of I-35 as "S IH-35". My guess is that some map reader inputting the info into the data base interpreted that I-35S. It now appears there have been some changes in those areas to address this but it doesn't look consistent yet.

[Sky_Boss]

BTW...don't ignore information that CGs might give you on routing. At the Carefree CG in San Antonio they give a very big warning on routes to avoid where the GPS would logically take you. I saw why a couple days later when a MH got bottomed out on the crown of a RR crossing they said to avoid.

As a pilot I would often call ahead to airports I was not familiar with to find out if there were any oddities I should know about. As a practice, when ever I call for reservations I ask them about any thing that will help me that locals know about.

[Cooperhawk]

We have used the 760 Garmin for several years now since it first came out. It does have glitches but it still is really handy to know what lane to be in and how far we have to go and what time we will be there.

What I try to do each morning is look at a map on my laptop and compare it with the route the Garmin is setting up. I also will look at Google Earth to see what our destination looks like.

When I do this I have very few problems. When I don't...............

[sprayman]

i just ordered one from Amazon. i have had several Garmins. have 2 at the moment.

One is built into my truck, the other is portable with LTM. I always check
the routes the Garmin suggests, at times they have been way off.



Jim