Just Joined. Sat Nav Advice (1 Viewer)

[lafayette]

Hi to all,

Just bought our first Mo Ho its a Globebus i3 and are very happy with it. Been reading various threads for some time now and there is a lot of valuable advice available. Hoping to travel far and wide now that we have time on our hands as we are both retired. Can anyone advise on which sat nav is suitable for us intend to travel to France and Germany next year.

 

[laneside]

Not done Germany yet but we always manage to get where we are going with Tom Tom you just have to use it wisely especially in France. It seems that no matter which setting that you have it on it will insist on cutting corners off and taking you up tracks with a strip of grass up the middle or I think sometimes dried up river beds.

Keeping an eye on it with a conventional map is something that we now find essential

 

[scotjimland]

Just replaced an old TT One XL recently.. and Garmin was my choice, with full European mapping with updates for Life.. It is easy to add your own POIs .. which IMO, is probably the most important feature for motorhoming sat nav

I chose Garmin in preference to TomTom as the new TTs at that time did not allow third party POIs.. However,I think the latest TT software now permits that.. but keep in mind

You will get plenty more ideas and suggestions, from using a smart phone or tablet to paper map and compass..

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[irnbru]

 

[gibbon]

We use a garmin nuvi in conjunction with maps on our iPad downloaded from maps.me
Joanne can follow our route on the iPad & tell me when to ignore the sat nav.
Worked well for us on the way home from Portugal last March.

 

[Easyliving]

Hi Lafayette, welcome to Fun

Satnavs are very useful things but, as Laneside said, they can lead you onto what are just narrow tracks. I mentioned our new truck satnav in this thread. You might like to think about one of these although the pricier ones - snooper etc are probably better quality.

Paul

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[keith]

If you have a tablet try one of the apps that are very good with constantly updated maps.
We use Co-Pilot as it has the choice of vehicle including Motorhome, found it to be very good returning from Portugal via Spain & France recently.
You have to buy it but for a smallish outlay it gives you a larger screen that I find easier to see in the van.
And welcome to Fun

 

[scotjimland]

You might like to think about one of these although the pricier ones - snooper etc are probably better quality.

can you add third party POIs to Snooper ?

last I read it wasn't possible..

 

[chaser]

If you have a tablet or even a smart phone try "here maps" free download on all platforms and works without phone signal or wifi, maps all the world all for free. We have been all over France with it no problem.

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[daveandsan]

We use a snooper, you can input the size of your motorhome and it shouldn't take you down farm tracks.

 

[DJA]

Hi Lafayette

You have immediately started your time here with a topic that will probably result in my GPS is better than your one.

You can get GPS facilities via Mobile Phone (CoPilot app for example), Tablet and Dedicated GPS unit. The decision you should make is do I want to have all my eggs in one basket via the mobile phone.

The cheapest options are via phone or Tablet and both can offer you virually all the same options as a dedicated unit.

Scotjimland has covered it well and generally if you go for the dedicated units the 2 main ones are Garmin and Tomtom. There are various models offering different facilities.

Scotjimland is correct about POI facilities being very useful both 3rd Party ones or the ability to create your own. It is true that Tomtoms very latest units did not allow you to add 3rd Party units or create your own. There has been a very recent software upgrade that has gone some way to resolve this ommision.

These are the things you can think about when deciding which unit you want

You can get Truck/Camper units in which you can put the sizes of your Van so that it should, I repeat should, avoid low bridges, narrow roads or weight restrictions. I have heard suggestions that they have not always got it right.

You can get units with Lifetime Maps and Lifetime Traffic. These can be very useful in reducing the chances of the map not having new roads on and you can save time avoiding traffic delays with the Traffic facility. Now the one thing to consider here is that to get the best traffic information updated every few minutes you either buy a unit that marries to your mobile phone thus using your data allowance on the phone which can have implications if travelling abroad. There are units available that have inbuilt Sims which operated throughout Europe without you incurring any data charges.
You have to accept that although you can free map updates quarterly some new roads can take a very long time to get incorporated. Regarding Traffic the only comment I can make that some say the Tomtom Traffic data is better than the Farmin

At the moment there is not a lot between the Garmin an Tomtom units the latter is probably a little behind re POI's but they are catching up. To be fair Tomtom are not the quickest kid on the block so I don't know how long it will take to get fully compatiable. The bit that Is missing at the moment is to be able toadd a new POI to a POI category or create your own category at the moment on the machine. You can however use POI Edit software to do this on a PC.

Hope the above gives you some food for thought. Just to add I have a Tomtom Go5000 but the decision is yours.

