Opinions on Motorhome friendly satnavs please (1 Viewer)

[MrsMac59]

Ok, I'm going to throw this ball and watch it bounce.

We've done lots of reading of reviews and forum threads about Satnavs designed to make sure we don't get wedged down some French back alley or break a bridge. So, what do you lovely people have to say about the systems on the market right now? The only qualification is that it would need to be a stand alone Satnav and not to be be phone based.

 

[iandsm]

Some swear by them, Garmin and tom-tom do them. However, whatever the mapping software is, its's only as good as the map itself so if a bridge or height restriction is not shown on the map the sat nav cannot navigate around it. there are also many roads where the sat nav does not know the width and therefore could take you down roads that are not really suitable.

I have a Garmin Drivelux which is not a unit especially for large vehicle, although I know they have just brought out a new motorhome/caravan version. I find the ordinary one works very well but I do usually view the route either on the sat nav or on a map when taking an unfamiliar route and sometimes change the suggested route if think I am going to be lead along unsuitable roads.

Whatever sat nav a person has they should always treat the instruction as suggestions other then Gods word and if a road looks suspect for any reason I ignore the sat nav in the knowledge that it will re calculate quickly, I can then decide whether to not to take the next suggested turn depending on whether I like the look of it or not.

I imagine the dedicated motorhome/caravan/lorry sat nav will usually stay in main roads which of course would usually be suitable for a motorhome, but I wonder how much longer a route might be. There is also a penalty in that you would not be going into the miriad of delightful small towns and villages both in the UK and Europe which are actually perfectly navigable with care.

I have considered the new Garmin Motorhome/Caravan offering but haven't decided to go with it for the reasons I outline above. However, like you I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has one. I an sure there will be someone along shortly to give their view.

 

[Lofty1]

We decided after paying out for a few different ones over th years to get a android head unit for our 250 I have installed copilot camper on it (£30) if we don't get along with that we can download whatever program we like (at a cost) on it better than paying for a new sat nav every time

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[MrsMac59]

Thanks for that @iandsm. Our aim is to find stops/aires just outside towns and villages (at least for our first couple of return trips) and use cycles to do some exploring from our motorhome base. However, having driven back and forth from UK to Spain towing a box trailer (sometimes via France) on a number of occasions now, I know from experience how stressful it can be for my husband trying to navigate a tight squeeze when come upon unexpectedly and I'm looking to make our introduction to motorhoming as enjoyable as I can. Maybe once we're both more comfortable with the size of the vehicle and driving a lhd then we might be more inclined to just wing it.

 

[MrsMac59]

We decided after paying out for a few different ones over th years to get a android head unit for our 250 I have installed copilot camper on it (£30) if we don't get along with that we can download whatever program we like (at a cost) on it better than paying for a new sat nav every time

Thanks. I'm not sure what an "android head unit" is. Could you explain?

 

[Gellyneck]

We've got a Garmin 760 and find it very effective.
On a recent trip in Scottish Borders the main road was closed due to gas works so I diverted down a tiny little track as did everything up to 45' artic. Sat nav was screaming "what the he** are you doing!" until it eventually gave up as I ploughed on to start giving directions.
Purposely over set the weight to 7.5t and it kept telling me I was over speed limit when hitting 40mph on some rural Scottish roads (correct as the signs were saying same). Reset to 4.25t and it reported 50mph which was correct.
Lifetime maps and I install these on both sat nav and computers. Use Garmin BaseCamp on computer to pre-plan routes and never had any issues with either this or direct entry to sat nav. Having said that, others have had problems.

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[Adbt]

Be aware that from September TOMTOM are not updating / supporting their Apple App which is nice of them as I paid a fortune to install the app .
I've since downloaded co pilot motorhome app , I'm gonna use it n review .

 

[Lofty1]

Thanks. I'm not sure what an "android head unit" is. Could you explain?

An all in one radio cd sat nav computer that replaces you radio look it up on flea bay

 

[Kingham]

I have the Avtex Garmin Camper fitted to my van and it also acts as my reversing camera monitor.

Other than a trial run up the motorway earlier today, I haven't tried it out in anger as yet, as I haven't had my first trip away since getting the van.

The screen and instructions are great, however for a brand new and up to date unit, I drove along a stretch of road that has been a 40mph limit for at least 10 years and it was pinging an audible warning, with a red banner advising I was in a camera van enforcement area with a 30mph limit.
I don't rely on my satnav for speed awareness, but if the software is already proving to be inaccurate, what else will it miss ?

I was impressed by a warning on the motorway of lateral winds ahead, which was accurate.

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[MrsMac59]

Very useful info @Gellyneck, thanks.

@Adbt we both have TOMTOM riders and whilst I bought hubby the newer, lifetime maps version, mine is the old one (v3 I think) and was consigned to the scrapheap by TOMTOM within a year or so of purchase. I'll never buy another TOMTOM.

