Motorhome and caravan sat nav (1 Viewer)

Neville

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Has any one had any experience of the motorhome and caravan satnav, is it good investment or waist of money or will the car satnav do the same job.

Neville
 

Gellyneck

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Been using a Garmin 760LMT-D for a few months and found it to be very good. Having said that, had Garmin kit for a good number of years so comfortable with their layout \ functionality.
I also use BaseCamp, Garmin's free PC \ Mac software, for pre-planning of routes, etc.
Believe Aldi's will have it's smaller brother, the 660, on offer in the next month or two at £200.

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Dec 11, 2011
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Neville - you'll get a myriad of different answers to this question.
I have a TomTom Caravan & Camper model and I'm happy with it. Most of the time it keeps me away from low bridges and narrow roads. However, at about £300 I doubt that I'd buy it again. Instead I'd probably be looking at a tablet running one of the satnav applications - making sure the App takes account of height, width & weight.
 

JockandRita

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I prefer a dedicated Truck Sat Nav, which allows me to enter my vehicle dimensions, and add a trailer.

Cheers,

Jock. :)

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Zigisla

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My head unit has garmin sat nav built in. So far never taken me anywhere my unit cannot get to. Also reminds me that the road I am on is unknown for Motorhome use if I use it in map only mode so puts the onus back on the driver to be doubly sure.
Sharp bends cross winds narrow tracks and low - for me, bridges all on as well. Car sat nav cannot do that. But as said, very expensive.
 

Bailey58

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Chinese truck satnav off ebay for £40 odd. Has problems with supposed free for life map updates as other threads have exposed but for that money mine does the job and takes me away from unsuitable routes that the garmin car job doesn't.
 

JockandRita

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Has problems with supposed free for life map updates as other threads have exposed
It is only for that reason, that I didn't mention it in my post, although I do agree that it's a smashing piece of kit, and more realistic with Truck routes than my TT 720 Truck maps are. (y)

Cheers,

Jock. :)

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Lorryman100

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I have the Snooper S6850 ventura 7" screen with TMC (Traffic Message Channel which alerts you to congestion) which even though it is marketed as a caravan/motorhome sat nav its base is the HGV version. The sat nav so far has been very good allowing you to enter the weight/height/length and width including a trailers dimensions. I have yet to find a bridge not shown on the display and it gives road weight limits as well. To get where I live requires driving on a 7.5t weight limit road and the sat nav always routes me around the long way avoiding the weight limit even though I entered 3.5t. Ignoring the sat nav and driving onto the road there are no alarms etc it just recalculates the route. The sat nav comes with lifetime free map updates and you can add the speed cameras for £29.99 a year. The version I got was the Caravan Club edition which has all the CC and CL sites as well as ASCI, Bord Atlas and camper stop already pre loaded. It is easy enough to add extra POI's as well, I added the C&CC / CL sites, Stellplatz and Aires along with BP and Shell garages, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Tesco. There are lots of POI's for you to choose from and as I said they are very easy to load. Another nice option was that I also got the TPMS sensors for the wheels as the sat nav is TPMS compliant (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System), you set up the TPMS and can then switch between that and the sat nav screen. It automatically brings up the TPMS page if there is an alarm from one of the tyre sensors for pressure loss or high temperature. The downside is the cost, the unit came from Capital Outdoors at £289 (RRP £399) and the four sensors came in at £144. I already have a Tom Tom and Garmin sat nav in our other cars which have given me no issues but for the motorhome I wanted something large and easy to see with enough addons built in that I don't need to clutter up the dash at a later date.

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May 7, 2011
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Like with all satnavs , if a road / lane isn't designated a 6ft or 6ft 6 width restriction , the details on your satnav will be incorrect. All of them regardless of make , you need to use common sense, if it looks narrow or tight -- avoid & satnav will reroute you.
 

denisejoe

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Didn't like the Snooper but now have the TomTom 1005 camper sat nav. Hasn't tried to take us down any narrow roads or under low bridges. Had it a couple of years now and happy with it but it does sometimes take you the long way round.

