Pretty much decided on the Garmin 660 LMT

[I-wa]

Thanks for all the help. I still have concerns that the Garmin 660 LMT won't do what I need.
I need to get to 70-100 rural addresses every month. Some are always the same some new ones each month. When its an address I've been to I can ignore the GPS wanting me to take an exit that, while shorter usually takes longer and has bad roads and turns. Will the Garmin 660 LMT let me program it to only use good roads regardless of elapsed time or distance. My current Garmin doesn't seem to care if I have shortest route or fastest route. The route is always the same. This could be partly do to the part of the country I live in. But since I want to use this new Garmin 660 LMT with my travel trailer I'd like to get the right GPS.

If I get the Garmin 660 LMT and tell it I have a bigger rig than I have will it then select better roads?

[JSM180]

No, that is a major downfall with the garmin system. Whenever you divert off the programmed route it will recalculate using your set preference of fastest or shortest. My work around is whenever I stop for fuel or divert to just reload/restart the route. Pretty lame for all the other features they incorporate.

[F76Marion]

I-wa,

I do not have a 660.
What I have is a recent (last year) model 50. It does have the capability to route around road that you indicate is bad. (This two bridges in my case.) It also will route to addresses by voice command. This works very well if you speak the whole address as an item. It takes some getting used to. There is also a "Recently Found" feature and another for the waypoints imported from Base Camp.

I strongly suggest that you go to the Garmin site and download and read the manual before you even order it. There is a lot to learn.

Frank

[JoeSR]

Garmin drives me nuts. I have two of them. The Zumo 660 will allow the user to turn off “Route Recalculation”. The Nuvi 2757LM does not allow the user to turn off “Route Recalculation”. If you bypass a waypoint (address) with the Nuvi, it will immediately recalculate your route back to the missed waypoint. So I-wa, the first thing to do is check the documentation on the GPS unit that you want to buy to see if it has this Route Recalculation Off feature.

If your GPS doesn’t have this Route Recalculation Off feature, you can do what JSM180 suggested but that is a painful way to go.

The best work around that I have found for my Nuvi is to use Garmin’s BaseCamp program to turn all of my addresses (waypoints) into “shaping points”. I develop my route in BaseCamp and then download that route into the GPS. To change addresses (waypoints) into shaping points I follow these steps:
1. In BaseCamp, open the route (right click on the route and select “Open”).
2. A new window will pop up.
3. Right click one of the waypoints you want to change.
4. A new menu will pop up.
5. Select “Don’t Alert on Arrival (shaping point)”.
When I download this new route into my Nuvi, I can go right past a side route without having the Nuvi go into a recalculate mode.

Its not really a plug and go system, is it?

[MSHappyCampers]

I don't know anything about the Garmin so can't help with that question! Keep her between the ditches!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!


Happy New Year!

[momdoc]

Sometimes when we are sure of a route that is different than Garmin we just stat out on our route and eventually she catches up and proceeds to use our route.
We also I believe can avoid certain type of roads as well on the program. In three major trips and 15K miles it has only steered us wrong once.

[OLYLEN]

Yes it will do what you wish. Just about any GPS will. Reading and UNDERSTANDING the manual is the important part. There are so many options in the newer GPS that its hard to keep up. Review routes before travel is the key. Sometimes setting a via point on a route is the best way to over ride what the programmer had in mind. I do like the Garmin line the best, just updated the two I use the most yesterday for the winter adventure.

LEN