Sat Nav for Campers (1 Viewer)

[Ebbo]

Ive had a sat Nav in my car for near on 20 years now and most of the time its been pretty good,

I use a TOM Tom stand alone device, I have done for years and only a coupe of times I have come unstuck, I usd it mostly in a xar but occasionally in a Renault Traffic van when it tried to send me through a very low bridge

now for my question

is there a specific sat nav option for larger vehicles? so when following it, it doesn't try and send you down unsuitable routes

I've looked at the GPS Thread but nothing there seems nothing obvious

 

[bigwood]

There are several motorhome sat navs available. You can input you’re vehicle size so it should only find routes to suit you’re van.
When our Garmin was stolen I wanted to replace it with a motorhome one but the insurance replaced like for like.

 

[Lucky]

Notwithstanding what they promise, are they reliable in not sending you down narrow lanes?

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[suavecarve]

Youre going to get different replies with different ones that people have got from the £50 Chinese one on ebay to the super duper top of the range Garmin 660

You have to sort the wheat out from the chaff by ignoring personal opinions of bias towards their own.

I have the Garmin 660 (but i reckon you worked it out)

 

[Two on Tour]

You've got no hope, firstly of getting any consensuses as to which is the best for motorhome use and secondly with the satnav's available at present of actually doing the the job properly.

We have an old TomTom motorhome edition which was okay but the maps are now way out of date, Copilot which was pretty good until Trimble bought them out and totally screwed it up and Syngic Truck RV edition which is what we use mostly but is still not 100% reliable.

 

[suavecarve]

Notwithstanding what they promise, are they reliable in not sending you down narrow lanes?

Had it about 4 yeears now. She gets a bit lost in the mountains as she goes down to only 3 satelites. Always worth rechecking her with a map. You can adjust your speed from 60 mph to 70 MPH on motorways but whatever you do if in germany do not set it to drive to speed limit as Munich is only 20 minutes from Berlin!!!!!
They are as good as you set them up and I havent been anywhere i shouldnt have done in 20,000 + foreign miles in the sticks

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[Gellyneck]

We've got a Garmin 760 (the 7" version of suavecarve ) and never had a serious problem with it. Also like the ability to pre-plan route on Garmin BaseCamp on pc.

 

[HugoBNB]

We have a Garmin 770 Camper. It is excellent but, as other posters have said, you still need to exercise common sense. If it doesn't look right, do not go any further. The Garmin has a good route planning app that you can use on your PC to give an idea of a good route A-B or a tour. The unit comes with campsites pre-loaded. You can even create your own POI's from, for example, Britstops to pull up your favourite stops. YouTube has some good videos on it. You can also get a wireless rear camera to work with it.
Good luck and safe travels.

 

[Just smiffy]

Another vote for the garmin 770...

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[Vipar]

Have a good search on eBay. It depends on how deep your pockets are.
At least you can do a comparison. Then it’s up to you. As said before we all think we have the best. I have a Flouren Chinese special £31.00 sold as a lorry sat nav.

 

[Hamsters]

Garmin 770 cracking piece of kit!

 

[suavecarve]

Got me questioning whether i have the 770 or the 660 now !!!!

In relation to POIs I have all the aires for europe on mine but i have also managed to download them onto maps.me so 25,000 places to stop.

I believe it is possible to share them if one of you who is tech savvy wants to share information around mobile phone number or email via private message and has maps.me downloaded.

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[RustyRuss]

Currently using an Xgody 7” truck satnav that allows you to set length, height, width and weight parameters, cost me the princely sum of £30 on fleabay. I’ve up dated it too! It even has the new Runcorn Bridge in/on it, which is more than can be said for “the top of the line” satnav OEM kit in my “17 plate fiesta! The only down side is the suction bracket to hold it to the windscreen is poo! Very wobbly! So i’ve Had to improvise a Heath Robinson affair to hold it in place on the top of the dashboard. I’m using it to replace the absolutely useless ele13 unit supplied as OEM kit in our Autotrail Apache 632.... But I’m looking at a new head unit from Xtrons that’s specifically for a “12 plate Auto trail Ducato chassis/cab. It’s Android 10.0 and comes with satnav, DAB+, phone mirroring, reversing camera etc etc etc for around £260 with the extra bits I want on it. Could it be worth your while to go down the same route? Please forgive! Pun intended!!

Best Regards,

Russ

 

[Gellyneck]

It’s Android 10.0 and comes with satnav, .....

What satnav app are you thinking about using on your Xtrons?

 

[Splasher6]

We bought an OHREX sat nat which allows you to set vehicle dimensions etc and tells you if the route selected is “easy” or more difficult. Programmed with gps,post code etc with uk and european maps which have updates support, it has worked well and price was much lower that some more familiar makes (£60 i think) Gps Navigation is one option on main screen, others are FM, Blue Tooth, Games, Multimedia, and Tools and Settings. Great for us.

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[dunnah01]

-1 for Copilot. I’ve now lost all faith in it’s routing algorithms and just use it to display my speed in km/h which is hard to read off the dashboard.

 

[Manic]

I’ve got a Avtex Tourer one, basically a renamed Garmin 770 which I’m pleased with, the voice command works really well.
I bought it nearly new off eBay.