Denise

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kcy

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My Yaris came with a sat nav built in,it's brilliant, our new chausson MH came with one fitted and 18 months later still can't use it. Probably our fault but still !
We carry our old TomTom. The MH one was a bit waste of money
 
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****

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I think a lot of people trust a sat nav way to much and stop reading road signs. Not sure but would you lot who have been sent down narrow roads with the camper van sat nav not be better looking at truck dedicated ones?

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JockandRita

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I think a lot of people trust a sat nav way to much and stop reading road signs. Not sure but would you lot who have been sent down narrow roads with the camper van sat nav not be better looking at truck dedicated ones?
And in the case of the Chinese Sat Navs, there's not a lot of difference in price, between the car units and the Truck specific units. (y)

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 

Minxy

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We have had various sat navs and like TomTom dedicated units but they are a bit small screen wise so we've been experimenting with a 7" phablet running the TomTom app, Co-Pilot and currently Sygic which is very good. The ONLY downside we've found with Sygic is getting the 3rd party POIs to work, such as aires etc - hubby's found a way to do it but it's a bit fiddly however the basic sat Sygic nav system itself is in our view better than the others ... it's early days yet so will keep trying it and see how we get on.

We have also tried some 'truck/MH' versions but to be honest weren't overly impressed as they still took us on some stupid routes or many miles out of our way, so we're sticking with standard versions and using common sense (yes, we DO have some!).
 
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****

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We have had various sat navs and like TomTom dedicated units but they are a bit small screen wise so we've been experimenting with a 7" phablet running the TomTom app, Co-Pilot and currently Sygic which is very good. The ONLY downside we've found with Sygic is getting the 3rd party POIs to work, such as aires etc - hubby's found a way to do it but it's a bit fiddly however the basic sat Sygic nav system itself is in our view better than the others ... it's early days yet so will keep trying it and see how we get on.
Phablet? I can use my Tablet :D I have a Hudl 2 and it finds the satellites almost instantly. I dont use it as a sat nav due to lack of mount options but i will be installing the iGO software for when we go away and use it as backup. I did find my 5" Android sat nav a tad small when on the van dash so got a hanger holder that sits under the rear view mirror. Something like this but i got mine on ebay America.

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Minxy

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Phablet? I can use my Tablet :D I have a Hudl 2 and it finds the satellites almost instantly.
It's a tablet but takes a phone sim card so can be used as a phone too, hence it being called a 'phablet' (no, I did NOT make that name up!)

It's created when a mobile phone and a tablet have been allowed to breed! :D I suppose it could have been called a thone or tone!

We already had normal tablet but it was a bit slow at times, however as phablets have a sim in it means this can help to boost/improve the gps/signal somehow as it can use the phone masts as well as satellites for working out your location - don't ask me how but it has made it better. It also means that we can put one of our phone sims into the phablet so we can still get calls from home etc on it if needs be and put a foreign sim in our phone instead.
 
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It's a tablet but takes a phone sim card so can be used as a phone too, hence it being called a 'phablet' (no, I did NOT make that name up!)

It's created when a mobile phone and a tablet have been allowed to breed! :D I suppose it could have been called a thone or tone!

Ah. I seen a woman with her husband at the Train station with one of those having a Video conversation with someone and they just had to let the whole station know what they were doing. By the time the train came in i was ready to smash that dam thing over there heads. Talk about Dom Joly. I found i hated sat nav's and Android was the way forward. Most dedicated sat nav's run on the windows CE5 or 6 platform and are quite slow plus i am sure Microsoft has stopped support on the software. I was reading that the Sony Xperia range of phones was one of the best for GPS so got one from Tesco. Did it not come with Navigon Garmin pre installed :) Bonus i thought but found that software quite clunky to use so stuck with my iGO Primo. My main issue with dedicated sat navs was reaching motorway junctions before the sat nav what made junctions with more than one exit a challenge. Never had the problem with an android due to a better processor and more RAM.
 

Minxy

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I must admit that using Sygic sat nav on a phablet is a nice experience ... the 'lady' actually says please ... yes really! When it tells you to stay on the road for a length of time it says "Please follow the (name of road) for x miles" ... never ever heard a more polite sat nav!

