GPS tried to kill us in N.Carolina!!!

[PS95Bx]

Originally Posted by Gordon Dewald

Our coach and trailer are 53,000. The truck and trailer we had, F450 and 43' 5er were 28,000.

I believe your weight is understated. Your truck should be in the 7 - 8,000 lb range.

if you think my truck should be 7000 to 8000 I wish it was but it isn’t. I have had it weighed at an escapade. I don’t know how you can make that judgement because normally the Ram 5500 as well as the Ford 550 “08 i previously owned come from the factory as Chasis Cabs and all sorts of stuff are added after delivery.

[terrym86]

I have an older Garmin that I was given before I retired a few years ago. Even after I update it, it keeps sending me places I know I shouldn't go.



I visit my sister who lives in the country a few hours from me a few times a year. For grins, I have Bitchin' Betty (the Garmin) try to tell me how to get back home. It regularly tries to send me down a couple of dead-end roads that are platted to connect to pavement but were never built. Then it insists that I go around the block and go back to go 10 miles north to an interstate highway when I can just keep going east, following the numbered US highway I'm on which takes me two blocks from home.


A couple of years ago, it took me through downtown Kissimmee, Florida, to get to a resort south of town. I was flying solo in territory I'd never driven before and missed the turn that I had marked on a Google Maps printout. The downtown detour added a mile or two, plus it added about 15-20 minutes to the trip because of the downtown speed humps and stop signs.


I use Bitchin' Betty, but I don't often rely on her.

[cj_calva]

Hello! Well there might be a lot of similar stories like that. Some years ago, the small dead end road in front of our home was the place of a big show: four heavy semis and some sports cars and several motorcyclists tried to get out of it... they were lost but the GPS showed them a nice shortcut.... because there was once a road but since almost 50 years there are trees and grass growing on it (since they built the new street). So why this? GPS Programmers are not driving on all the roads on their maps. Mostly they trust the official plans of the Cities, Counties and States which even could be different from road-maps. If those plans are incorrect because they are not up-to-date it could end in such results.

Well... we drove decates without the GPS and never got lost so we do not use it now. Certainly a GPS helps to find an adress in the Cities but to drive from New York City to San Francisco we do not need a GPS. And I prefer to trust the signs an not the GPS....

Another nice story from Europe: To reach the Islands of Great Britain by car from France you can put your vehicle on the ferry-ship or on the train across the Channel-Tunnel. The tickets for both are possible to reserve online, at the gate the system reads your license-plate and you get through it. Arriving on the 4-lane highway you have over several miles big signs above each lane which shows you if you are driving on the lane towards the ferry or on the lane towards the train. So the guy in his Bentley in front of me started a big discussion with the manager because the gate to the train did not let him through. The manager explained him, that he is actually at the train terminal and that he has a ticket for the ferry and not for the train. His answer was: "But my navigation system says that this is the ferry"......

[Victory Blue]

All the anecdotal stories in the world about the misuse of GPS based nav systems don't reduce their value and usability; it's like using the guy who cut off his foot with a lawn mower to justify not cutting your grass.

For 40 years I traveled with paper maps just like everyone else, but during that time the maps were incorrect and obsolete before they were printed. Current GPS technology, understood and properly used, is far superior as a tool to get anyone where they're going.

[soberskier]

Originally Posted by oneknight

I just programmed the thing to take us from E. TN to our first stop just south of Brevard NC.

I'd checked the route on Google Maps, all seemed very straight forward.
I normally run the GPS on my phone as backup, but am "breaking in a new phone" so I didn't.
The thing in the dash is kinda balky and doesn't like to be touched. I left it on the zoom where the POI's show and just did what it told me.

The route should have been I40 to 280 to 64. Done.

It took me through Hendersonville on roads that resulted in a couple curb jobs. Leaving Hendersonville, NC, it put me on 276, and then on progressively smaller roads through a couple national forests. After over an hour wandering the countryside, we came back on 276, and then it directed a turn down a road with a yellow sign that said "narrow curving mountain road not recommended for truck or large vehicle, SHARP TURNs!"

I bailed at this point, continuing on 276. I pulled off at the next parking area big enough to hold me, knocked on a strangers door, and said "my GPS is lost, how do I get to Adventure Village RV Resort?"

After some discussion, it was suggested I continue 8 miles on 276 to Brevard, then turn on 64 to the campground.

As I did so, that "THING" in my dash started screaming about "Exceeding the weight limit" on 64.

That thing in my dash turned a 45 minute cruise down a 4 lane divided highway into a 2 hour wander through the backwoods because it believed I was too heavy?
And it was wrong?

It is programmed properly, 62 feet long, 49,000 pounds...

Has anyone ever replaced theirs?
Can it be done while keeping the second screen with the cameras and putting the GPS display on the overhead TV?

I'm not used to a GPS that can't be trusted.
And this is not the first time.

Sorry for the long rant.

Never just do what the thing in the dash says. Always check a map if at all possible.
GPS has taken me on various adventures.