 

[FIDGET]

Hi Ebbo,
Personally I use a tomtom motorhome one , but like with all makes they are only good too a point .
A lot of small roads in ALL countries are not reported to be under the 6ft 6inch rule so are not high lighted by all sat navs , so you have be alert , if it doesn't look ok for your vehicle avoid it & carry on , your sat nav will adjust.
Like down here in Cornwall , more than 50% of roads are no more than narrow lanes but as they are not designated as specific narrow , your satnav will try to send you down them , same in many towns & cities.
Just be alert & use common sence .
Hope this helps
Terry

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[Apache]

I use google maps on my phone. Good enough and very good for traffic. As said above use common sense , if it looks wrong try and find a different way. The built in Tom Tom on our 2015 Apache is sh*t and they don’t even support it now. Even my more modern and more expensive tomtom that I use in the car can send you down some very narrow steep lanes with tight hairpin bends which you can only just scrape your 18 foot car trailer round , grounding out at every bend. Ask me how I know !

 

[bigtwin]

We have the TomTom Camper version and have found it to be reliable.

Ian

 

[SpeedyDux]

I've had a Garmin Camper 760 LMT-D for several years now. Treat it as a useful advisory aid to navigation, and ignore what it tells me, if I suspect it is trying to send me down a wrong shortcut. I always study the paper maps first and memorise as much of the main roads as I need, before setting off. I haven't the patience to use the Basecamp software to plan a route on the pc beforehand. I always managed well enough with maps before satnavs became affordable.

Errors - the Garmin mapping doesn't include all the low underpasses in France, for example, which only allow cars to pass through. You still need to watch out for all road signs (you should be doing that anyway) as you approach junctions.

Inputting dimensions and weights - I exaggerate the height and width for my PVC because I have found that helps avoid wasting time via silly minor roads and town centres (sometimes). I found that it is better not to input a few extra tonnes to pretend it is an RV. French towns have a lot of through roads with 3,500 kg weight restrictions that the Garmin knows about. Otherwise, it goes into full-on satNAG mode and issues repetitive warnings and loud bonging sounds, and tries to re-route me via the deviation for HGVs. I can imagine this feature would be useful for MHs over 3,500 kg MTPLM to avoid getting a fine.

The speed indication which is easy to change from mph to kph is really useful because the X290 dials are difficult to read especially the kph markings. The traffic jam / road closed advance warnings and alternative routing has been brilliant at times.

It's only my 2nd Garmin in 13 years. Both have been resilient and quite reliable. The oldest one still works and is my back-up. I position the satnav close to an air vent so the A/C helps cool the satnav. Direct sun can kill electronics if you let it overheat. I suspect that is why many satnavs go inop after a short life.

All-in-all I wouldn't be without it in the MH. I've never owned a tomtom nor any Chinese cheap truck satnav although they have their fans too. I prefer a dedicated satnav instead of smartphone app, having experienced an issue when the smartphone gave priority to an incoming call while approaching a bewildering road intersection in the car, and the map and instructions disappeared.

HTH

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[Waveski]

Hi. I’m interested in updating my Fiat built in sat nav (maps are out of date) and the Garmin 770 looks a good bet. Is there a database anywhere for CMC campsites and CL’s, it easy to upload them?
Anyone got a smart idea for mounting the Garmin in a 2016 Fiat? I don’t want to use the standard sucker.

 

[Gellyneck]

Is there a database anywhere for CMC campsites and CL’s, it easy to upload them?

You can download C&MC UK site, UK CL and overseas site POI's by logging in to their website. Two downloads for each (csv and bmp files).
I've got them on my Garmin 760 \ BaseCamp.

 

[Manic]

Hi. I’m interested in updating my Fiat built in sat nav (maps are out of date) and the Garmin 770 looks a good bet. Is there a database anywhere for CMC campsites and CL’s, it easy to upload them?
Anyone got a smart idea for mounting the Garmin in a 2016 Fiat? I don’t want to use the standard sucker.

I’ve got the Avtex tourer one version of the Garmin 770 and that comes with CMC sites already installed as well as Acsi and Campercontact.

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[Nanniemate]

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Old school me

 

[Waveski]

Thanks Gellyneck and Manic
It certainly looks the best way for me to go. I like the old school maps Nanniemate but as a single traveller these days I’m short of a second head and a couple of arms

 

[Nanniemate]

sorry forgot multitasking for some can be an issue

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[denisejoe]

Got an old TomTom 1005 Campervan version. Been ok in this country and France but not supported anymore, nor available.

 

[addoaddo]

I have tried various ones and they all suffer from a similar problem. If you try and go to a place that is outside your my size requirements it just reverts to car mode to get you there. Found this out when driving a 26t lorry and regularly have problems getting to remote places

try and get one that has a pc app so you can try the route first to check it is sensible.

if you have a car tomtom it lets you plan a route on the pc with “lorry” weight and size parameters (programmable) once planned can be exported to you car sat nav. Cheap way to convert a car sat nav in to one suitable for a motorhome. Just make sure you turn off route modification as sometimes it will find a fast route that is only suitable for cars!

 

[thebriars]

Notwithstanding what they promise, are they reliable in not sending you down narrow lanes?

Any sat nav is only as reliable as the mapping data stored in it.