 

[iceni]

I have the Garmin truck model which you can put your size ans weight or van in. It then avoids narrow roads bridges etc.
But routing is useless on the continent. It will still avoid main roads and take you across country to save a few miles which may be OK but often the road can be quite narrow.
So get a sat nav but also get a good paper map.

I have yet to try one of the apps for phone or tablet.

Phill

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[JeanLuc]

I have the Garmin truck model which you can put your size ans weight or van in. It then avoids narrow roads bridges etc.
But routing is useless on the continent. It will still avoid main roads and take you across country to save a few miles which may be OK but often the road can be quite narrow.
Phill

I have to say that I have not found this (I have a Garmin 560 truck model). In France for instance, the Garmin has often tried to take me out of a town and right around the ring-road when all I wanted was to travel a kilometre across town to another aire for example. I think this is mainly because it wants to avoid 3.5 tonne limits. In practice, as you so rightly say, one has to apply common sense and make sure to read a map too. Obviously, when a minor road is the most appropriate, the Garmin will choose it (and often I have met artics using the same route!) and any satnav can only avoid roads where it has width and other such information in the map database. Not all roads have been mapped to this level and many satnavs use the same base set anyway (often Navteq). At least the Garmin warns you if it has no truck data for your chosen route.

 

[DP+JAY]

TomTom every time, please read this.

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/aldi-with-garmin.104602/page-10#post-1406271

 

[Shazrick]

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[scousebird]

Hello

 

[lafayette]

Food for thought. I will keep on researching so much to ponder. Thanks for your input.

 

[Momo]

Hi Lafayette and welcome to the Fun!

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[ianhyslop]

Forget Garmin , Tom Tom or Chinese rubbish , go for the Snooper , best by far . Stand back and wait for torrent of disagreement and mild abuse while other funsters defend their inferior sat nav s .

 

[scotjimland]

Forget Garmin , Tom Tom or Chinese rubbish , go for the Snooper , best by far . Stand back and wait for torrent of disagreement and mild abuse while other funsters defend their inferior sat nav s .

no Snooper owner has answered my question..

can you load third party POIs?

yes or no

 

[scousebird]

no Snooper owner has answered my question..

can you load third party POIs?

yes or no

We have a Snooper but I haven't tried loading POI's onto it cos there's loads on it already.

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[scotjimland]

We have a Snooper but I haven't tried loading POI's onto it cos there's loads on it already.

yes, I'm sure there are.. but no good to me if you can't add your own or others .. that was the the main reason I didn't buy a new TT ..

 

[Gellyneck]

Forget Garmin , Tom Tom or Chinese rubbish , go for the Snooper , best by far . Stand back and wait for torrent of disagreement and mild abuse while other funsters defend their inferior sat nav s .

Please G** don't let them all be from north of the border or we'll all be accused of being in a violent dictatorship state!

 

[scotjimland]

Found this on Snoopers web site..https://www.snooperneo.co.uk/POI_list.cfm

If you don't see the POI you are looking for please contact us. You can request a POI type or submit a file to us which we will make compatible with your Snooper satellite navigation system and available for you and other Snooper users to download and use..... We aim to complete individual requests within 21 days.

so it can be done .. (with some models) if you are prepared to share with all Snooper users.. that may be an issue of copyright infringement if you have bought the POI set for you're exclusive use.. for example Low Bridges.

in any case, too much waiting and faffing about.. I prefer to do my own thing.. when I need it..

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[ianhyslop]

Yes

 

[lafayette]

Ended up buying a camper 760 lmt-d from aldi at £199. So far seems good value.

 

[Gellyneck]

Ended up buying a camper 760 lmt-d from aldi at £199. So far seems good value.

Some mixed reviews on here about that model.
Ours, and others, are working well but some have had problems and returned them.
60 day return policy from Aldi so you have some piece of mind if you fall into the latter category.

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[JeanLuc]

I am a satisfied Garmin truck satnav user (560LMT) and offer the following.

Just a thought in case some recent purchasers have not spotted this in the 'blurb'. If you have a 'T' model: as in 560LMT or 760LMT, the 'T' stands for 'traffic'. Provided you have set it up with the traffic aerial receiver, the system will take account of traffic conditions in setting a route. This can give rise to the apparent anomaly where the Garmin will choose different routes for outbound and return journeys.
If it calculates that a detour cannot beat the delay of the anticipated hold-up, it will stick to the original route. You will also notice that the anticipated arrival time varies according to traffic conditions.
One other thought - if you set 'myTrends' it will detect and use your preferred routes to destinations saved in 'favourites'.