Community Forums

Luckiest Dreamer · 05-10-2013, 10:21 AM

I have an indash in my car as well as the MH. In fact the MH has a slave screen and you can split the screen and see more than the GPS at any time. It also is the radio and Bluetooth and a maintainence schedule etc. It has more items for my welfare than I will attempt to use. Nice, uh? So why is it that we continue to use the hand held Garmin and a paper Atlas when we are traveling and Streets and trips for our preplaning? Because that is what we feel comfortable doing and my DW can keep it in or near her lap!

Selah · 05-10-2013, 10:56 AM

Dale240Z, first of all, nice car. I can remember drooling over them when they came out.
Using a hot spot is a good secondary nav tool, we use both and sometime preferred. Rember though there are places where cell coverage is not available, not a lot but some.

Ramzfan · 05-10-2013, 05:57 PM

I have to say that I have a built in GPS in my Toyota Tundra and I love everything about it except the GPS part...it has tried twice to send me away from my intended direction for no reason.
I have a portable Garmin in the motorhome that works perfectly except that the bluetooth cannot be heard clearly from the drivers seat. I guess the only answer to that is to add an external speaker (if possible).

djbmsu · 05-10-2013, 06:13 PM

My problem with either or is that I want to move out to see what other roads are aavailable, you cannot. Most everyone today travels with a lap top so we always purchase "Delorme" great program. The toad has OnStar.

historyljc · 05-10-2013, 06:19 PM

Using the same Garmin 7200 w/7" screen that I bought in '06. Just updated it last month with my $89 lifetime map updates. Until the built-ins come down on initial purchase cost and the high updates I'll never own one.

YC1 · 05-10-2013, 10:35 PM

Wait till you tangle with a voice operated GPS. What a joke. Nothing like the commercials. The only advantage is being able to actually make some changes while in motion that you can't do through the touch screen.

Oh, and when they sent me an update for the whole car navigation/computer system the car electronic turned into a brick that took the dealer 5 hours to sort out.

Never again on a built in one. But then, they could get better.

gemini5362 · 05-12-2013, 09:59 PM

Rand Mcnally in the MH when I need something looked up or changed just hand it to my wife and she can do what needs to be done then hands the unit back to me. Built in navsytem in the Enclave. I cannot imagine why every car dealer in the United states does not have some sytem like ONSTAR in their car. When I cannot find something because I am moving or just cant find it in the map. I hit the onstar button and some nice person that is very polite comes answer the call. Asks me what I want finds the destination for me and downloads it to my indash system. That is the real voice activated system that works and not only works perfectly but politely as well

Ramzfan · 05-13-2013, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gemini5362

Rand Mcnally in the MH when I need something looked up or changed just hand it to my wife and she can do what needs to be done then hands the unit back to me. Built in navsytem in the Enclave. I cannot imagine why every car dealer in the United states does not have some sytem like ONSTAR in their car. When I cannot find something because I am moving or just cant find it in the map. I hit the onstar button and some nice person that is very polite comes answer the call. Asks me what I want finds the destination for me and downloads it to my indash system. That is the real voice activated system that works and not only works perfectly but politely as well

Maybe one reason is that a lot of us don't want "Big Brother" to be able to track our every move. The other reason is: Who wants to pay an extra twenty-five bucks a month for directions...?

dale240z · 05-13-2013, 09:08 AM

Don't you just love the forum? Ask a question and you will get replies pro/con. It seems to me that with the stuff that is on the iPhone (navigation), external units, Garmin, Tom Tom, Rand McNally, The built in Nav system looks cool in the dash ( if you can read it while driving), but the $$$ are too much. I am opting for a newer external Nav device ( Good Sam Highways, May-June 2013 article on Rand McNally) and will look at them all.

To the Allegro Red owner, I just sold my 2003 Phaeton 38GH and am looking at the 2014 Red. Seeing that I owned a Phaeton I would like to stay in that class, however the new ones are out of my retirement income range and just can't find a good used one ( 2010 or newer). My question is this, do you ever feel underpower when towing the toad and going up/down hills? Any other comments would be helpful. Have a great day forum friends....

gemini5362 · 05-19-2013, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramzfan

Maybe one reason is that a lot of us don't want "Big Brother" to be able to track our every move. The other reason is: Who wants to pay an extra twenty-five bucks a month for directions...?

