Have I just found the best ever sat NAV for motor homes

[sparkyvanman]

Hi all I just wondered if anyone's got a better sat NAV app than the one I have just started using . I have been using the CoPilot app for motorhomes on my iPhone for a while and found it OK but not brilliant at finding the best route for my 7m MHO

While I was browsing the App Store I found a new sat NAV app called “Sygic” . I started using it in the past week , getting ready for my motorhome trip to Spain next week . I have been really surprised by how good this sat NAV is ,

I am surprised by the extra features this sat NAV has, it has a dash Cam app built , a heads up display , a van incline meter to help level the van , offline maps of every country , can get GPS locations from photos in your library in using your phone camera . speed camara locations , live fuel prices along the route , alarm when you go over the speed limit on any road , live traffic updates. All this for £13.99 per year !

I am now considering paying the additional £44.00 extra for the lifetime use of the motorhome feature.

Does anyone else have anything better than this ??

 

[Just smiffy]

Yes, google maps….. free..

 

[sparkyvanman]

I have used Google for years yes it is free , but does not have anything like the features of Sygic £1.16 a month this is a bargin . AND it works on Apple Car Play !

 

[Orion]

Magic Earth is another free app that works well for me. It has a ‘Truck’ option where dimensions, weights and speed limits can be entered.

 

[Next Stop]

I liked Sygic alot, it had some pretty jazzy features, but the one thing it lacked was the options for road preference. This in my opinion is vital for any Motorhome/Truck satnav.

 

[sparkyvanman]

Sygic has the option to avoid motorways , toll roads , unpaved roads & congestion charges .

 

[Roby2008]

I have had the Sygic camper Version for the last year and it is not so good, despite inputting dimensions it still sends me down unsuitable roads, and asking for a non- motorway route will send you along every farm track it can find...
Went back to Google for the last 2 weeks in the North of Germany, less stressful by far....

 

[Next Stop]

Sygic has the option to avoid motorways , toll roads , unpaved roads & congestion charges .

Sorry, I should have elaborated, I meant the road types as below from copilot.
If they would introduce this then I'd probably be a convert. Satnavs are good at avoiding motorways but not many have the option to avoid small local roads

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[ChrisL]

Can I ask what it is with Co Pilot that you're not happy with? I have both Co Pilot and Sygic but much prefer Co Pilot, especially when its time to upgrade the maps Sygic being extremely slow and often stopping.

 

[enark]

AA large page UK road map -£7.99 does me. Maybe a post it on the steering wheel….

All sat navs have their issues and i wouldnt trust them tbh

 

[TravellingSmurff]

Co Pilot is great but I wish it could be used on Apple Carplay

 

[ChrisL]

Sygic has the option to avoid motorways , toll roads , unpaved roads & congestion charges .

So does Co Pilot.

 

[Tea Bag]

AA large page UK road map -£7.99 does me. Maybe a post it on the steering wheel….

All sat navs have their issues and i wouldnt trust them tbh

Hi.
Cannot fault you....... When i wer' a lad Philips ? Map books would have town centre maps and big 2/4 page maps of London and outer london on with street names as well. Crib sheet in the cab ?..... sorted . Happy with me XGody x4 model.
Tea Bag

 

[Coolcats]

AA large page UK road map -£7.99 does me. Maybe a post it on the steering wheel….

All sat navs have their issues and i wouldnt trust them tbh

Have to agree, the wife navigates and overrides the sat nav I am 100% happy with the paper maps she uses.

 

[peterc10]

Been using Sygic for over 20 years. It is good and the add on for a motorhome looks good. But it has only just been offered so, knowing Sygic, sometime in the near future they will have a "half price sale" on it . Then I may buy it.

At the moment I am experimenting with Waze, which is a free app, but it uses data. Much better than Google maps. OK in the UK but maybe not in Europe with limited data .

 

[Guigsy]

Sygic Truck is my backup, running in silent on mount. But 95% of my miles are Google Maps alone on Android Auto.

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[RobertJary]

I’ve tried many sat nav’s over the years.

Copilot is good but doesn't support CarPlay, but does have downloadable maps.

Sygic was hopeless.

Currently using Magic Earth. It supports CarPlay and had downloadable maps.

