Community Forums

WyoFree · 02-27-2017, 10:05 AM

I currently have "CoPilot for RV" and I'm very pleased with it. The ability to plug in the size, weight and hight of your Class A and be routed accordingly is a big deal.

My DW and I plan to take a lot of rural trips getting from one place to another. If we're in a time constraint we'd obviously use the interstate system. But mostly we're thinking of going through rural America to see the small towns and enjoy the local small town things offered.

It's great looking through an atlas and plotting a trip, but we'd really like to be able to do this with a GPS. If not CoPiolet than something else!

I really don't want to start a conversation on "what GPS is best etc? There are all kinds of that information here already. I'd just like to know if there is a GPS system oriented specifically towards rural travel? And something easy to understand and use! Some things are so difficult to understand its not worth the learning curve!

Thanks guys,

Harry

**Lt Dan** · 02-27-2017, 10:36 AM

Harry, I don't know of a GPS specifically geared toward rural America, but the Garmin GPS units have detailed maps of every highway, county road, gravel road, dirt road and even ATV trails all over the country. I use an RV760LMT in my motor home, which has a 7" screen and a Zumo 350 on my motorcycle and in the Jeep that has a smaller screen. Both of them use the same maps and you can plan routes ahead of time using BaseCamp then download them to the GPS. The RV760 also lets you put in size and weight of the motor home to help avoid roads you don't want to be on. The smaller Zumo sometimes tries to route me down a gravel road on the motorcycle, even though I have avoid those types of roads turned on. Either the roads aren't properly tagged, or it's a fault in the unit's software.

**TonyDi** · 02-27-2017, 10:56 AM

Harry, we use Google maps for a lot of things. Like you we also travel the off the beaten path. Finding places or roads we'd like to see is easy to do. I usually will go to satellite views and zoom in and it allows me to actually see if the side trip is worth it or if it's a waste of time. You can even use it to see what the road is like as you can virtually travel the road.

Hope this helps!

l1v3fr33ord1 · 02-27-2017, 10:59 AM

WyoFree-

The answer to your first question is "No."

As to your follow-on questions, as you point out, many other iRV2 threads have already answered them.

nothermark · 02-27-2017, 11:13 AM

And if you did not get it the first time get a unit that takes the size and weight of the motor home as inputs. That should do most of the work for you. Then keep in mind your size and weight and try to stay on marked truck routes.

At least part of the issue is what you are driving. A 23 ft C is light enough to run down a lot of roads a 45 ft DP can't go. You are probably somewhere in between.

twogypsies · 02-27-2017, 11:17 AM

I would assume any GPS would work on rural roads. I know a Garmin will. Every road is in its base except for, perhaps, some one-track forest roads.

nothermark · 02-27-2017, 01:57 PM

They will work but the one's that take an input for weight and size should also know about bridge problems and local weight limits.

oldgrizz · 02-27-2017, 05:50 PM

You could consider looking at Memory Map. You can load any map into the computer...Topo maps to road maps.
The program needs to be loaded into a laptop. You then hook a small gps unit to it via cable and it then marks your tracks. You can plot routes etc.

WyoFree · 02-27-2017, 06:04 PM

Thanks for your input guys,

I think what I'll do is use the old (actually new) Rand McNally and plot my course manually by city. That way I can plug my cities into CoPiolet and have it plot my course. In other words, force if off the interstates based on the cities I input.

I also like that from the standpoint of spending time actually plotting the course with a map. I'll understand where I'm going better and should work well for me.

Thanks again for you help.

Harry