Community Forums

Onrecess · 10-20-2020, 11:56 AM

I am buying a 2003 Signature Commander. I was doing my road test and in the cabinet where all the paperwork and manual is, there was a zipper case with what I think are GPS discs. The brochures from 2002 and 2005 (closest Monaco has) list GPS navigation standard. I asked the owner about the GPS, and he and his wife were, "It has GPS?" The only screen I see is the Aladdin. I don't see anything in the Aladdin manual about GPS. Is there one?

JJTL · 10-20-2020, 01:09 PM

Congrats on the 2003 Signature! What a rig and a great year. Always nice to have more Sig owners join us here

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Does you GPS look like the picture below?

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Back in the day the GPS was a separate unit that played these DVD data banks of maps, which was then displayed on the screen by the driver. Usually this was the same display used for the back up camera and for us the Trip Tek system (replaced by the Aladdin system).

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Needless to say they are quite useless today, as far as I'm concerned. They are extremely slow, lack most modern features and the maps are a decade out of date. We documented on our upgrades thread how we removed the old GPS, and also the install of a new dash radio which we use for GPS navigation through Apple CarPlay. Useful links below:

Removing old GPS: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/upg...ml#post5347539

Installing New Radio: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/upg...ml#post5420027

All the best and congrats again on a great coach! We all like to see pics of new rigs too

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Josh

Onrecess · 10-20-2020, 01:33 PM

Oh, so it did play on the alladin screen, I think you are saying. The last owner put a additional back up camera with a 7" (I guess) screen above the dash. I am going to put another screen up, as the Aladdin is so far down I can't read it (I'm 6'4). Since the gps is lacking features, from what you said, and the maps are 2003, I will just get a new GPS. I'll have to think about the screens showing what. I'll look at what you did. Thank you very much. I'll pick up the RV Saturday and post some picks, join the community...

windsorbill · 10-20-2020, 01:53 PM

When my coach was new, it also had a built in GPS. It didn't play through the Aladdin, it had it's own separate screen. They are worthless. Technology has come along ways since those were new.

I prefer a stand alone unit (we happen to have a Garmin). My wife also has one on her iPad/Phone, and we use both of them.

Ivylog · 10-20-2020, 01:56 PM

Our 08 Navigator has a working GPS with voice commands that we use until getting close to a large city where we use WAZE for traffic and new roads.

vito.a · 10-20-2020, 02:35 PM

Our original equipment Kenwood KNA-DV2100 GPS displays on the pop up dash radio screen. The GPS DVD module is up in the electronics cabinet. This GPS is actually made by Garmin.

I've used ours and even tried to update it. I'm with Josh. It's slow, difficult to use, and badly out of date.

I currently use a Garmin RV770. It is a very nice display which I stick on the window just to the left of the driver. The RV770 also has inputs for height and length and keeps me out of trouble.

I have the Kenwood GPS manual. If interested, send me a PM with your email address as its too large to post here.

JJTL · 10-20-2020, 03:31 PM

Vito reminded me of a good point, we too also have a Garmin RV GPS unit we keep with us, specifically because we can enter height and weight. This comes in handy sometimes as a supplement to the GPS we run on the new radio. Google Maps is great, but when it thinks you're a car it can come up with some interesting "short cuts"... ask me how I know

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When we installed the new radio I installed a USB port on the top of the dash so we could plug in the Garmin RV unit and have easy wire management.

Josh

Bsmiddy · 10-22-2020, 10:22 PM

We have an 03 Sig and our CD GPS Unit was in a closed cabinet above windshield and of course was the Kenwood Install. You can't update....so we just replaced the entire system with a Clarion system that has GPS built in. Everything has worked great.

JohnBoyToo · 10-23-2020, 03:46 PM

Our 2011 has a garmin gps as part of the Aladdin system, but it is SSOOOOO out of date, not worth fooling with... I just got a Garmin RV760 we set on the dash and it has done a great job.... ( and can be updated online about once every quarter)

vito.a · 10-23-2020, 06:27 PM

The Monaco OEM GPS for 2007 and newer coaches can be updated. I posted a thread on updating ours a few years ago. A guy on eBay was selling the update files fairly cheap.

Onrecess · 10-24-2020, 04:11 PM

Thanks, I guess it must be in the cabinets. I just picked the coach up yesterday, so I am clueless. I have a Tomtom in my old rv. I think I'll replace the radio with a pop out android with nav, IF the sony radio doesn't control the backp cameras (I started another thread on how to see the camera views).
Oh, and I said I couldnt see the Aladdin... He had it on nightime.