Community Forums

jdrumsr · 07-17-2018, 06:34 AM

Hi all,

Just wanted to pass along an experience I had last weekend. I use the Garmin RV 660 GPS system for navigation. The device is one in which you can input the dimensions of your TT and TV and theoretically it should provide you with routes to your destination that are safe and reasonable for your setup.

We were on our way to a JelleyStone RV campground near Lake Monroe in Bloomington, Indiana. To get there, I selected the attraction in the Garmin's list of campgrounds - I did not enter the street address of the campground and I believe that is where the trouble started. To make a long story short, we were taken into the middle of the Hoosier National Forest - single lane gravel roads for what seemed an eternity! Thank God for the appearance of Hickory Grove Cemetery in Heltonville, IN. I was able to pull into the parking lot and unhitch my 33 foot trailer there to scout the roads that Garmin was taking us down. At the end of the "route", Garmin indicated we should make a left turn onto a road that did not exist, this had us about 50 feet away from our "destination" - smack dab in the middle of nowhere in Hoosier National Forest.

We were lucky enough to flag down a girl who happened to work in the forest and she was kind enough to guide us back to normal country roads and from there we were finally able to get to our real destination. I was sincerely worried though that we were going to wind up on a dead end road with no way to turn the trailer around and no way to get it out of the forest.

Major lesson - do not trust the Garmin's list of attractions alone. Use street addresses and confirm your routes via a secondary navigation system (map, Google maps or something).

We got lucky, it could have gone badly! Thankfully we only lost a couple of hours and not our trailer!

Best of luck!
-John

hohenwald48 · 07-17-2018, 06:45 AM

Yeah, you gotta' double check those GPS routes. Garmin routes you on Brookshire Road to get to the Boone, NC KOA. It's a difficult drive to get there on Brookshire in my Wrangler. It's impossible for any RV to get there using that route.

I usually check routes using Google map satellite views and street views.

Cat320 · 07-17-2018, 07:58 AM

With any GPS routing to a location we have never been, we always keep a map handy to insure the GPS send us where we don't want to be.

FatChance · 07-17-2018, 09:23 AM

How do you have the custom avoidances set on your device?

MSHappyCampers · 07-17-2018, 09:48 AM

Hi John!

Thanks for the heads-up!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

**TonyDi** · 07-17-2018, 10:19 AM

Hi John

Glad to have you here in the forum with us. You're gonna like it here.

The more info you can input, the less chance for errors.

Happy Trails!!!

hohenwald48 · 07-17-2018, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatChance

How do you have the custom avoidances set on your device?

Custom settings will help but are not a sure thing. My Garmin is set to avoid U turns and gravel roads but still routinely routes me in a way that requires both. If you stay on main/major roads and interstates then GPS usually works fine. If you venture a little off the beaten path you're more likely to run into routing issues.

Air Conditioned Gypsy · 07-17-2018, 11:14 AM

I've got the "RV 770 LMT" - supposed to be the latest and greatest when I got it last year. I have it set up as well as it can be set up, even had input from Garmin support on it. It still uses the craziest routing. I still have it setting on the dash and still use it - as a very expensive speed limit monitor (which it does a great job of) and destination distance monitor. When I asked Garmin about the routing issues, they offered input on settings and then said it was doing what it was supposed to do.....

Oh Well. I use google maps and paper maps.

Regards.

Chuck