W
Once when in west Virginia, we wanted to go to a Wall Mart... I did not check the map, and simply followed directions. We were told to turn off a main 4 lane highway, a few turns later we were wandering through a neighborhood with relatively narrow streets, cars parked on the street....finally arrived at the loading dock of the Walmart. The front door of that Wal-Mart fronted on the very same 4 lane highway we we had been directed to "turn left."

[RV_Road_Trip]

I have used GPS in every state in the USA except for one and that being Alaska and it has taken us on different routes than we expected to go but, it was based on the settings. You can look at a map and think that it is the shortest or quickest route but the GPS can see it in true reality. After reading your post I have to feel that you had a setting set that you forgot about or overlooked, in my opinion you selected shortest route and that would account for your "cut-through roads" which was shorter than your thought by looking at a map. Just remember, looking at a map is not always what you perceive it to be and a GPS has no feelings and does not try to harm anyone, it simply gets you from point A to point B and variables dictates how the GPS operates but it is YOU that sets the variables for the GPS to work within....

[brobox]

Originally Posted by soberskier

Once when in west Virginia, we wanted to go to a Wall Mart... I did not check the map, and simply followed directions. We were told to turn off a main 4 lane highway, a few turns later we were wandering through a neighborhood with relatively narrow streets, cars parked on the street....finally arrived at the loading dock of the Walmart. The front door of that Wal-Mart fronted on the very same 4 lane highway we we had been directed to "turn left."

Found that to be very normal with Big Rig GPS, they want to take you in where everything is a right turn. With some of the skinny driveways into Walmarts, that is not always the best way to come in. I usually have WAZE running and found it is more accurate to take you directly to the front door, or look down the 4 lane before following the GPS off of it.

Also found it helpful to punch in rest stops on the RM, that is where the Walmarts are listed, and check how far it is off the interstate. We skip the ones that a more than a mile. Just the fixes we have found after that happened to us once as well.

[rk911]

Originally Posted by brobox

I found the off button on every GPS I have owned easy to use. If I know where I am suppose to go, I go there without the GPS telling me to go somewhere else.

generally agree but i like to have it running in case of an unplanned route deviation such as a wreck or other road closure. Plan B.

[PS95Bx]

So Yesterday we left Salina, Kansas for Grand Island, Nebraska. sort of didn’t need the Rand McNally GPS for the run up U.S. 81 but once we got I 80 I wanted it to guide me to Mormon Island State Recreation. When we turned on to 81 GPS showed next turn as I 80 but i stopped once for along the way and GPS changed routing when turned back on. We ignored it but I noticed it had several speed limits wrong after it switched, 60 instead of 70 and was responding accordingly finding the quickest route which according to it’s algorithm was no longer U.S. 81. I still think they are helpful and even necessary Just don’t let it do all your thinking for you

[Gary.Jones]

Chuck

As an old truck driver, I am having trouble with your "the GPS always prefers a right turn" statement. I dont know about you, but making a right turn in a semi, particularly one with a sleeper cab behind you, is definitely not the preference of any truck driver I have ever known, and that is because the right side of your truck is called the "blind side". You are totally dependent on mirrors and as soon as you start a right turn, you are doing it in the blind. A left turn on the other hand, lets you visually see with your eyes what your trailer and tandem wheels are doing. I'd make a left turn any day before I would make a right turn. On a right turn, you try to over-correct so far that there is no chance that you have cut it short or you pray that your cab has cameras with wide angles. I have not driven a semi- tractor now for maybe 40 years so maybe "modern" tractors have cameras built into the cabs (you know, I have never paid attention.... maybe they do), but I would still prefer a left turn anytime.

Gary

[Gordon Dewald]

Hmm I apparently misread your post. Sorry

[Gordon Dewald]

Originally Posted by Victory Blue

All the anecdotal stories in the world about the misuse of GPS based nav systems don't reduce their value and usability; it's like using the guy who cut off his foot with a lawn mower to justify not cutting your grass.

For 40 years I traveled with paper maps just like everyone else, but during that time the maps were incorrect and obsolete before they were printed. Current GPS technology, understood and properly used, is far superior as a tool to get anyone where they're going.

I believe that GPS and paper maps come with the same information with a caveat.

Many transportation departments have their own mapping section. I worked for a transportation department and the process was to build the road alignment, then the legal surveyors would survey the alignment and pass the information to the mapping section who would then update the mapping data. After the data was updated it would be parceled out to various parties.

If you can get a new print of their maps you will get the latest information they have added to print date. GPS data is picked up where the mapping information has to "trickle down" to be included in the GPS update.

But the bonus with GPS is the information is updated constantly and available for download at periodic times. I have free map updates and before every major trip will check for any updates.

[brobox]

Gary, need to read my post again. That is just what I said, right turn into a skinny driveway at Walmart is not a preferred route being 45 ft and towing. However, the RM many times will route you in so the driveway is a right turn instead of a left turn. Same as what soberskier posted that I was answering.

[Gary.Jones]

I gotta stop that speed reading....