TomTom Or Garmin For Motorhome (1 Viewer)

mickyb

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Mar 7, 2009
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I have and old Garmin Streetpilot I3 that doesn't pick up a signal in our Swift Sundandce I suspect due to the luton, i.e. map shows other opposite carrigeway but blank in direction I am travelling, not much good really!!!! but it works fine in my car. Anyway I decided to buy a new unit but cannot make up my mind what to go for. I like the TomTom One v4 or IQ or the Garmin 205 or 225.
Is there anyone out there who could give me hands on experience with any of the above, I don't use sat nav a great deal and always plan by map but i just want something that will work in a coachbuilt for refferece.
I have found out in the last week that sat nav's are like chocolate bars in the sweet shop, i.e. so many differnt varietys of the same make to choose from, my head is spinning with model types accompanied with + & - reviews.

Any comments greatfully received.
 

Jim

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Jul 19, 2007
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I love the TomTom interface, but I hate the way they screw you on map updates. The TomTom customer service is legendary, they are useless. If I had to buy another would I buy a TT? 3 years ago there was not much choice, now I would definitley shop around. TT make some great kit but so do Garmin.

So my advice would be - buy the Garmin or the TomTom - Hope this helps:Eeek:::bigsmile:
 

Forestboy

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Jul 31, 2007
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I bought the Garmin Nuvi 205 in the states this year used it for 3 months it was excellent especially as I'm a notorious sat nav cynic. I brought it home bought a European sd card direct from Garmin and have to admit I am very pleased with it especially for the price. I may even get a bike fitting and use it on the FJR as well.

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bazfergy

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Apr 20, 2009
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I have and old Garmin Streetpilot I3 that doesn't pick up a signal in our Swift Sundandce I suspect due to the luton, i.e. map shows other opposite carrigeway but blank in direction I am travelling, not much good really!!!! but it works fine in my car. Anyway I decided to buy a new unit but cannot make up my mind what to go for. I like the TomTom One v4 or IQ or the Garmin 205 or 225.
Is there anyone out there who could give me hands on experience with any of the above, I don't use sat nav a great deal and always plan by map but i just want something that will work in a coachbuilt for refferece.
I have found out in the last week that sat nav's are like chocolate bars in the sweet shop, i.e. so many differnt varietys of the same make to choose from, my head is spinning with model types accompanied with + & - reviews.

Any comments greatfully received.
I use garmin nuvi:thumb:never had a problem:Smile:
 
J

johnandcarol

Deleted User
Your problem is not what system to use, but the lack of clear sight to a sattelite. this will cause a problem whatever unit you buy, the same happens in landrovers. i use tomtom, and have the ariel extension which you can velcro to the outside, perhaps on the bonnet, it gives contact with thesattelites all the time, so is good.
 
R

reader

Deleted User
We have used a Garmin Nuvi 310 in two motorhomes and a car, both mh's with lutons and its been fine. In the early days I found their support very helpfull. The Nuvi is quick to respond and easy to use.
Previously we had a Navman which was much slower in use but I think the maps had a slight edge on the Garmin. Only experience with TomToms is in other peoples cars and they seem slower to react than the Nuvi but are quicker than the Navman

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scotjimland

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Jul 25, 2007
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Like Jim if you had asked two years ago I wouldn't have hesitated in recomending TT ..

I have the TT One XL Europe, which has the wide screen, important if using in a motorhome where it may be further away .. great bit of kit.. never any problems locking on from inside the RV.

However, Garmin Nuvi range are worth looking at, if I were on the market this one would be a strong contender .. Nuvi 1340T

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The primary difference between TT and Garmin is the mapping

TT use TeleAtlas and Garmin use NavTeq

which is better ? .. :Doh:

To decide, make a list of the must have features... then look at both makes, look at prices and what's available in you locality .. then pray you make the right choice :roflmto:
 
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BEV

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Apr 6, 2008
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Tom v garmin

We have got both mainly because with the TOM TOM with mine you cannot programmje what size vehicle you are so sends you down roads with grass growing in the middle. With the Garmin you have various setting to select even down to Foot use
 

Spacerunner

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I have a garmin 765t the 't' stands for traffic information.

What I really like about it is the junction guidance feature. A graphic pops up for 10 secs to show you which lane to get in when on m/ways etc. Invaluable when motorhoming in a strange area, works 'sur la continent' as well.

You can also get lifetime updates for £100, last as long as you own the device.