 

[matbic]

Magic Earth is free and seems to work as well as any other app, just don’t understand why you would pay for Sygic.

Also don’t understand why Sygic needs to collect so much personal information about you. Magic earth collects nothing more than your location which it does not link to you directly. Paper map collects nothing but dust.

 

[Howard B]

I find Google maps or Waze works well for us. Tried motorhome specific apps & satnavs and wasnt over impressed with the needless routes they often took to get from from A to B.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Google maps lately, backed up by Mrs BBF on folding map duty.
You still need to keep your wit's about you with Google as it will inevitably try and send you along the shortest route, even if that's little more than an upgraded cart track. A couple of times yesterday coming from St Nazaire to Ile de Re we had to ignore the instruction given and keep going until some better, less corner cutting road came up.
Mike

 

[ChrisL]

Magic Earth is free and seems to work as well as any other app, just don’t understand why you would pay for Sygic.

The reason you'd pay for any motorhome/caravan specific Nav app is so you can enter the dimensions of your vehicle and road preferences, it will only take one occasion of Magic Earth or any other free app routing you over a narrow mountain pass where there is nowhere to turn around for a person to realise the value of them, I use Co Pilot, if you take the time to set it up correctly it's extremely good but you must set up road preferences correctly to avoid being routed through places you'd rather not travel.

Here are my road preferences.

 

[ElliesBoss]

I use the Navigator app from Map Factor. Ticks all my boxes but not everyone has the same boxes to fill out.

 

[TDub49]

I am a fan of the 'eggs in one basket" school of thought. Everything you need loaded on the your 'phone (satnav, camera, bank cards etc etc - not to mention basic 'phone and internet functions). What could go wrong . . . ?

Personally - stand alone satnav (Camper 770 - has worked well so far), apple (co-pilot) and android 'phones, atlas of relevant area, laptop, credit and debit cards, cash. No single point of failure there . . . .

 

[Langtoftlad]

XGody & Waze seems to get me there with a minimum of fuss

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[EuroTrotters]

Apple Maps and great for traffic. I avoided a 20km toll Queue in France.

Google Maps voice is weary

 

[mick qc]

Whenever I have used Google maps on my iPad tethered to my phones data it works ok for a while then sooner or later it freezes making it unreliable.
So I got the Gar in 890 mostly for the size, but that gets lost sometimes.
I have the basic co pilot app on my phone.
I may try the iPad again, once I’ve set up my router with ee sim.

 

[matbic]

The reason you'd pay for any motorhome/caravan specific Nav app is so you can enter the dimensions of your vehicle and road preferences, it will only take one occasion of Magic Earth or any other free app routing you over a narrow mountain pass where there is nowhere to turn around for a person to realise the value of them, I use Co Pilot, if you take the time to set it up correctly it's extremely good but you must set up road preferences correctly to avoid being routed through places you'd rather not travel.

Here are my road preferences.

View attachment 944702

You can also put your vehicle dimensions, weights etc in MagicEarth And it’s a free app!

 

[Orion]

Early evening today I experienced a somewhat humorous feature of the Magic Earth navigation app. After a torturous journey up from the West Country - endless queues and diversions due to torrential rain and accidents - my wife proudly announced that she could at least enjoy listening to The Archers before we arrived at our destination just off J11 of the M1.

At 7pm we were dawdling along in traffic at something like 15-20mph and just starting to enter the speed controlled section south of Luton, when the nice Irish sat nav lady interrupted Radio 4 to kindly warn us of an upcoming speed camera, and due to our reduced speed repeated it again ….. and again ……. and again. Which given the number of cameras on that stretch of motorway meant that only about 10% of the latest from Ambridge was heard. I could palpably feel the heat and tension emanating from the passenger seat - but didn’t have the heart to tell that I could have muted the camera warnings at any time!

 

[mick qc]

Don’t these apps use a lot of space on your iPad to download the maps

 

[Jon Stewart]

Don’t these apps use a lot of space on your iPad to download the maps

What are you currently using that space for?

If you aren't planning on installing a ton of other apps onto your tablet, downloading the maps is a great way of using it.

Also, filling up much of that space with data isn't going to slow down your tablet. (It's funny how many people think the opposite. Mind you, if you filled it with a ton of apps all demanding service in the background, it certainly would slow down!)