Best App for Mapping Routes for Large Class A

[Texashd]

Hello there,

My hubby and I are just starting out our new adventure as full time RV'ers, we literally just sold our house a week and a half ago. We are so excited! So we are planning a trip from the West out to the East. We're starting in Spokane, WA and ending in the Fort Myers area of Florida. He had done this trip in an RV a couple times but it's been a few years and the roads are constantly changing with all the road construction that seems to be going on no matter where you go. We want to find the best app to purchase that will give us the best routes to take, along with stops as well, tips on the roads that will be friendly to our Coach. We are in a 2015 Entegra Anthem that's 42' and towing a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon so we're over 60' long in total. I'm finding just using Google Maps isn't the best when travelling in a long rig as it doesn't take into consideration that you're not in a car and it's not easy to turn around. I want an app that other RV travelers offer their input so we get a heads up before choosing a route or before deciding to make a stop, is it the best exit for us to pull off. If you can't tell, I'm kind of a planner, so I like to be as prepared as I can be in this big rig.

Thank you in advance for all your help and input, it's appreciated!
Angela

[D Gardiner]

First off, congratulations on your house sale, and the new adventure going FT.

Google maps is great for trip planning, and giving you an overall idea of routes to take. You can also personalize your route, but it does not take into account what size vehicle you drive.

APPS
We usually run two drive Apps when we are on enroute:

The first is Waze.
Pros: This app can be configured for direct routes, avoid tolls, for HOV and Toll Passes, Freeways, Unpaved roads, and avoiding difficult intersections.
It also is User-Interactive, so it can help you avoid accidents, inform of objects on roadways, police activity, and even for driver reported bad weather.
Cons:What it does not have is a way to enter what size vehicle you drive

The second is TruckMap.
Pros: This app is designed for truckers. Which allows you to enter your vehicle size, length, height, trailer, fuel type, and even weight. All of which is helpful to identify low bridges, and weight limits. It can also be configured to avoid toll roads, and give alerts.
You can have it identify rest areas, truck stops, grocery stores, truck parking overnight truck parking, truck washes, DEF fluid, dump stations, propane and restrooms.
It also has one very Nice feature. You can have it give you a satellite view on the maps.
Cons: No were near as user-interactive as Waze, and it will do its level best to keep you off of secondary, or smaller highways.

We also carry numerous old school paper maps. We also have two 50-state maps to help plan the overall trip. Enroute we use a large scale spiral bound Road Atlas from Rand McNally. https://www.amazon.com/Rand-McNally-...3360404&sr=8-4

[Jake21]

Driven over 100,000 miles in the last 10 years. I use Google Maps, Allstays and this forum “Camping, travel and trip planning”for advice from those who have been there lately. No issues at all.

[SillyAnn]

I used to use Microsoft Streets & Trips 2013, but sadly Microsoft discontinued support for it. I still use it, but it is woefully out of date.

Then I went to RVParky, a free web-based routing tool, but I found it was not being updated regularly.

So, I ended up purchasing an RV Life subscription (https://my.rvlife.com/) which includes, among other things, RV Trip Wizard. It is really a good tool that allows you to configure the specs of your RV and then it will route you on RV safe routes.

There is an iRv2 forum for RVTW here: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f287/

Enjoy your journey.

[pasdad1]

Yep, second vote for RV Trip Wizard for trip planing.

I then use a Garmin RV GPS to do the actual turn by turn routing. The Garmin takes into consideration our height, weight, and length when planning the route we should take.

[lllkrob]

For the beginning traveler I would suggest the following: https://tripwizard.rvlife.com/. It takes into account your vehicle size and the fact that you will be looking for R V Parks to stay in.

[pameridan04]

Just look on the top red bar of this forum..click on RV TRIP PLANNER. This is Trip wizard.


PAM

[NLOVNIT]

This is the "red bar" to which the prior poster referred. It isn't always there - if one X's out of it.

[F239141]

A map or truckers atlas and common sense.

[Rob_M]

Google maps, Waze, both free phone apps and will keep you informed of construction and current traffic. I use one or the other daily driving a 30k pound Peterbuilt service truck so I know what traffic problems lie ahead. Common sense goes with that though. You can’t blindly trust any gps mapping. Sometimes I have to ignore “exit here”, when I know it’s sending me to the service road to gain 3 minutes.

If you use a truckers gps you will drive extra miles because the app is trying to keep you on interstates only, which for many is just fine. I prefer scenic state roads and small towns if I’m not in a hurry.

[FloridaFlyer]

We use a Garmin RV 1090 because it takes as input the length, height, and width of the rig and any towed vehicle. It also connects to a wireless network for updates. I've been quite happy with the unit. NOTE: It is not cheap.

I also highly recommend the book "The Next Exit", which lists what is at each exit off of Interstate highways. Note that US highways and state highways are not generally included. This has been a great help in finding fuel from stations which have the space and turning space for a large class A with a toad.

To compliment that book, I use a map application--Google Maps or Apple Maps--on my tablet or iPad to check the streets, entry, pumps, and exits for stations.


I'm with the other posters who mention common sense--I've had my GPS take me 20 miles out of the way for a U-turn. I will preview the route on the GPS with my printed atlas to be certain the path the GPS selects is the one I want.


For example, a few days ago I was traveling from Wenatchee, Washington to Vancouver, Washington and did NOT want to go over Snoqualmie Pass, down the Auburn Cutoff, and on to I-5 through Tacoma and Olympia. Knowing the path I wanted, I made the turns I knew I needed to make until the GPS finally 'agreed' with me that this was the route to take (Umtanum/N. & S. Menashtash/Satus Pass/Columbia River Gorge).

[dbircky]

Waze App and an 890 Garmin. Garmin has size profiles for MH, MH w/toad, and MH w/trailer. GPS works where cells don’t. Waze give liveish traffic and hazard updates.

[Kxbronco]

I use Garmin Basecamp to build my route, double check it with Google maps and when satisfied, I download the route to my Garmin RV760. Once on the 760 you have to execute the route and make sure the 760 doesn’t change anything. If it does, I add shaping points along the route in Basecamp until the 760 follows it exactly.

[Archer2]

We've been full-timers in 45' Class A's with towed cars for going on 8 years now. I’ve driven virtually from end to end and top to bottom of the lower 48 states. I have used RV Trip Wizard coupled with a Garmin RV-Specific GPS for the whole time.
What I quickly found out early on is that with a large RV, planning the actual route is just a small fraction of what is needed. You also need planning tools for when and where to stop for overnight stays and you need a way to research the options and choose/reserve the stops while making sure that the stop is within your individual driving distance and time parameters.
RV Trip Wizard gives me all of that and more. On the other hand the GPS (RV760 in my case) is excellent when it comes to finding the best route when given a starting and ending point. It knows where the delays are, where the low overpasses are etc.
So I use RVTW for trip planning and making reservations and then at the beginning of each day of the trip I just input the destination and let the Garmin figure it out.
My point is that if you are only going to drive to a state park for a weekend then almost any tool will work but for complicated multi-week trips a more integrated approach is really nice.