Sat Nav - Motorhome Friendly

Jack TGA

Jack TGA

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My Garmin Drive 50 Sat Nav always picks routes which include unnecessary sections down tiny lanes to the point where I don't want to use it. Can anyone suggest any settings or changes I can make to Garmin or a more motorhome friendly Sat Nav? Google maps consistently provides more motorhome friendly routes but I don't have the data to use it in Europe.
 
I think a truck nav might be better they cater for the bigger vehicles, they might send you further but you could avoid narrow lanes and low bridges
 
Jack TGA said:
My Garmin Drive 50 Sat Nav always picks routes which include unnecessary sections down tiny lanes to the point where I don't want to use it. Can anyone suggest any settings or changes I can make to Garmin or a more motorhome friendly Sat Nav? Google maps consistently provides more motorhome friendly routes but I don't have the data to use it in Europe.
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You could look in settings, it could be set to shortest route. In this setting it will use any and all legal roads to get to your destination by the shortest possible route. This can and does lead to some surprises on the way.
Try changing to fastest route, this should help. Other than that it might be time to upgrade to a more camper specific unit.
 
Jack TGA said:
My Garmin Drive 50 Sat Nav always picks routes which include unnecessary sections down tiny lanes to the point where I don't want to use it. Can anyone suggest any settings or changes I can make to Garmin or a more motorhome friendly Sat Nav? Google maps consistently provides more motorhome friendly routes but I don't have the data to use it in Europe.
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I have a nearly new Avtex Garmin Tourer 2 to sell in page 2 of the classified section. Just enter your vehicle height, length, width and weight for a trouble free journey.
 
I'm weighing up between TomTom Go Camper and the Garmin Camper....

I think the Garmin might be superior but I have a Garmin bike tracker thingy and it drives me nuts with its awkward button pushing operating system

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Avtex tourer 2 via camc not cheap but I find it to be OK, only been wrong twice but no narrow roads and low bridge's
 
Satnav routing relies upon data such as posted speed limits, weight/height/width restrictions on fixed entities (bridges/tunnels/traffic filter gates), they do not measure the road width on every stretch of road in every country. They will only avoid narrow lanes if that road has a specific restriction such as a low bridge or filter gate (typically 6'6'' widths). Some French towns and villages don't use width as a criterion, they will show a restriction of 3.5T instead, from experience that translates into bloody narrow! (as evidenced by the multitude of gouge marks on the buildings adjacent to the road). I frequently take large vehicles into remote areas and find Google maps quite useful, I look for the bus stop icons along the route on the basis that if a service bus can get down there then so can I.
As others have said, it is possible to load vehicle dimensions into newer satnavs but that will not guarantee avoiding some 'interesting' moments. It also does not assist with the vaguaries of human kind, had a trcky moment in Slovenia when approaching a crossing into Croatia on a tight country lane to find the border post was closed! Very little room to turn around, especially in the dark, probably a perfectly normal route in daytime hours but all adds to the 'fun' of travelling.
 
Xgody 886 7" screen, or Xgody X4 9" screen Truck Sat Navs, with the latest maps incorporating the all important (.ftr) Truck files.

Been using them for years now, and have only gone wrong when I decided against the Sat Nav instructions. :doh:

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 
wiljoy said:
I have a nearly new Avtex Garmin Tourer 2 to sell in page 2 of the classified section. Just enter your vehicle height, length, width and weight for a trouble free journey.
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The Avtex Garmin Tourer 2 is great. So far no surprises. Used in France and the UK. I always check the routing, to hopefully avoid any surprises, but no SAT Nav is perfect.
 
Interesting thread to me as I am also looking out for a better sat nav, or to be more precise, a sat nav that recognises vehicle dimensions and that I can set to avoid certain types of road.

the one fitted to the Boxer is useless to the extent that it (tries to) sends you down narrow lanes which say 6’6” width restrictions, no HGV, etc just to save a few hundred yards at a junction. Or through housing estates in towns just to avoid a set of traffic lights. It’s so bad that we now navigate by map to confirm the sat nav instruction or say “ignore it”.

it’s the standard Boxer unit so I’d have thought it would understand the vehicle dimensions and stick to more realistic routes. (To be fair we‘ve never actually got stuck, just don’t like going down lanes where both mirrors are touching the hedges…)

I’ve got the setting as “fastest route” and I can’t see any way to set route preferences that would avoid narrow lanes or rat-running in towns.
 