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S

stagman

Deleted User
I have a tom tom one XL Europe and a Nuvi 760t .Personally for various reasons I prefer the Garmin. If you not fussed with up to date gadgets then Halfords have cut 50% off the price of discontinued Garmins and TT and they will stil do the same basic job.:thumb:
 

mick noe

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ooh looks like I'm the odd one out here I have both a Garmin and a tom tom and find the tom tom gives much better routing missed the autoruotes and no offroading surprises unlike the garmin last year:Smile:

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warwick

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Sep 16, 2008
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We bought a Garmin 255W a month ago and used it in France and here. Excellent can thoroughly recommend it.
First time I have used a sat nav for vehicles, and found it to make life so easy. This particular Garmin allows you to effectively put your own route in by adding via`s either by address,place, or road junction etc, I find this handy as on a long run to the South of France I usually choose different routes. One of the good things with the Sat Nav is you can divert say in a City such as Reims to avoid the new Tram being built and the Sat Nav re-calculates its so much easier than trying to follow signs and read maps.
The one point you can be caught out on is it may try to take you though places with narrow streets rather than on the ring road but again take the ring road and it soon recalculates.
Very easy to use, you can use virtually straight out of the box and the detail comes a bit of practice.
 

Forestboy

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We bought a Garmin 255W a month ago and used it in France and here. Excellent can thoroughly recommend it.
First time I have used a sat nav for vehicles, and found it to make life so easy. This particular Garmin allows you to effectively put your own route in by adding via`s either by address,place, or road junction etc, I find this handy as on a long run to the South of France I usually choose different routes. One of the good things with the Sat Nav is you can divert say in a City such as Reims to avoid the new Tram being built and the Sat Nav re-calculates its so much easier than trying to follow signs and read maps.
The one point you can be caught out on is it may try to take you though places with narrow streets rather than on the ring road but again take the ring road and it soon recalculates.
Very easy to use, you can use virtually straight out of the box and the detail comes a bit of practice.

Exactly the same with the Nuvi 205 which is widescreen handy when driving a large RV. I always pick my route on a map first and make sure the sat nav goes the same way if not I either add via points or go my way and it immediately recalculates.
 
Apr 29, 2009
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I have Nuvi 350 which is good and reacts really quickly. Does any one know if the Truck Mode is an extra costed addition. (I have asked the question of Garmin and am waiting for an answer). I have the option to select Truck as my vehicle, but it still picks routes involving 6'6" except for access roads?

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Feb 22, 2008
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I have been using a Garmin Streetpilot 2610 for 5 years so its probably old hat now with no 3d
but it is excellent. Have used it on east and west coast US and on continent.Updating mapping discs are still available and in my car a Ford with front screen heater I have to use a small magnetic mushroom antenna. I will probably get an up to date Garmin although their service is not too good.
 

scotjimland

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I have Nuvi 350 which is good and reacts really quickly. Does any one know if the Truck Mode is an extra costed addition. (I have asked the question of Garmin and am waiting for an answer). I have the option to select Truck as my vehicle, but it still picks routes involving 6'6" except for access roads?

To my knowledge there no sat nav with a Truck option that actually works..

The best you can do is load the POIs for Low Bridges, Weight and Width limits .. I don't know about Garmin, but TT won't route around these POIS , TT have said this option will be added in the future.. at present it only warns about them.

The problem I see is this, you can select fastest route which usually selects the fastest roads but many sites are at the end of single or narrow roads.. so even if the Truck option worked , how would it handle that other than to say ' Sorry, No Route Available' ?

It's usually the last few miles to many sites that can be problematic.. not the two or three hundred spent on main roads.
 
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mikamada

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Apr 12, 2009
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We have had a Garmin Streetpilot 2610 for a number of years. Unfortunately the USB connection no longer works so it is not possible to update the maps and repair would cost £150 plus maps at around £80. The advantage of the 2610 is that it is Mapsource based so you can plot on you PC before your journey. The only current Mapsource products from Garmin are the Zumo motorcycle units.

Recently we tried the Garmin Mobile PC laptop based unit with GPS dongle. This worked very well on the Laptop but was limited in routing options to only Car or Foot so it kept on trying to take us down small roads (not good in a 34ft RV). Imported Lowbridges etc which showed well. Recalculation was very fast.

In the last two weeks we tried both Microsoft Autoroute 2007 and Mapoint 2009 using the Garmin GPS device and GPSGate. GPSGate was required because the Garmin GPS unit is USB based. Again route planning on these were very good and we imported POIs for bridges and width as well as sites. The advantage with both these products is that you can set relative speeds for different road types and by using the fastest routing option it will avoid small roads.

Autoroute 2007 maps are out of date (2005) and the sampling of the GPS location from the GPS unit has a bit of a lag which can mean you miss junctions. Autromatic rerouting on Autoroute 2007 takes a long while. Rerouting on Mappoint was fast but not as fast as the Garmin Mobile PC.

The screen display of both Autorote and Mappoint during tracking was, I consider, clumsy and shows the disadvantage of operating in a letterbox widescreen mode.

