Comparison Garmin RV 890 GPS vs Waze

[dkoldman]

This thread is to cover the advantages / disadvantages of the Garmin RV890 GPS vs Waze.

Disclaimer: I am a long time Waze user and long time Garmin (Non RV version) user. I stopped using my older Garmin model about 6 years ago, because of the ability of Waze to offer real time updates not only of traffic, but for obstacles in the road, cars on the side of the road, and police warnings.

I received a brand new Garmin RV890 today because, I simply want to see 1st hand other things that the Garmin RV GPS may do today that perhaps Waze cannot like, like warn of low overpasses on the trip.

If you already have either unit, or both your feedback is welcomed. Your opinions are appreciated. I don't expect there to be right answer at the end. I have both, so I cannot be bias (anymore). Although one thing of note.... the Garmin RV GPS runs around $500 retail and Waze is Free.

I fully intend to run both on all trips so I will be able to provide updates on what I learn from time to time. I work full time; so I don't travel long distance as much as some might, but I do drive year around on local trips in the RV all the time.

[dkoldman]

A few points I noted before using the RV 890 for Navigation

1. Quick start instructions made no sense. Basically they have the manual with all of the steps and the Quick Start just tells you what page to go to in the manual. Seems like manual should be written in that order with steps versus having to jump around and flip pages

2. A $500 unit should come with a carry case. They took great lengths to protect class in packaging but what abut when Garmin will not be is use.

3. I was surprised that it did not come with a AC adapter for the very short USB cable that came with it. When I connected to USB power from my PC it said not enough power, this was true with the OEM short cable and my longer USB cable. I had to bring in the house my 12vdc regulated power supply to use their cigarette plug adapter to work and supply the full power it was seeking.

4. The white light on the plug adapter is awfully bright. It would be very annoying to me at night.

5. It connected to the RV's WiFi very easily

6. It connected / paired to my phone very easily

7. I was able to use my existing not used in years Garmin account with ease to connect with Garmin Drive.

8. I don't think I will need the Garmin Express (in favor of WiFi) even though I already have Garmin Express on my PC

9. I don't follow or do not like you have to use Phone (Garmin Drive) when you may otherwise already have a WiFi connection, but this I will get over. But given it is connected with the phone, why not send have option to send audio to phone as well? I will get into features later, but I like how my Waze talks in tandem with my music playing on Pioneer radio with bluetooth.

10. On/Off button not easy to find

11. It took me 2 hours to download all of the required software. It was a little annoying that the screen goes completely black but it is actually still downloading but you don't know that. Touching the screen would not bring it back active and if you press the on/off button; it will turn it OFF. ( yes I proved that test

12. It is annoying the WARNING Agreement that is older than dirt still shows. I find it ironic they want you to press a button to acknowledge a warning to tell you not to press buttons or use while driving. I will concede that if you just ignore after a period of time it moves on

13. I have to watch out for the the Garmin Drive impact to my phones battery?

14. The ease to which the RV890 snaps to the mount is pretty amazing. It is also easy to remove. The fact that someone could easily move while drive and work on reading the info like a iPad to find and confirm next destination, and then place it back on the mount has a lot of potential. But that advantage may fly in the face of the warning of use while driving?

[Chateau_Nomad]

Waze observations:
Traffic reports are crowd sourced... police activity, road hazards, traffic jams etc. are only as good as the amount/frequency/timelines of reports from other drivers. If you're driving in the middle of nowhere, or with no cell signal, not useful. That feature is also integrated into most GPS units now, but I think the usefulness extends to commuters on heavily traveled roads.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Chateau_Nomad

Waze observations:
Traffic reports are crowd sourced...

Are you suggesting as good or bad? I just turned my Waze on and I have 22,579 active Wazers nearby. All do not report but a lot do which is enough to know what is going on nearby on your route. Waze also calculates / knows the speed of traffic so it can detect slow downs ahead to warn you. Some times when I slow down to 55 it will ask me if I am in traffic


police activity, road hazards, traffic jams etc. are only as good as the amount/frequency/timelines of reports from other drivers. If you're driving in the middle of nowhere, or with no cell signal, not useful.

I think the Zero Sum game applies here. Is the fact that you may be in an area with no cell signal enough to offset the benefits of police activity, road hazards, traffic jams etc. when you do have service? It looks like the new $500 RV GPS cannot do traffic unless you have cell coverage. It can't do police activity or road hazards at all.


That feature is also integrated into most GPS units now, but I think the usefulness extends to commuters on heavily traveled roads.

I need to verify but it is very rare I am ever without a signal but a few times for maybe a few min I may not have had service, but the Waze directions continued. Not sure if it is because the data was in buffer or if Waze read location based on satellite from the phone. Garmin Drive relies on phone just like Waze.

