Problems Transferring your Trip planning file to your Garmin 770

[UTExplore]

Many of the Trip Planners (RVParky, RVTripWizard (now called RV Life), Garmin BaseCamp, etc) allow you to export your planned trip to a GPX file and then load it onto your RV GPS. Once the GPX file is in the RV's GPS, the unit will determine appropriate routing based on the size and weight characteristics you entered into the RV's GPS. (GPX files should load to virtually all the GPS brands. I describe how its done with Garmin. Check your owners manual for other brands).

I own a Garmin RV 760 and I just drag and drop the GPX file into the GPX folder on the GPS internal drive. I then open the GPS trip planner and after a short wait, the trip appears in my RV 760. Works like a charm.

My friend has a Garmin RV 770. It would crash every time he tried to load his GPX file from his laptop. He tried to drag a drop it in the GPX folder with no success. He loaded the GPX file into Garmin's Basecamp trip planner and it also failed. Initially, Garmin had no idea why this was a problem.

After three LOOOOOONG phone calls with Garmin, he finally found a tech that immediately had the solution. If the RV profile you have entered into your Garmin RV 770 indicates you have propane tanks, the GPX will cause the the RV 770 to crash and reboot. It will not load the trip. If you delete the propane tanks from your profile it works like a charm. Just drag and drop the GPX file into the GPX folder on the RV's internal drive.

You just can't make this stuff up.

If you carry propane, make sure you turn the propane indication back on in your profile when you are travelling so you receive warnings about tunnel restrictions for propane,

[timjet]

I had the same problem with my Garmin RV 660.

[pbucha]

Great info! Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[timjet]

Originally Posted by UTExplore

Many of the Trip Planners (RVParky, RVTripWizard (now called RV Life), Garmin BaseCamp, etc) allow you to export your planned trip to a GPX file and then load it onto your RV GPS. Once the GPX file is in the RV's GPS, the unit will determine appropriate routing based on the size and weight characteristics you entered into the RV's GPS.
Snip

Many people don't understand this thinking that the file they import to their GPS will have the GPS follow that file. Not true. As explained in red the GPS creates it's own route based on the parameters and avoidance's in the GPS.
There is really little reason to import a file to your GPS because as explained above the GPS simply takes the origination and destination and creates it's own route.
There is one exception; if you use Base Camp the route created in Base Camp will download to the GPS and the GPS will follow the route created in BC but only if enough alert turnpoints are created to define the route.

[MRUSA14]

Not worth the trouble for me. I prefer entering my route into the GPS each day by hand. Simpler, and it keeps me in the decision loop giving me a last chance to examine the route critically and make changes if needed.

[timjet]

I like to create my routes in Trip Wizzard so I can review the route and even use a satellite view if necessary. I also like to at times use the drag feature to avoid certain areas that Trip Wizard takes me through, like downtown Atlanta.

If I use the drag feature I have to download the trip to Base Camp and create turnpoints at the place where I used the drag feature on Trip Wizard. This will ensure the GPS will follow the route I created. It is a lot of work and I wish Garmin will allow importing files without the GPS modifying them.

[Persistent]

I too struggled with the "propane bug" issue when firs using my RV 770 with Garmin BaseCamp. I too eventually came in contact with the one excellent support person who knew the answer. I did post a hopefully helpful notice about a year ago. By now it should be in Garmin's frequently asked questions or better yet corrected, but it is not.

However, Garmin BaseCamp and the RV 770 is so much better the tools I previously used, I overlook this and other short comings.

True, simply entering start and destination in the RV 770 is easy. But planning a 3 week trip is a bit more complicated and Base Camp provides "Trips" functions that break it down to each days plan. Add to that, we change are minds as to daily destination frequently and love to find and travel "short cuts". BaseCamp stores all kinds of information about destinations to help choose an alternate.

I have all the Texas state parks we are interested in along with Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin stored in BaseCamp. It includes phone numbers, web addresses, short descriptions and notes from previous visits. All this is available off-line. We are frequently in places with intermittent or no connectivity.

There are a number of improvements I would love to have in BaseCamp. The best would be to show current GPS location in BaseCamp.