 

[Camdoon]

My Garmin 760 motorhome version first journey tried to push me down a road with a bridge narrower than my van. Well signposted so took evasive action beforehand. 2nd trip and it tried to take me down a road which had a tight turning which my van could not make - to save about 50yd.
Chinese £50 job was not value for money.
I like TT software and interface but hardware is poor.
Now I am moving onto Co-Pilot - but was a bit miffed that they would not allow you to upgrade to camper but have to buy afresh.
If starting now would jump straight to iPad (as I owned one) or Android mini tablet and try Co-Pilot Euro motorhome. A search of the forum will show you that Co-Pilot offers discounts at certain times of the year.

Be aware that from September TOMTOM are not updating / supporting their Apple App which is nice of them as I paid a fortune to install the app .
I've since downloaded co pilot motorhome app , I'm gonna use it n review .

I know their lifetime upgrade malarkey is not going to be honoured (Apple iPads being more robust than TT's hardware presumably) but they have been encouraging you to upgrade for a while. Is the upgrade no longer available? Would have been good if they could offer motorhome version on iPad.

 

[aztecannie]

we bought the Snooper late last year whilst at motorhome show at neck. tried it out on a visit to vanbitz - was great. will try it next month in europe. I did a mini survey on here - a couple of months ago- might be worth finding that - Snooper was most popular in that.

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[obanvanman]

We call our Garmin 760 Motorhome version 'Sally Twatnav'.

 

[Bailey 15]

Anyone purchased the one advertised in caravan & motorhome magazine for £250?
Apparently you have to put in length width height and weight, won't take you anywhere your van won't fit

 

[Adbt]

Update 1.27 , what a load of guff !

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[Gellyneck]

Anyone purchased the one advertised in caravan & motorhome magazine for £250?
Apparently you have to put in length width height and weight, won't take you anywhere your van won't fit

Post #9 above.

 

[Camdoon]

View attachment 157453

Update 1.27 , what a load of guff !

Yes indeed; must have been Alex Salmond who defined their concept of lifetime

Just found this online:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tomtom-go-mobile/id884963367?mt=8
NOTICE FOR OWNERS OF THE ORIGINAL NAVIGATION APP
The original TomTom Navigation app for iPhone is no longer available for purchase. As an owner of the original app, you will continue to receive updates to the app and the map. For instructions on how to reinstall the app go to . Owners are also entitled to a FREE three year subscription to the GO Mobile app. Make sure you have the latest version of the original Navigation app installed and go to the shop to redeem your upgrade to the GO Mobile app. For a video tutorial on how to upgrade you can watch

 

[Kingham]

Post #9 above.

Saved me a job

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[Reallyretired]

In my MH I use three satnavs simultaneously. They are a Snooper Truckmate, a TomTom and a Chinese cheapy. The Chinese cheapy seems to give me the 'best' route for my purposes, ie avoiding tolls but also avoiding narrow roads and excessive road changes. It is the only one that gives me the option of my preferred route to the channel tunnel (it is option Easy 2, neither quickest or shortest but the least stressful). Unfortunately the chinese cheapy is notorious for breaking down for no obvious reason, plus the other two give alternative directions which can be handy if I don't fancy a particular route. ( I only have the sound on on one at a time)
TomTom is useful because it has the biggest range of POIs.

As an aside I found that copying the Nav software and maps to a memory card rather than the internal memory and changing the navipath appropriately to run it from there appears to increase the reliability of the chinese sat nav. Perhaps they have really substandard memory chips.

 

[friar tuck]

As an aside I found that copying the Nav software and maps to a memory card rather than the internal memory and changing the navipath appropriately to run it from there appears to increase the reliability of the chinese sat nav. Perhaps they have really substandard memory chips.[/QUOTE]

i have a chinese sat nav is what you describe here straightforward to do?

 

[Teuchter]

We've got a Garmin 760 and find it very effective.
On a recent trip in Scottish Borders the main road was closed due to gas works so I diverted down a tiny little track as did everything up to 45' artic. Sat nav was screaming "what the he** are you doing!" until it eventually gave up as I ploughed on to start giving directions.
Purposely over set the weight to 7.5t and it kept telling me I was over speed limit when hitting 40mph on some rural Scottish roads (correct as the signs were saying same). Reset to 4.25t and it reported 50mph which was correct.
Lifetime maps and I install these on both sat nav and computers. Use Garmin BaseCamp on computer to pre-plan routes and never had any issues with either this or direct entry to sat nav. Having said that, others have had problems.

Another vote for Garmin 760

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[ianandkath]

Anyone purchased the one advertised in caravan & motorhome magazine for £250?
Apparently you have to put in length width height and weight, won't take you anywhere your van won't fit

nor will my £30 navtec

 

[MrsMac59]

I don't rely on my satnav for speed awareness,

I often do rely on mine when in Spain because I can miss a speed limit change just by blinking there are so many, and with almost the same number of "recommended" speeds signs you can sometimes get a bit speed limit blind. My trusty, cheap and cheerful Satnav never gets tired of saying "you are over the speed limit", but I'd also like one to tell me "you're never gonna fit down there".

