Trip Planning

[Dr. Q]

I have been using Good Sams trip planner software on my longer trips. Planning via the website is pretty good and you can then use the Dock software to download to your onboard Rand McNally system.

What I've found is, if I alter the route online to take a different route than is suggested, once I download it the Rand McNally, the RM will recalculate the route and not keep my route changes.

For instance, Good Sam will show a route taking an interstate highway and I change the route to take a more scenic, secondary road. Once loaded into RM, it will calculate back to the interstate highway.

Has anyone found a way to get RM to accept and adhere to your exact plan ??

Thanks . . . .

[MRUSA14]

Use multi-stop routing. Instead of routing from a to d, tell RM to go from a to b to c to d.

[Gary.Jones]

Why don’t you just research the trip and then simply program it into the Rand McNally yourself either as a single trip (start to finish only) or a series of successive segments. I usually simply program in the finish destination and then if I decide to do something else, the RM tends to figure out what I am doing and recalculates my route to accommodate my change.

Also, my DW has her own Garmin GPS and she is also programming in other routes to examine possible problems, and frankly, I believe 2 GPSes much more than I believe the RM GPS alone. Of course if I question both of those I use my iPhone with Google Maps or Waze.

Gary

[Dr. Q]

Originally Posted by MRUSA14

Use multi-stop routing. Instead of routing from a to d, tell RM to go from a to b to c to d.

I do have a multi-route that goes to RM.... If I' mtraveling 8,000 miles, I have lots of segments. The RM calculates the route for each segment, rather than taking my routing.

[Dr. Q]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Why don’t you just research the trip and then simply program it into the Rand McNally yourself either as a single trip (start to finish only) or a series of successive segments. I usually simply program in the finish destination and then if I decide to do something else, the RM tends to figure out what I am doing and recalculates my route to accommodate my change.

Also, my DW has her own Garmin GPS and she is also programming in other routes to examine possible problems, and frankly, I believe 2 GPSes much more than I believe the RM GPS alone. Of course if I question both of those I use my iPhone with Google Maps or Waze.

Gary

Gary,

That's what we do now, but I was hoping someone has a solution to RM keeping the route I wanted. I have had a couple routes that took me out of the way and I modified online, however, once getting loading into RM, it went back to the original routing

I seems that RM only receives each of the destination in sequence and calculates the routes as you call up the segments

[Guernsey]

Sometimes I use. truckmiles.com

Great for planning routes to avoid low bridges, weight limits, tight curves
and other issues that could befall a large Class A motorhome with tow car.
Also shows fuel and other services along the way

[Gary.Jones]

Dr. Q:

My point is that I think the problem with it not adapting to your changes is something that is specific to Good Sams because the RM does not do that for me. When I program it myself, then it generally recalculates to conform to my changes. I’m betting your problem is the Good Sam download.

Now, that particular characteristic IS a problem that I sometimes have with the Garmin.. once it plans a route it will try 4 to 6 (or 50) times to force me back to its program recommendations. For example, I could drive 3 routes to my work every day for a trip of roughly 25 miles. If I program in my office just for the heck of it, and start my GPS onto one of the common routes. The route I drove was probably was 2 miles longer, but had maybe 10 fewer traffic lights on it. The two routes (the GPS’s 2 mile shorter route and my route are parallel streets), but the Garmin will tell me 5 or 6 times to turn right at each block to take me back to its route. I ignore its instructions and continue and the next block, it again tells me to turn right. This continues until there are no transfer streets and it sees I need to continue on my way, and it gives up and accepts my routing to the destination.

I’m betting if you forget GoodSam, you will have fewer problems. Frankly, I don’t find it any easier to use than Google maos.

Gary