GPS Recommendations

[NG7V]

On my last trip, I was trying to decide what to use for a GPS. I was planning 3600 miles across the US, stopping at loves and selecting campgrounds. I had several choices but why not give my Axxera unit that came with my Aria. I had to give up my Good Sam GPS because it isn't supported as well as it used to.


As a backup, I was planning to use my phone. I chose CoPilot because it isn't Google. Not a bad little package, specially that it has an RV version and the layout is pretty good. I decided that if it worked well enough, I would install it on a tablet.


As for planning campgrounds well, that was not a piece of cake. The best campground finder i can think of is Good Sam. Co-pilot was good but it uses Yelp and I'm not a fan of Yelp. Axxera uses a category system that is hard to learn. So, enter RoadTrippers, an android/iphone app that really does a good job of planning. Specially that if you have a PC, the job of planning a trip is really easy, and it has a turn by turn gps built in but it is still in its early stages. Some day, Roadtrippers will be the goto I can see it.



So, Axxera GPS is what I decided to use, supported by Roadtrippers and Good Sam. I found a half dozen bugs in the Axxera unit, reported them to their support line and got them to agreed to make some changes. I was happy with the support. The unit works well enough to use in an RV, it has a good vehicle selection, car, truck etc. eve a way to create your own vehicle to help with clearances, lp restriction etc.


So, If you ask me what is the best solution? There isn't. It does not exist. Oh and I do own Garmin units and they can really get you in trouble so I don't use them. That leaves Magellan. I hear they are ok but nothing to brag about.


My $.02

[Beau388]

I am an old guy (my first computer was an Atari 600 with tape recorder and 12 inch CRT green and white monitor); 11 computers later, I now have a 10 tb NAS at home to manage my data. I still believe that a cell phone is for voice and a computer is for data. I believe that inattention is the cause of most traffic accidents. I believe that listening to the radio is too much of a distraction when I am herding 52 ft and 23,000 lbs of vehicle down the road at 60 mph. Your opinion may differ. I never answer the cell phones when driving, as that is what a copilot is for. I seldom look at the GPS, as Jill (the voice of the GPS) tells me what is coming up in plenty of time to react.

[The Gritz Carlton]

The more you depend on any GPS to do the entire job for you...the more you will screw up. You have to know where you're going and what route you'll take before you ever turn it on.

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by The Gritz Carlton

The more you depend on any GPS to do the entire job for you...the more you will screw up. You have to know where you're going and what route you'll take before you ever turn it on.

Why?
I'm in Detroit , just passing through, never been there before, decide on Chinese food.
I say
'List closest Chinese eating places'.
The rv based GPS program wouldn't do it so we switch to google maps, then we check Waze and find a street on the route is torn up for repairs this week only, and we route around it avoiding a 30 minute wait just a block from the chinese place.
I didnt know where I'm going, but now I do know where I'm going.

I'm in Page Arizona.
Someone says
'Theres an excellent dirt road from here to Mexican Hat'
A tap of a button by me on a zoomed out map...,
Sygic won't send me down a dirt road, so I switch to MyTrails(or something else)
I didnt know where it is, but now I do...and we're on the dirt road.

The doctor has moved his office and the receptionist forgot to tell me.
The tattoo guy in his old office doesn't know where the doctor moved.
A call to the receptionist, a push of some buttons(or voice activation) and I'm off navigating a part of the county with one-way traffic that I have never seen before.

I use a GPS only when I DON'T know where I'm going.
I don't use it to go to my local grocery store or 600 miles away to my parents home, UNLESS a detour or POI makes it so I somehow don't know.

Two years ago we used it to dodge storms and road flooding from whatever that big army base is on the Georgia border all the way past little rock.
We sure didn't know where we were going...except generally west.

[The Gritz Carlton]

CLIPPED: "The more you depend on any GPS to do the entire job for you..."


I love my 770...it's the first thing that turns on and the last to turn off. I do my planning on Google and other sources. Google is always up to date. GPS is only as up to date as your last update...and it's not always up to date at that. My comment was referring to the original post of using any GPS to plan a 3600 mile trip. Plan other ways and confirm as you go with a good, up to date GPS...but...KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING FIRST! I rode with a friend not to long ago that couldn't take his eyes off his GPS...we exited the freeway on the way to pick up his son at the airport...drove about 8 miles through a very congested downtown district in Charleston...then came right back onto the freeway 2 exits further from where we got off. Do whatever floats your boat...just make sure the plug is in before launching.

[ducksface]

Have a similar story.
We have friends who have a highly functional son with Downs Syndrome. One day I asked them if he could drive and they said yes he could drive a car but he wouldn't take his eyes off the gauges so he can't stay in a lane.

So, we are way out in the Mogollon rim, the back way from I-40 at the two guns exit(maybe twin arrows exit, I'll have to check the gps file) and I see a herd of 250 elk as I'm following these friends down a dirt road. Right Behind the elk barely not mixed with the elk, is a little herd of 20ish antelope. I've never seen Antelope follow elk before. So when we get stopped I said:
'that seemed odd I've never seen a group of antelope following elk. '
They said '
what elk'?
The end of the elk herd crossed the dirt road no more than 50 yards in front of them and they took a full two minutes for all of them to cross.
Our friends didn't see the elk.
Watching gauges was more heredity than syndrome.


We were way out there because my friend Rob is the only one better than my wife at spotting anomalies on Earth maps. He had seen this backwards Shadow way out in the desert and we went to see what it was. It was a gypsy wagon that had broken down. You can see the Broken Wheel. They built the ranch around it and just lived there for probably 50 years.

We used the GPS to guide us the entire way. They never took their eyes off of it.

[GTM41261]

Garmin RV 890. So far it is pretty good. Regular map updates and I could use their backup camera

[njwandrr]

I bought the Rand McNally Overdrive 7 in March if this year. The unit attaches to the mount via a magnet. The unit keeps falling from the mount when the road is bumpy. I kept adjusting the angle so that the unit leans back more, but the last trip out last weekend, it fell again. This time the screen cracked in 2 places and the touch screen doesn't work anymore. I contacted Customer Service and explained I think it is a poor design, but they replied "sorry". I am appealing it now and sending them info they requested, but I don't think they will help me.

[The Gritz Carlton]

The Garmin 770 is too heavy to stay sucked to the windshield as well. I have to sit it on the dash, lean it back a bit till the suction cup is at the right angle to the glass then it holds with the weight of the unit laying on the dash. The are now the size and weight of a small tablet.

[Roadkill9]

Originally Posted by ducksface

But:
I sway easily. Convince me as to why I should buy a standalone one trick pony.

12 foot bridge in a 12’ 6” motorhome that regular GPS thinks is fine for your car. Or, 6 ton bridge in an 11 ton motorhome with no place to turn around.