[Aitutaki98]

Originally Posted by UTExplore

Many of the Trip Planners (RVParky, RVTripWizard (now called RV Life), Garmin BaseCamp, etc) allow you to export your planned trip to a GPX file and then load it onto your RV GPS. Once the GPX file is in the RV's GPS, the unit will determine appropriate routing based on the size and weight characteristics you entered into the RV's GPS. (GPX files should load to virtually all the GPS brands. I describe how its done with Garmin. Check your owners manual for other brands).

I own a Garmin RV 760 and I just drag and drop the GPX file into the GPX folder on the GPS internal drive. I then open the GPS trip planner and after a short wait, the trip appears in my RV 760. Works like a charm.

My friend has a Garmin RV 770. It would crash every time he tried to load his GPX file from his laptop. He tried to drag a drop it in the GPX folder with no success. He loaded the GPX file into Garmin's Basecamp trip planner and it also failed. Initially, Garmin had no idea why this was a problem.

After three LOOOOOONG phone calls with Garmin, he finally found a tech that immediately had the solution. If the RV profile you have entered into your Garmin RV 770 indicates you have propane tanks, the GPX will cause the the RV 770 to crash and reboot. It will not load the trip. If you delete the propane tanks from your profile it works like a charm. Just drag and drop the GPX file into the GPX folder on the RV's internal drive.

You just can't make this stuff up.

If you carry propane, make sure you turn the propane indication back on in your profile when you are travelling so you receive warnings about tunnel restrictions for propane,

I had this problem also however the propane tanks weren't the issue. I guess I need some direction from you seasoned users. When I import the trip from RV trip wizard, Base camp loads them as tracks. I have to convert the tracks to routes. They load as "from" and "to" creating waypoints at the beginning and end of each track as they are converted to routes. So to clean them up prior to converting them, I rename each one. If I dont, my 770 only shows a portion of the name in saved routes and can cause some confusion. Once I do this, I convert them to routes, which also creates the waypoints beginning and end. Now there are two waypoints to each route, the route itself and then the tracks all listed in the window on the lower left. I delete the first of the two waypoints to clean it up somemore, otherwise those waypoints load into the 770 as well. After I highlight and load the routes into the 770, I then go into the trip app on the 770 and plan the route.

To me this is an exhausting process. I have a 3600 mile trip I am planning with 17 destinations and this process takes forever. I tried loading the gpx files into both gpx folders in internal storage and the sd card but the 770 never recognized them. I spent time on the phone with Garmin cs but he basically told me that Garmin doesn't always recognize third party files.

I love RVTW. But the process to get it to the Garmin is ridiculous. Can anyone help me out? TIA

[timjet]

Originally Posted by Aitutaki98

I had this problem also however the propane tanks weren't the issue. I guess I need some direction from you seasoned users. When I import the trip from RV trip wizard, Base camp loads them as tracks. I have to convert the tracks to routes. They load as "from" and "to" creating waypoints at the beginning and end of each track as they are converted to routes. So to clean them up prior to converting them, I rename each one. If I dont, my 770 only shows a portion of the name in saved routes and can cause some confusion. Once I do this, I convert them to routes, which also creates the waypoints beginning and end. Now there are two waypoints to each route, the route itself and then the tracks all listed in the window on the lower left. I delete the first of the two waypoints to clean it up somemore, otherwise those waypoints load into the 770 as well. After I highlight and load the routes into the 770, I then go into the trip app on the 770 and plan the route.


First I would limit my RVTW legs to about 5 or 6, it's much easier to manage when they're imported to Base Camp. Once in Base Camp I convert the tracks to routes then rename them. Delete the tracks. Rename them starting with 1 and a name that makes sense to you.
The second leg starts with 2 and so on. They show up in sequence in Base Camp but probably not in your
GPS.


To me this is an exhausting process. I have a 3600 mile trip I am planning with 17 destinations and this process takes forever. I tried loading the gpx files into both gpx folders in internal storage and the sd card but the 770 never recognized them. I spent time on the phone with Garmin cs but he basically told me that Garmin doesn't always recognize third party files.