AndyPK said:
Do not rely on any sat nav 100%…….always carry a decent paper map or Trucker’s Atlas…..check the route before you travel (belt and braces!! ;) ).
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Agree +1 and would add that if in doubt check a narrow stretch of the route with google street view as well. I don't care if the bin lorry can pass down that road. If the branches might scratch my windows I will give it a miss.

There are even A roads with a low bridge that keeps them reasonably truck-free so that's a bonus you get using the Trucker's Atlas to plan a route.

Having roughly memorised the relevant route on the paper map (retained trick from pre-GPS days) I feel I can safely ignore that instruction to turn onto some cross-country B road or shortcut via a housing estate road that the satnag thinks will save about 2 minutes but will make life stressful.
 
I have the Garmin Camper and it keeps us on the right track motorhome wise. On a holiday this year I was travelling from Dorset to Stafford and it seemed to favour an out of the way route, taking us near Birmingham. Google maps preferred a straighter route that took 20 miles off so we followed Google. Worst drive of my life, we did most of the journey on single track, sometimes farm track roads, dreading whenever someone came from the opposite direction. It took a half day instead of a couple of hours. I won't be using Google again with the motorhome. Yes I've read others who swear by Google but I challenge them to follow my route.
 
Folkranger said:
I have the Garmin Camper and it keeps us on the right track motorhome wise. On a holiday this year I was travelling from Dorset to Stafford and it seemed to favour an out of the way route, taking us near Birmingham. Google maps preferred a straighter route that took 20 miles off so we followed Google. Worst drive of my life, we did most of the journey on single track, sometimes farm track roads, dreading whenever someone came from the opposite direction. It took a half day instead of a couple of hours. I won't be using Google again with the motorhome. Yes I've read others who swear by Google but I challenge them to follow my route.
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I concur with your findings. Having experimented with Google Maps on my phone, but in the car first. I put in my destination as I would with the MH Truck Sat Nav, and the maps took me through narrow streets and roads, where you wouldn't want to take your MH. :whatthe:
Not for me either.

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 
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You need to decide which requirements are most important to you.
- Ease of use?
- Size?
- Verbal instructions?

The ability to enter vehicle weight and dimensions may give you false confidence, however:
This one in Ludlow catches many out (including my £1k SatNav) and is an indication of how poor the data is. Why was the SatNav data not updated, and an authority had to put up signage instead?
I think most SatNavs use the same data, which seems to be updated very rarely. This should probably not be a surprise, though, given that most people seem reluctant to pay for such a service...
 
Jack TGA said:
My Garmin Drive 50 Sat Nav always picks routes which include unnecessary sections down tiny lanes to the point where I don't want to use it. Can anyone suggest any settings or changes I can make to Garmin or a more motorhome friendly Sat Nav? Google maps consistently provides more motorhome friendly routes but I don't have the data to use it in Europe.
Click to expand...
I suppose if you regularly update the sat nav through a device , it might be better , but as we all know , the sat nav is better ignored at times , and common sense should take over 🌝

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two said:
View attachment 542440You need to decide which requirements are most important to you.
- Ease of use?
- Size?
- Verbal instructions?

The ability to enter vehicle weight and dimensions may give you false confidence, however:
This one in Ludlow catches many out (including my £1k SatNav) and is an indication of how poor the data is. Why was the SatNav data not updated, and an authority had to put up signage instead?
I think most SatNavs use the same data, which seems to be updated very rarely. This should probably not be a surprise, though, given that most people seem reluctant to pay for such a service...
Click to expand...
Nothing's perfect. You can find fault with everything, but the camper/ trucker specific satnavs will take you best route most of the time compared to Google maps which is updated more often but is not aimed at getting large vehicles from A to B. In all cases you have to use common sense (and you'll still get caught out sometimes). Try telling google maps you want a pedestrian route, it will adds time on but still tell you to walk down a motorway.

As an aside, my own house is wrongly located on all sat navs as the council planned to change the street names 40 years ago but then changed their mind but the sat navs all show the planned change so I live in the next street to my house.
 
Jack TGA said:
My Garmin Drive 50 Sat Nav always picks routes which include unnecessary sections down tiny lanes to the point where I don't want to use it. Can anyone suggest any settings or changes I can make to Garmin or a more motorhome friendly Sat Nav? Google maps consistently provides more motorhome friendly routes but I don't have the data to use it in Europe.
Click to expand...
We bought the Caravan & Motorhome Club one for Motorhomes, which has worked well so far.
 
Anyone tried RoadLords? That allows you to enter vehicle dimensions.

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