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CamJam1 · 02-10-2021, 01:14 AM

Just bought an RV780 GPS and set about putting in a short route to learn my way around it. I picked Garmin because I had an older car unit and found it easy to use. This one I find a little frustrating, though I suppose it will get more intuitive as I become more familiar with it.

I programmed in my moho parameters (length, height, width & weight) and tried navigating a short trip to the local WalMart. The first turn after leaving my subdivision is a left turn on to a divided highway. There is a crossover about 50' wide between the divided lanes, but instead of a left turn, the routing wants me to turn right, sending me four miles out of my way to the next turnout to make a U-turn. Ok, I figure, it's just trying to make sure I don't have the back of my moho sticking out into oncoming traffic (even though there is plenty of room) so I shorten the moho length in the parameters to see if that fixes it. But even if I shorten it to something ridiculous, like ten feet, it still wants me to turn right instead of left!

In car mode it works as it should, but leaving it in car mode defeats the purpose of buying an RV specific GPS in the first place.

Makes me wonder what kind of ridiculous routing this thing is going to send me on in areas that I'm not so familiar with. I've had enough GPS units to know that they all make mistakes, but this one literally got the first turn wrong.

Is this a common issue with these RV type GPS units, or did I just have bad luck right out of the box? If lawyers were in charge of determining the moho routes I can see this unit and I are not going to get along.

DKRITTER · 02-10-2021, 02:37 PM

I've had mine almost 2 years now and agree at times it wants to go out of the way.

One thing I have discovered is many times the weird routing has to do with a safety issue on the route. So far for us 3 times all in Louisiana, once near Lake Charles we a piece of road on 165 was rated for 20 ton and our MH is in our Garmin at 47000. Almost the same thing last Sunday near Mansfield, it said there was a 20 ton bridge so it wanted to route us around. There were semi's going over a fairly new bridge. Louisiana had not updated the data on the new bridge.

It probably isn't Garmin's fault, it's just using the data it's been given.

pasdad1 · 02-10-2021, 02:56 PM

There is a setting to avoid U-turns....see if that is turned on.

Also, have you updated the maps after you bought it?

CamJam1 · 02-10-2021, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pasdad1

There is a setting to avoid U-turns....see if that is turned on.

Also, have you updated the maps after you bought it?

Yes and yes. I know my old GPS once told us to turn off a major highway and onto a road that didn't exist (miles from our next actual turn) and another time it told me my motel was in the middle of nowhere, ten miles from any civilization, so the RV780 certainly isn't unique in this regard.

I routed an entire trip from Arizona to Oregon on the new GPS last night and the routes the GPS selected don't look bad at all, so I'm feeling a little better that this is not going to be a constant issue. Basecamp strikes me as worthless-- slow and clunky-- but the built-in trip planner in the GPS is not horrible for a portable GPS unit. The inflexibility of GPS units can be frustrating at times-- they'll never compare to something like Google maps for route planning-- but they do serve a purpose for navigating. Using both the GPS and Google Maps to scout the route seems to be a winning combination.

**Lt Dan** · 02-10-2021, 03:21 PM

I've had our RV760 do some odd routes a couple of time. I always try to live by trust, but verify when it comes to routing. It has insisted a couple of times on route changes that I know are not necessary simply because of weight or height restrictions that have not been updated. No routing program is perfect as it depends on current data in the maps.

DKRITTER · 02-10-2021, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamJam1

Using both the GPS and Google Maps to scout the route seems to be a winning combination.

This what we do every time we are planning a trip.

huntnski · 02-10-2021, 05:36 PM

Love mine. I’d be less happy with it if it had me jumping across lanes of traffic. But that’s just me.

Regardless I always check my routes, fuel stops and turns on satellite view ahead of time.

DKRITTER · 02-11-2021, 07:43 AM

Why in the world would this be moved to the TV, Satellite, Cell Phone page?

This is about Navigation not internet.

B52Rnav · 02-11-2021, 04:47 PM

We have RV760 for 2 years and for the most part it does exactly what we want it to do. I have added low clearances database to provide extra awareness of low clearances.

Over the last year of map and software updates the RV760 seems to be getting stupid
- wants to turn on gravel roads, when preferences are set to no unpaved roads
- routing, at times, has really been stupid. On two or three routes, it used to route exactly the way I want to go; now it goes way out of the way (possibly road construction is making it weird). It is hard to tell what route it may follow when it says RV road info not available.
- it will route around a low clearance, but will not give notification that it has done so. You end up wondering why it is going 10 miles out of the way
- it will warn of narrow roads, but not route around them

If you learn to use custom POIs and figure out how to use all of the available alerts, you do have a lot of information available.

We always try to keep situational awareness. Cross check paper maps, trucker atlas, and Google.

CamJam1 · 02-11-2021, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKRITTER

Why in the world would this be moved to the TV, Satellite, Cell Phone page?

This is about Navigation not internet.

I was wondering that myself.

About the RV760 low clearance database, I thought that the RV780 came with that, but now you've got me wondering. Has that changed since the RV760?

B52Rnav · 02-11-2021, 07:09 PM

RV760 and up do have low clearance database. I added custom POI low clearance data and set it up to display anything lower than 14'2" and create an alert. Just an extra level of awareness for me.

EddieM · 02-13-2021, 07:01 AM

Is the Garmin 780 hard wired or Wireless?

DKRITTER · 02-14-2021, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieM

Is the Garmin 780 hard wired or Wireless?

It comes with a cig lighter plug for power.

CamJam1 · 02-14-2021, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieM

Is the Garmin 780 hard wired or Wireless?

Has a built-in battery, but it runs down pretty quickly without the power cord. Also has wifi and bluetooth for connecting to a wireless backup camera (optional) or your smart phone. Database and map updates can be done over the wifi connection or via USB cable to a connected computer.

Also receives live traffic and weather updates via FM radio, in which case the power cord acts as the antenna. This service is not available in all areas.