Garmin Nuvi's bum is oot the windae (1 Viewer)

Mags52

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Bought a Garmin Nuvi three years ago after realising the our TomTom would cost more to upgrade the maps than a new SatNav. It was the worst mistake. It repeatedly takes us down tiny roads to save 50 yards on the 'fastest' setting or takes us down winding country lanes on the 'shortest' setting. Either way is a disaster in the motorhome. The final cherry on its retirement cake came last year when it took us off the road and through a vineyard late one evening in pitch dark. It wasn't a road at all and we thought we were going to have to just stop and wait until morning so that we could see where we were.
Anyway, it has to go, it has no setting for big vehicles and I've found no method of stopping it taking us on such ludicrous routes.
My question is, do we buy a GPS booster and use the ipad with Copilot or get one of the Chinese Truck sat navs on ebay. The cost is much the same.
Any thoughts?
 

Judge Mental

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Garmin OK but far from perfect! When it try s to take you down a narrow road dont do it! Carry on and wait for it to recalculate....
 
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Mags52

Mags52

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Garmin OK but far from perfect! When it try s to take you down a narrow road dont do it! Carry on and wait for it to recalculate....
Unfortunately in the depths of France you often don't know when a road is going to turn out to be narrow until it's too late. Whatever method they use to work out routes on our model is seriously flawed.

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@Mags52 get a Chinese sat nav we got one before our trip to France and apart from her continually telling us we were over the speed limit (we've turned off the notification now) we had no problems .
If I'd known at Falkirk you could have had a look at it.
 

RowleyBirkinQC

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The Garmin Camper, in which you can set vehicle dimensions, is not much better. Use common sense and have a road atlas for reference.

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spitfire

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Bought a Garmin Nuvi three years ago after realising the our TomTom would cost more to upgrade the maps than a new SatNav. It was the worst mistake. It repeatedly takes us down tiny roads to save 50 yards on the 'fastest' setting or takes us down winding country lanes on the 'shortest' setting. Either way is a disaster in the motorhome. The final cherry on its retirement cake came last year when it took us off the road and through a vineyard late one evening in pitch dark. It wasn't a road at all and we thought we were going to have to just stop and wait until morning so that we could see where we were.
Anyway, it has to go, it has no setting for big vehicles and I've found no method of stopping it taking us on such ludicrous routes.
My question is, do we buy a GPS booster and use the ipad with Copilot or get one of the Chinese Truck sat navs on ebay. The cost is much the same.
Any thoughts?
We have the Garmin and as you say a heap if rubbish. Bought two years ago the Chinese one and run in tandem . The Chinese one beats it hands down :) not one error and if you miss a turning , quick recalculation while the Garmin is still thinking about it !! No more if those turn round yes in an 8 metre van I don't think so ! It has always allowed us to continue on the route and found an alternative road. Only once it has instructed us to go round the next roundabout and come back and it was correct , there was no other alternative :)
 
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We have a nuvi and a camper both from Garmin. In the MH they act as his and hers sat navs.
They have taken us on the narrow roads but as we don't drive at night we regularly say no way and stick on the main road and they usually sort us out.
When they disagree it is very often obvious which one is "taking a short cut to cut off a corner"

Don't be frightened to turn around and take another route even if that means consulting an old fashioned paper map.
 

Allanm

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I've been a "Garmin Man" for years, since they were just aids to hiking. I have tried TomTom a couple of times and been massively disappointed when they routed me down cul de sacs, non existent roads and tried to get me to do a U turn on a motorway.
But lately, I have been getting fed up with Garmin.
My Dezl Camper still takes me down narrow roads to cut off a few metres of main roads and even when you ask it for the fastest route, it takes me down roads you would be lucky to reach 30mph. My latest Garmin ( a NuviCam, mentioned in another thread) doesn't seem much better, in fact it has some major flaws.
I've tried the Chinese Satnavs and not been impressed.
But, I like Spitfires idea of running a couple in tandem. I might give it a go and see what happens

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Judge Mental

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I haven't worked out the logic that Garmin uses when calculationg fastest vs shortest vs best routes. I keep it in the car and bought the CC Snooper for the MH.

Have been using Garmin since 2000 and I don't get it either! One thing I have learnt is you can't trust or rely on them as they are not artificial intelligence! But using common sense they are a great aid
 

GeriatricWanderer

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Had my Nuvi for a few fyears and used it extensively and although it sometimes tries to take a short cut at the end of a route it has performed superbly. I find that the quality of the mapping (not made by Garmin) is often lacking detail.
My Garmin has never taken me where I don't want to go - I have the steering wheel and I decide when to turn it.
Sat navs are just aids to driving.
 