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JockandRita

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My main issue with dedicated sat navs was reaching motorway junctions before the sat nav what made junctions with more than one exit a challenge.
Although I've experienced that with the TomTom, I've never experienced it with the Nozatec, using iGo primo. I set it up to give me a spoken warning on the approach to a turn or junction. I find it really efficient, but am always aware not to rely upon it totally. ;)

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 

sdc77

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Used to have tom tom .. didn't realise how poor it was (imho) until I tried Co pilot. Loved that until we bought a car with garmin as standard. That was excellent so bought the camper garmin. It works well is very clear and hasn't messed up.
Whatever works for you though.
 
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I bought a Snooper a couple of years ago specifically for its claimed ability to be programmable for vehicle size, etc. and to display your speed and the speed limit appropriate for your vehicle. It was wrong on so many counts, including road speed limits, vehicle speed limits, and low bridges, that I sent it back to the supplier. It also purported to warn of sharp bends, but gave spurious warnings for trivial bends while ignoring some that were considerably sharper. Never again.

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GJH

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I think a lot of people trust a sat nav way to much and stop reading road signs. Not sure but would you lot who have been sent down narrow roads with the camper van sat nav not be better looking at truck dedicated ones?
Camper sat navs are basically truck sat navs with camping POIs added. One way to avoid narrow roads is to put larger dimensions in but that will probably mean unnecessarily long journeys at times.

People sometimes complain of narrow roads not because they are really too narrow but that they are too narrow for the user's comfort, and that might be a function of the particular time. Many rural roads need care but they are bus routes so perfectly wide enough for a motorhome. We were taken down one near Bath last year which was hairy but that was because of oncoming traffic using it as a rat run to avoid roadworks.

The point about too much trust is perfectly valid though. Sat navs are only machines and can only work on data which are (in the main) static rather than reacting to what the eye sees and the brain should see.
 

funflair

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I have TomTom and CoPilot as apps and find that when you set CoPilot to motorhome even though you can't specify size it will use more sensible roads than TomTom,

Unless you programme it to start in he centre of a medieval town in Spain then it will try its best to get you there even if you don't want to go:LOL: but that called operator error;)

Martin
 
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We've got the Pioneer camper/truck satnav module that connects to the double din radio and uses it's screen.

You enter the dimensions and weight of the vehicle the same as the others and it accepts POIs like the rest but I don't use them so can't comment on how well they work. It also has traffic information updates and suggests detours if it sees any.

So far it hasn't let me down at all, taking me around roads that I would probably have taken, and got stuck on, if using a map or a non-camper type satnav. The other think I like is that the estimated ETA is normally pretty accurate unlike others, especially TomTom, where it tends to bear no relation at all to reality. This maybe because you tell it the maximum speed to work on.

It's not cheap at all, especially if you don't already have the correct head unit, but it's the best one I've come across.

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****

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Although I've experienced that with the TomTom, I've never experienced it with the Nozatec, using iGo primo. I set it up to give me a spoken warning on the approach to a turn or junction. I find it really efficient, but am always aware not to rely upon it totally. ;)

Cheers,

Jock. :)
I was on a bike so no sound. Some of the junctions would have 3-4 on slip roads and 3-5 off on the main route north to south in Holland. I was also using a sat nav with only 64MB RAM. Your Nozatec should have 128MB and a far better processor. My android what is a 5" phone with no sim card is 1GB RAM and duel core making the iGO Primo run faster than Usain Bolt.

If you people who have TT or Gramin etc want a Truck sat nav and you have a SD card slot iGO Primo has a truck version what runs on windowsCE sat navs. If like me and to tight to pay there is lots if sat nav forums with links to download the software and 2015 maps, POI's etc as the software can run from the SD card.
How that works is most sat navs boot from SD first. As you dont have a card in it will pass the SD and boot the nav. So a wee like of TXT on a .txt document tells it to boot the software on the card. A lot of you people with old Chinese sat navs will have iGO8 installed. You can update to Primo this way. Not a great difference but having junction view is great (y)
 

Dyad

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I like sat-navs, not only for A to B directions but also for things like ETA and a view of the road layout ahead.

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