Both products crashed on two occaisons when restarting the journey after a 10-15 minute tea break stop. This resulted in neither item of software recognising the GPS unit without a full laptop reboot (with Vista that took 4 minutes).

Overall found that Mappoint worked well when used in conjunction with the AA Truckers Road Atlas and I would not trust either as my main navigation tool. However as a routing assistance tools they were great. The problem is that Mapoint costs £240 plus the cost of the GPS unit (around £40).

We will probably purchase the Garmin Zumo 660 next year when it has come down in price which will provide Mapsource, PC route planning and all weather capabilities on the motorcycle. Because it is Mapsourced based GPX extended POI's are transferrable. This will however be secondary to the AA truckers Atlas.....::bigsmile:

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Spacerunner

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The problem I see is this, you can select fastest route which usually selects the fastest roads but many sites are at the end of single or narrow roads.. so even if the Truck option worked , how would it handle that other than to say ' Sorry, No Route Available' ?
"Scot Jimland"

The Satnav would only give precedence to fastest roads. When there is no alternative it would use any type of road to get you to your detination.

The higher-end Garmins come with a software product called Mapsource.

With this programme you can write any route you like and send it to the satnav.
It can also find places and features e.g. an aire de service in Carcassonne.
It will let you view the map on Google earth so you can get a lifelike picture of the route.

A brilliant piece of kit, I'm not particularly computer savvy but I can use most of the basic tools and find it invaluable.
 
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scotjimland

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The problem I see is this, you can select fastest route which usually selects the fastest roads but many sites are at the end of single or narrow roads.. so even if the Truck option worked , how would it handle that other than to say ' Sorry, No Route Available' ?
"Scot Jimland"

The Satnav would only give precedence to fastest roads. When there is no alternative it would use any type of road to get you to your detination.

Precisely, that's why a truck routing Sat Nav, (if it existed and worked) would be a waste of time.. unless you want to camp on truck stops every night .. :RollEyes:

You can test this with TT, walk into a field with your TT , then set this as 'home' I did this on our present CL unintentionally..
Now go out in your car and try to navigate 'home' with it .. TT says ' Sorry, no route available' or words to that effect.' It doesn't try to route to the nearest road.. it just goes belly up :Doh:
 

Frankia

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I have been a fan of the Garmin gear for a long time (even when sat navs needed a mortgage to buy) but I have used both G and TT.

When either goes wrong I have found the TT to be a sod to fix - especially as you usually need an internet connection to sort it.

The Garmin looks like a good deal at the mo as they are doing £99 for a lifetime update of maps. Thats so much better than having to pay $75 every year for the latest maps.

We currently have 2 Garmins:

1) 7" screen version - great in an "A" class where the screen is further away from you. It also plays MP3s amongst a whole host of other features. It can be connected to a reversing camera or a DVD player / sky box etc so there is a spare telly if necessary. Playing MP3s we connect it to the cab radio via a line in (new ones have a transmitter built in) that way it can mute the music when it wants to give instructions. This one also came with a lifetime TM receiver (traffic management) which reroutes you round accidents and queues.

2) Nuvi 250 - great to put in your pocket or as we do take on the motorbike as it has it's own rechargeable batteries.

The only benefit I can see with a TT is that there appear to be slightly more POI files available but as it is not a particularly painfull job to convert any or find alternatives my vote would still be for the Garmin.:thumb:

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Spacerunner

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You can test this with TT, walk into a field with your TT , then set this as 'home' I did this on our present CL unintentionally..
ScotJimland

Just tried that on my Tomtom Go.

I am on a CS on the banks of the Avon in a field.

For several 'in a field' destinations TTG takes me to the nearest road access then routes me across the field.

It also tells me that my present postion is near Mill Lane.

Now my Tomtom is one of the first ever originals with fully updated maps and system.

Do you keep your's updated?
 

scotjimland

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You can test this with TT, walk into a field with your TT , then set this as 'home' I did this on our present CL unintentionally..
ScotJimland

Just tried that on my Tomtom Go.

I am on a CS on the banks of the Avon in a field.

For several 'in a field' destinations TTG takes me to the nearest road access then routes me across the field.

It also tells me that my present postion is near Mill Lane.

Now my Tomtom is one of the first ever originals with fully updated maps and system.

Do you keep your's updated?

Hi
Updated regularly, mine is TT One XL Europe , two years old

Mine will do as yours, from the field it will navigate to the nearest road, but have you tried setting 'home ' when your in the middle of the field, going out for a drive then ask it to navigate back to 'home' ?

Jim
 

oldun

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This particular Garmin allows you to effectively put your own route in by adding via`s either by address,place, or road junction etc, I find this handy as on a long run to the South of France I usually choose different routes.

So does Tomtom - use Itinerary Planning.

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