Not sure what the CS at Garmin knows but all trips in RVTW download correctly to Base Camp as a GPX file. The problem is with the GPS unit itself. There is no option that I know of to get the GPS to navigate the route as downloaded. It simply takes the origination and destination points of the route you downloaded from Base Camp and creates it's own route using the parameters you selected in the GPS.
If you use the drag feature of RVTW to modify a leg and download it to Base Camp, it will show correctly in Base Camp with the modification in tack. It will even show up correctly in your GPS until you press the final START option. Then it recalculates the route using the origin and destination completely disregarding your modification. This is absolutely crazy but that's the way it works.

In my opinion there is absolutely no reason to download a trip from RVTW to your GPS unless you go to the effort to insert enough "alert turn points" in Base Camp to define the route you have in RVTW.


I love RVTW. But the process to get it to the Garmin is ridiculous. Can anyone help me out? TIA

I love RVTW too and use it for planning. But I think the best way to interface with the GPS is to manually correct the route in the GPS to follow the route you created in RVTW. This can be a lot of work.

[ByeTheWay]

"To me this is an exhausting process. I have a 3600 mile trip I am planning with 17 destinations and this process takes forever. I tried loading the gpx files into both gpx folders in internal storage and the sd card but the 770 never recognized them. I spent time on the phone with Garmin cs but he basically told me that Garmin doesn't always recognize third party files."

Third party files are often in the wrong format. For example Files from Discoveryowners.com Don’t discard your navigation files, just convert them to a different format for the program you wish to use. Changing files from one format to another is easy at: GPS Visualizer: Convert GPS files to plain text or GPX



I use this site so often I donate.

[Mkaye]

i cannot load files from RVTW into my 770
not propane tanks

i think it is the # of track points that come over before you convert to a route
the tracks with a lot of points (most) all fail loading into the 770 - crashes
i had 1 route load and it was really short
have informed RVTW, not sure they are going to do anything

also asked RVTW to name the tracks starting with the stop #, i.e. 001, 002
this would make the order shown in the tracks correct, instead of having to rename each segment - they have added it there list of enhancements

very frustrating when i have 7 weeks, and 58 stops and have to load everything into the GPS manually each morning

mark

[UTExplore]

Originally Posted by Mkaye

i cannot load files from RVTW into my 770
not propane tanks

i think it is the # of track points that come over before you convert to a route
the tracks with a lot of points (most) all fail loading into the 770 - crashes
i had 1 route load and it was really short
have informed RVTW, not sure they are going to do anything

also asked RVTW to name the tracks starting with the stop #, i.e. 001, 002
this would make the order shown in the tracks correct, instead of having to rename each segment - they have added it there list of enhancements

very frustrating when i have 7 weeks, and 58 stops and have to load everything into the GPS manually each morning

mark

There are different types of GPX files. In Garmin's terminology they are referred to "route" GPX, "track" GPX and "waypoint" GPX. What the Garmin RV GPSs are looking for is a "route" GPX.

RVTW creates a "track" GPX which will NEVER work in a Garmin RV GPS. (Track files are used commonly by hikers, ATVers and mountain bikers to share the trails they take. Track files will load into many handheld Garmin devices but they are still in fragmented form)

Basecamp can read all kinds of GPX files so you can see all the individual track files and go thru the laborious and unnecessary process of joining them into one route file.

All RVTW needs to do is change the GPX file creator they are using to output a "route" GPX file instead of a "track" GPX file.

They are aware of this problem. They will not have happy Garmin users until they fix it.

There are other trip planners that output "route" GPX files that upload to Garmin RV GPS units without all the drama.

[timjet]

Mark, are you loading your GPS with routes created in RVTW then downloading to Base Camp or are you loading the legs you created in RVTW directly to your GPS. I have never been able to load directly from RVTW to my RV 660. I've always loaded the legs into Base Camp and then to my GPS.
If you do it this way, just know that when you upload the legs you created in RVTW to Base Camp they load into BC as tracts which must then be converted to routes before they can be loaded into your GPS.
I hope this helps.
It's not difficult to convert from tracks to routes in BC, just one click of the mouse.

[Mkaye]

yes, using BC and converting the tracks
i leave the default for using the # of track points
i'll have to try setting my own #

i have been a programmer for over 40 yrs and creating a correct GPX file shouldn't be that difficult

mark