MikeandCarolyn

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Have used Garmin Nuvi 149? something for about 5 yrs now-I update it before each long trip and co-pilot (wife) has Map handy-she will check to see if it's a 'short cut' or not.
Sat nav is only an aid-it should be used used in conjunction,with a map and some common sense(y)

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Mags52

Mags52

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I fully understand that this is an aid and yes we have some common sense and maps on board. The issue is often in a small town where the detail on maps is limited and the damned thing takes you down a turning that is too narrow. After turning round (often with extreme difficulty) you find a perfectly acceptable road not far ahead. One time in a small town in France where part of the town had been closed for a festival we drove on past the closed road waiting for an alternative. It tried to take us down a street not wide enough for any vehicle, fortunately this time we could see what was coming and drove on. I'm generally a patient kind of person but the angst about the Garmin is now being made worse by people suggesting we don't have any common sense.
My question was whether CoPilot is good enough or is a Chinese Truck sat nav better.
There grump over ...
 

Judge Mental

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Are any of them perfect? I doudt it!

I was going to upgrade to garmin vamping model but after reading gjf poor reviews did not bother.... Seems to share same afglocation ad bog dysnfarf models.

I think some of newer expensive ones have a better processor. But if it relies on same mapping what's the point:(

Anyway.. I program my own routes on PC and download to nuvi. That way it goes my way!
 

GeriatricWanderer

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I fully understand that this is an aid and yes we have some common sense and maps on board. The issue is often in a small town where the detail on maps is limited and the damned thing takes you down a turning that is too narrow. After turning round (often with extreme difficulty) you find a perfectly acceptable road not far ahead. One time in a small town in France where part of the town had been closed for a festival we drove on past the closed road waiting for an alternative. It tried to take us down a street not wide enough for any vehicle, fortunately this time we could see what was coming and drove on. I'm generally a patient kind of person but the angst about the Garmin is now being made worse by people suggesting we don't have any common sense.
My question was whether CoPilot is good enough or is a Chinese Truck sat nav better.
There grump over ...

Sorry, but I have to ask: When you say that the sat nav takes you down a turning that "is too narrow", what would you have done had you not had the sat nav on board? Would you have driven down that same road?
I'm not trying to be clever or critical, I'm just trying to understand how people continually seem to end up where they don't want to be and then knock the very sat nav that I find so reliable when used in conjunction with a map and roadsigns.

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Mags52

Mags52

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Sorry, but I have to ask: When you say that the sat nav takes you down a turning that "is too narrow", what would you have done had you not had the sat nav on board? Would you have driven down that same road?
I'm not trying to be clever or critical, I'm just trying to understand how people continually seem to end up where they don't want to be and then knock the very sat nav that I find so reliable when used in conjunction with a map and roadsigns.
OK I'll try to explain. When looking for a particular Aire or even a Carrefour you can put in the co-ordinates and the Sat Nav, if it's doing its job right, will take you there. Obviously a map can take you to a town but the specifics can be hard to find. If the Sat Nav is completely useless and you have to manage as though you didn't have it at all I can't see the point of having one. Others tell me that there are Sat Navs that are more accurate. I'd like some advice on which ones. To be fair the Garmins do vary and I bought the cheapest one I could find. It has very few settings. I guess you get what you pay for.
If we were managing with maps alone we would do the same as we did with the Garmin - not attempt to go down a street intended only for bikes. The sat nav however tried to suggest that as a viable route. Clearly that isn't a reasonable option.
Neither was the farmer's track through the vineyard - we ended up there because it was pitch dark in an area with no street lighting.
The sat nav is a tool that is intended to make your journey easier. Ours doesn't.
 
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Mags52

Mags52

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How on earth did I go from asking advice to defending myself? Don't know what happened there but let's forget I ever asked eh?

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Sep 10, 2013
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My vote is for a £40 xgody eBay 7" truck sat nav.
Used it twice for holidays in France and Spain. Used with some common sense seem to work well.
 
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Are any of them perfect? I doudt it!

I was going to upgrade to garmin vamping model but after reading gjf poor reviews did not bother.... Seems to share same afglocation ad bog dysnfarf models.

I think some of newer expensive ones have a better processor. But if it relies on same mapping what's the point:(

Anyway.. I program my own routes on PC and download to nuvi. That way it goes my way!
I rather like the idea of a Welsh-speaking vamping model. If you're going to say they're typos I'll be very disappointed :ROFLMAO:
 

Judge Mental

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I rather like the idea of a Welsh-speaking vamping model. If you're going to say they're typos I'll be very disappointed :ROFLMAO:

Our neighbor on this lake garda vampsite serves up vodka slush puppies from 11 onwards ( lurve scoussers:))

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Gellyneck

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More than toes wet now!
How on earth did I go from asking advice to defending myself? Don't know what happened there but let's forget I ever asked eh?
Oh stoap mumphing Mags!:p
It could be worse. It could be trying to negotiate yi roond the roondabouts in Livi or EK!;)
Given a've always used Garmin (apart from the car's inbuilt wan) a'll shut ma gob noo an bu**er aff!