I understand your point. I believe if you pay by the year it is less than 25 a month but am not sure. I am sure a lot of people do not like having big brother watching. This does not seem to be a problem for Onstar owners. GM has been adding it to more and more cars in their stable since they introduced it and I believe that it is available on every new GM model available. I have it obviously. I am aware that big brother is watching. My inlaws have a buick with instar. I can tell you from my point of view they are in their 80s and I love knowing that if they are traveling and an emergency happens they can just push a button and get help. I imagine my children feel the same way about me having it;. If I have a car wreck before anyone can try to find a cell phone or try to get help onstar is attempting to call me and if they cannot get me they have emergency services on the way. If someone steals my car and the police see it and start chasing it onstar can shut down the engine and possibly save my car being wrecked and minimize if not totally reduce the loss of life that often happens in high speed chases. Like everyone on this site I have had my troubles with GPS maps. Either the data on the GPS gets entered wrong when they make the map software or something else happens either way I have driven in circles before because the GPS got lost. That happened to me in a big city once and I had been specifically warned to stay out of that part of town for my own safety. GPS took me there like a homing pidgeon. After circling around a few blocks a couple of times and people looking at me like I was crazy for being there I punched the onstar button. The nice lady that answered listened to my problem and plotted me a correct route out of that area to the interstate. She stayed on line until I was on the interstate.

So in answer to your comments. I feel that it is a lot more than just some maps. and as far as price goes. 1 tire for my class a costs 800.00 that is about 4 years of onstar.

Cat320 · 05-21-2013, 09:35 AM

Portable...with free life time updates. In dash (which does not have a touch screen and is a PITA to use) wants big bucks to keep it updated, we don't use it.

lobogris · 08-23-2016, 10:15 AM

Thanks for the info, posters. I concur with the consensus - portable GPS systems are much better. I purchased a new 2016 Winnabago View MH with a Rand McNally in-dash GPS. I regret not taking my portable Garmin Nuvi with me when I left on a 5K trip to the Pacific NW. The in-dash GPS was consistently either frozen in place or wrong about 90% of the time. Pulling out of Amarillo, it took almost an hour for the location function to come on and then after working for 30 minutes, it froze in place and remained locked up for the next several hours. I don't know if they don't pay their satellite bill or if my unit is faulty, but I quit using the in-dash by the time I got out of Texas. I called my dealer and a mechanic suggested updating the SD card so I installed the RMcN dock and updated the SD card. No help. Added a few new roads, but the long delay times continued. I bought a dash holder for my cell phone and used the Google map function for the rest of the trip. Worked fine, but I will never rely on the in-dash unit again. BTW, no response from RMcN when I posted a complaint to them.

Skip426 · 08-23-2016, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobogris

Thanks for the info, posters. I concur with the consensus - portable GPS systems are much better.

lobogris ; Welcome to iRV2.

Being able to pass the GPS to your co-pilot , so it can be re-set ( well safely belted in ) is preferable to having to try and deal with the factory set location , which is often poor to access, when the coach is in motion.

deandec · 08-23-2016, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dale240z

Thanks for all the comments pro/con, mostly con however. I loved Selah's comment about being told what to do....hmmmm, sounds familiar. My wife is far better at checking navigation then me, so she gets to provide me with the driving directions. I am about to venture into my second coach as I just sold my 2003 Phaeton and will opt out of the nav unit. I guess another option would be to install navigation on the lap top and use the iPhone as a "hot spot". I am not that familiar with the lap top navigation, so any feed back on that configuration would be appreciated. Safe travels to all

We have installed Sygic gps on our Android phones and tablet.

Sygic does not require a data connection to operate enroute so cell coverage is not an issue and our tablet works fine with its 10" screen.

Our Samsung tablet had the GPS feature but no broadband connection.

I think the Apple tablets need to have broadband connection to have a GPS sensor built in.

I paid about $25 5 years ago for the North America license and am using it on the three current devices and two former devices at no extra cost. Frequent updates and new features added at no cost during our ownership.

Go to Sygic.com if you have an interest. Co-Pilot is another data free option.