Maybe I will take a trip Thanksgiving? If I do; I will have them side by side. At the end of the day, I hope to find enough positive from Garmin RV 890 to justify the cost. But as of today, it is hard for me to imagine driving anywhere of relevance without Waze and a Waxed RV Call me the WaWa RV Guy

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by Chateau_Nomad

Waze observations:
Traffic reports are crowd sourced... police activity, road hazards, traffic jams etc. are only as good as the amount/frequency/timelines of reports from other drivers. If you're driving in the middle of nowhere, or with no cell signal, not useful. That feature is also integrated into most GPS units now, but I think the usefulness extends to commuters on heavily traveled roads.

Built-in traffic on GPS units has always been very ifffy. Even the State's 511 service is usually too far behind to help much. It will tell you there is a crash/backup after you're already stuck in it, or, like last night, going south on I-75 towards Gainesville one of the 511 LED signs warned "Crash 8 miles ahead". I traveled the 8 miles and beyond at 80+ MPH (in my car, not MH) with no signs of a crash.

Waze is marginally better at this but we find too many Waze reports of backups or slowdowns are from trigger-happy people who want to be the first to report a problem where maybe it was just a short lived slowdown to 65 MPH due to professional truck drivers trying to pass each other in their rigs governed to 66 and 65 MPH.

[atreis]

Just a few comments...

Originally Posted by dkoldman

8. I don't think I will need the Garmin Express (in favor of WiFi) even though I already have Garmin Express on my PC

I haven't figured out what exactly triggers this, but sometimes it requires that updates be done using Garmin Express and refuses to do it OTA. Mine has done this once in two years. Not a huge deal, but just a note.

9. I don't follow or do not like you have to use Phone (Garmin Drive) when you may otherwise already have a WiFi connection, but this I will get over.

Agree. It would be nice if it would just use WiFi for this.

12. It is annoying the WARNING Agreement that is older than dirt still shows.

It goes away on its own after a few seconds. (30 seconds maybe? At most a minute.)

13. I have to watch out for the the Garmin Drive impact to my phones battery?

I've not noticed a significant impact above the hit for just having bluetooth turned on.

14. The ease to which the RV890 snaps to the mount is pretty amazing. It is also easy to remove.

The mount really is quite good. It's nice when things like that just work.

[EA37TS]

I have been using an RV 770 LMT for about 4 years and have never had to use Garmin Drive or Garmin Express.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

I have been using an RV 770 LMT for about 4 years and have never had to use Garmin Drive or Garmin Express.

So you must not need live traffic? What I think Garmin Drive does is provide that real time data from mobile phone such as traffic, weather etc. It works well with my phone which I guess, I will always have, but since it is also connected to T Mobile Internet via WiFi in my RV, I was surprised that it does not work unless it has the phone.

Garmin Express, I don't think I would need either. I think in the case Atreis described it may have been a large update and it didn't like the internet speed at the time; so it referred him to Garmin Express?

[dkoldman]

So I take the Garmin RV 890 to RV for 1st time today. The system came with two very nice mounts but IMO, neither are favorable designed for RV.

Mount 1 - Glass suction holder
Who can actually mount the RV 890 on the windshield? Even if I did it would be so far away in the RV to not be practical. Not to mention the power cord could not reach from windshield glass back to the cigarette plug. Mounting on driver side window would obstruct critical views.

So given the glass mount can't really be used, I try to use the suction on my dash. Maybe because it is cold, but it does not even try to seal on the dash. So it looks like I will have to find some other after market part for a base or adhesive to use the RV 890 GPS Glass Mount in the RV. Am I missing something?

Mount 2 - Screw mount
You are provided 4 screws to screw into dash, but that is permanent. How can you be so sure of exact placement you prefer or need before putting 4 destructive holes in your dash? I know I passed on at least one preowned RV where owner had drilled mounting holes for something that he took with him

So at the end of Day, if I were to drive someplace I don't have way to mount. It is a WIP while I wait for someone to advise of easy way to mount or until I figure out a way to design my own way to mount one of the two supplied a $500 RV GPS.

[dkoldman]

On my previous reply in this thread, I noticed the below at the bottom of where I click on Submit.

I have seen many times, but does anyone know what it means?

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

So I take the Garmin RV 890 to RV for 1st time today. The system came with two very nice mounts but IMO, neither are favorable designed for RV.

Mount 1 - Glass suction holder
Who can actually mount the RV 890 on the windshield? Even if I did it would be so far away in the RV to not be practical. Not to mention the power cord could not reach from windshield glass back to the cigarette plug. Mounting on driver side window would obstruct critical views.

So given the glass mount can't really be used, I try to use the suction on my dash. Maybe because it is cold, but it does not even try to seal on the dash. So it looks like I will have to find some other after market part for a base or adhesive to use the RV 890 GPS Glass Mount in the RV. Am I missing something?

Mount 2 - Screw mount
You are provided 4 screws to screw into dash, but that is permanent. How can you be so sure of exact placement you prefer or need before putting 4 destructive holes in your dash? I know I passed on at least one preowned RV where owner had drilled mounting holes for something that he took with him

So at the end of Day, if I were to drive someplace I don't have way to mount. It is a WIP while I wait for someone to advise of easy way to mount or until I figure out a way to design my own way to mount one of the two supplied a $500 RV GPS.