Actually, on reading that back I've made it sound like I speed a lot .......... I really don't!

 

[sallylillian]

Any satnav is only as good as it's ability to profile your vehicle and routing style requirement. The fixed solutions ala Garmin, Snooper, Tom Tom et al are limited in this regard. Apps like CoPilot, Sygic etc tend to provide greater flexibility in these areas, and therefore a more likely chance of satisfaction. Do not be misguided into believing that because an app can run on a phone it is somehow inferior. Run them on a tablet and you get so much more real estate and flexibility, you will wonder why you ever considered proprietary GPS hardware.

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[MrsMac59]

Thanks @sallylillian, thing is my husband is a bit of a technophobe and as I work away from home a lot it needs to be something standalone or he'd be forever closing the app down and losing it. I have a hard enough task trying to keep him and his current TOMTOM under control and he's had that for a couple of years

 

[glenn2926]

Garmin every time for me. I have both motorhome and motorcycle specific ones. They seem (to me) more intuitive than tomtom. It is worth downloading Basecamp and messing about with it. This helps when planning routes etc.

 

[WillH]

Got a Chinese cheapy last year, seems terrific value for money. Took a few sessions to fine tune the settings and profile but got there. Hasn't stopped me buying a new road atlas for France though. The new satnav is at least as good as the TomTom but has a 7" screen for my failing eyes.

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[bigguspeckus]

Thanks for that @iandsm. Our aim is to find stops/aires just outside towns and villages (at least for our first couple of return trips) and use cycles to do some exploring from our motorhome base. However, having driven back and forth from UK to Spain towing a box trailer (sometimes via France) on a number of occasions now, I know from experience how stressful it can be for my husband trying to navigate a tight squeeze when come upon unexpectedly and I'm looking to make our introduction to motorhoming as enjoyable as I can. Maybe once we're both more comfortable with the size of the vehicle and driving a lhd then we might be more inclined to just wing it.

We've got a "TomTom Start" with lifetime European maps...
On 4th April we left the Chunnel and headed south, did about 1400 miles in 8 days,,, the TT guided us with nary a hitch to our current location; Los Canos De Meca in the Cadiz region of Spain. We also have Co Pilot on my wife's Android as a back up.

Re your comment about LHD; before we bought our Moho, we asked for opinions on this site re the merits of buying lhd, or rhd, as the vast majority of our motoring would be done in Europe,,,
the response, by some margin, was to buy rhd,,,
We did, and I have to say I'm well pleased that we did so; as I discovered that there is a major advantage (with a large vehicle) with rhd on the rite side of the road,,, on narrow single lane roads its far easier to keep the vehicle close to the kerb when being approached by large oncoming vehicles,,, it really does make driving less stressful,,, for me.
The only small negative is being unable to see to the left when turning sharp rite, but if you have a sensible passenger that small negative is totally negated.

Best regards and safe travels, James & Angie.

 

[LesW]

Any satnav is only as good as it's ability to profile your vehicle and routing style requirement. The fixed solutions ala Garmin, Snooper, Tom Tom et al are limited in this regard. Apps like CoPilot, Sygic etc tend to provide greater flexibility in these areas, and therefore a more likely chance of satisfaction. Do not be misguided into believing that because an app can run on a phone it is somehow inferior. Run them on a tablet and you get so much more real estate and flexibility, you will wonder why you ever considered proprietary GPS hardware.

Not quite so... I use a Garmin satnav, along with the offline mapping program Mapsource, designed for Garmin products, and is free.

I can create custom routes on my little notebook, select the type of transport I'm using.. Bicycle, Motorbike, Car, Truck.. etc (there are more), I can select the type of roads I wish to travel on, ranging from minor roads, to highways, with or without tolls..

When I'm satisfied with my route, I just connect up my satnav, and send the route(s) to the unit. No phone based GPS comes close to this, I've tried most, co-pilot may-be one of the best, but is still very limited.

At the end of the day one must use whatever they are comfortable with, and more importantly, know how to get the very best from.

 

[Gellyneck]

Not quite so... I use a Garmin satnav, along with the offline mapping program Mapsource, designed for Garmin products, and is free.

I can create custom routes on my little notebook, select the type of transport I'm using.. Bicycle, Motorbike, Car, Truck.. etc (there are more), I can select the type of roads I wish to travel on, ranging from minor roads, to highways, with or without tolls..

When I'm satisfied with my route, I just connect up my satnav, and send the route(s) to the unit. No phone based GPS comes close to this, I've tried most, co-pilot may-be one of the best, but is still very limited.

At the end of the day one must use whatever they are comfortable with, and more importantly, know how to get the very best from.

Do the same using BaseCamp and, as I've said earlier, works very effectively for me.

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