Anyway, hope you get yourself sorted soon.

Oh, hing aboot! Maybe, just maybe, these Garmin thingys are better than you thoucht. Is it learning from previous journeys (predictive directions?) and taking you to the vineyard on purpose. OK, am off!:imoutahere:
 

MikeandCarolyn

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Sorry if you feel some of us have been 'having a go' but I tend to blame myself if I end up where I didn't want to be-yes,I've ended up driving along a row of vines too.:LOL: and we've down some narrow lanes when Carolyn said not to do it. We once climbed a Col-then found that we could have got to where we were going along the main road through the valley,BUT,the scenery was fantastic (y) An alpine meadow just below the snow line.
 
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I bought a garmin recently with traffic data etc and been comparing it to google maps on some journeys. Have to say The Garmin is pretty pants as it always wants to go on some short cut through a town even when there is no traffic on the road you are on!!! Google maps is no stranger to back roads when there is traffic but is much more intuitive and overall in a higher class. I bought the Garmin as a complete stand alone backup for Europe in case my phone/radio systems go down with google and a couple of other android nav apps on it. I truly hope I dont need to use the pants Garmin!!!!

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Judge Mental

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I bought a garmin recently with traffic data etc and been comparing it to google maps on some journeys. Have to say The Garmin is pretty pants as it always wants to go on some short cut through a town even when there is no traffic on the road you are on!!! Google maps is no stranger to back roads when there is traffic but is much more intuitive and overall in a higher class. I bought the Garmin as a complete stand alone backup for Europe in case my phone/radio systems go down with google and a couple of other android nav apps on it. I truly hope I dont need to use the pants Garmin!!!!

just put in your own route by adding waypoints:censored:..then you go your way not its way:)
 
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I've been a "Garmin Man" for years, since they were just aids to hiking. I have tried TomTom a couple of times and been massively disappointed when they routed me down cul de sacs, non existent roads and tried to get me to do a U turn on a motorway.
But lately, I have been getting fed up with Garmin.
My Dezl Camper still takes me down narrow roads to cut off a few metres of main roads and even when you ask it for the fastest route, it takes me down roads you would be lucky to reach 30mph. My latest Garmin ( a NuviCam, mentioned in another thread) doesn't seem much better, in fact it has some major flaws.
I've tried the Chinese Satnavs and not been impressed.
But, I like Spitfires idea of running a couple in tandem. I might give it a go and see what happens

I actually use three in tandem in the MH. A TomTom Go (still the best for POIs), a snooper truckmate, and a Chinese truck nav. Navigating by committee, but it works for me. I particularly like the 'Easy' route option on the chinese one.
 

treetops1

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Must admit the Garmin is rubbish for myself .I feel, i totally wasted £400 and i have lost all faith in it .I can jot my route down on a piece of paper whilst the sat nav is deciding where it is lol.

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Allanm

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I gave the Nuvicam another chance yesterday, bearing in mind you can't tell it you are a camper van ( doesn't seem to make much difference to the Dezl Camper!) it took us over 200 miles without putting a foot wrong and took us to a ( now closed) aire at Utah Beach in Normandy. I particularly like the last few hundred metres where the camera feed is displayed with the purple direction arrow and chequered flag showing you the way. It alerted us to an upcoming (42km away) lane closure, and it was right.
But, they are just driving aids, you still need to use common sense, road signs and argue with the "navigator" that despite what the satnav says, you are taking the best route....
 
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Oct 18, 2014
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Bought a Garmin Nuvi three years ago after realising the our TomTom would cost more to upgrade the maps than a new SatNav. It was the worst mistake. It repeatedly takes us down tiny roads to save 50 yards on the 'fastest' setting or takes us down winding country lanes on the 'shortest' setting. Either way is a disaster in the motorhome. The final cherry on its retirement cake came last year when it took us off the road and through a vineyard late one evening in pitch dark. It wasn't a road at all and we thought we were going to have to just stop and wait until morning so that we could see where we were.
Anyway, it has to go, it has no setting for big vehicles and I've found no method of stopping it taking us on such ludicrous routes.
My question is, do we buy a GPS booster and use the ipad with Copilot or get one of the Chinese Truck sat navs on ebay. The cost is much the same.
Any thoughts?
Hi Mags
Try Sygic, on offer at the moment and runs on phone a treat. Available for apple and android.
Have just ran alongside Garmin nuvi in fr, it & UK and found ok & better at end of route calculations.
 
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(y) Definitely a thumbs up for the Chinese sat navs. (I do also have the Tomtom as backup. The Tomtom does have the tendency to send me down shortcuts though).

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