Suction Holder:

1 - Can you suction it to the side window? Would that be a workable solution?

2 - On my dash there are smooth areas and textured areas. Suctioning to a textured area is a complete no-go. Suctioning to a smooth area works better but all suction attachments eventually come loose, especially on a vertical surface. So I apply a little tacky glue to the suction area before applying the suction and it holds it for much longer time. The glue is water soluble so it's non-marring and non-permanent.


3 - Many suction devices come with a disc that is smooth on one side and has glue on the other to glue it to a textured area on the dash. They are also available on Amazon.

[Trophy1200]

I also have the Garmin RV 890 and 3D printed a disc to bond onto the dash for the suction mount to be fitted to.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Suction Holder:

1 - Can you suction it to the side window? Would that be a workable solution?

2 - On my dash there are smooth areas and textured areas. Suctioning to a textured area is a complete no-go. Suctioning to a smooth area works better but all suction attachments eventually come loose, especially on a vertical surface. So I apply a little tacky glue to the suction area before applying the suction and it holds it for much longer time. The glue is water soluble so it's non-marring and non-permanent.

3 - Many suction devices come with a disc that is smooth on one side and has glue on the other to glue it to a textured area on the dash. They are also available on Amazon.

My grandfather use to say, I may laugh and joke, but I don't play

To prove I listen and learn despite having a good time, I saw you recommend that tacky glue a while back. Knowing that the odds were in my favor that you were right I bought it way back when

I have used that tacky glue for all kinds of stuff, bottle looks funny but it works really well for certain type of applications. This tacky glue will be my backup plan, but I need more data points to be sure where I want it before gluing. I have one of those pads but I think the diameter is slightly smaller than Garmin suction I don't have any smooth area on my dash, so I may have to find a larger one?

I don't want to mount on side window, because I want my wife to be able to take it off the mount easily while I am driving to do things with it and put it back. Plus I think it would block my view on driver window?

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

So you must not need live traffic? What I think Garmin Drive does is provide that real time data from mobile phone such as traffic, weather etc. It works well with my phone which I guess, I will always have, but since it is also connected to T Mobile Internet via WiFi in my RV, I was surprised that it does not work unless it has the phone.

Garmin Express, I don't think I would need either. I think in the case Atreis described it may have been a large update and it didn't like the internet speed at the time; so it referred him to Garmin Express?

Traffic data comes through the GPS with the traffic compatible cable and within range of an over the air live traffic signal.

I use Drive Weather to check the weather on my route before we leave.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

Traffic data comes through the GPS with the traffic compatible cable and within range of an over the air live traffic signal.

I use Drive Weather to check the weather on my route before we leave.

So all you need is Waze and you in like Flynn

I think my 3490LMT has that traffic cable, but it has the older USB connector and will not work in my new 890.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

So all you need is Waze and you in like Flynn

I think my 3490LMT has that traffic cable, but it has the older USB connector and will not work in my new 890.

I don’t need Waze, I see no value in a 13’4”, 29k. 40 foot rv (not including toad). Also, my phone is placed in an overhead console bin while I’m driving and it stays there until we get to our destination.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Trophy1200

I also have the Garmin RV 890 and 3D printed a disc to bond onto the dash for the suction mount to be fitted to
.

Please educate me, but I don't have a 3D printer?

My point is made though, a $500 RV GPS should come with what is needed to mount on a RV dashboard, NOT a damn Windshield. That disc should be in the package.

I need a 3 1/2" disc, or I can apply the glue I have directly on suction and try that.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

Please educate me, but I don't have a 3D printer?

My point is made though, a $500 RV GPS should come with what is needed to mount on a RV dashboard, NOT a damn Windshield. That disc should be in the package.

I need a 3 1/2" disc, or I can apply the glue I have directly on suction and try that.

I ordered the disks from Amazon

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

I don’t need Waze, I see no value in a 13’4”, 29k. 40 foot rv (not including toad). Also, my phone is placed in an overhead console bin while I’m driving and it stays there until we get to our destination.

You might not, I will have to take post #16 Under Advisement. I will be honest I saw some things today in Garmin setup that I really like and not available in Waze, but it may take me a few months to fully compare. Of course if I can't get the Garmin mounted that evaluation will never begin. Maybe I learn what you already know, but I know right now, I have to know when there is debris or hazards on the road and where the police may be hiding.

[Chateau_Nomad]

We love the mountains... east and west. With mountains in remote areas there is a low population... and low priority for comm towers. Sounds like a lot of folks on the forum have continuous cell coverage... but our camping/travel style takes us to preferred remote areas. Different strokes...

We're planning on an extended Rocky Mountain trip next summer. My brother-in-law, who has lived in Colorado for over 40 years tells me our planned camping areas have very spotty cell coverage. The Garmin will likely be our friend.

On mounting... I use the old-school Garmin sandbag dash mount which works great. I know it's not for everyone, but I like the flexibility. It stays put except on really crappy roads.