Sat Nav with main roads preference?

[Dorwyn]

I've tried a few sat navs but am looking for a simple but fast one with main roads preference. I do not need one where you input height and width, and prefer a dedicated unit, such as a Tom Tom. Present one has shortest route, quickest, motorway, but resorts to silly small roads at random.

 

[Stealaway]

I love my tom-tom if just for the handy MoHo POI you can download - but it can be a pain.

You need to learn when its simply cutting a corner for the sake of 10 yards .
You are a brave man if you ever choose - 'Shortest'
I am pretty much have the measure of it now on 'Quickest' and never turn turn down any stupid lane especially without a central white line.

I don't think any of them will avoid lanes to cut a corner - the algorithm software is just too dumb.

 

[royandsharont]

Huge savings on Tom Tom at the moment in their sale. There is a setting on mine, I can’t remember off hand what it is called, and it deactivates the inteligent/smart thinking which can deviate you along the journey to what it thinks is a faster route. Tom Tom support helped me sort that out some years ago

Check HERE

 

[Dorwyn]

Huge savings on Tom Tom at the moment in their sale. There is a setting on mine, I can’t remember off hand what it is called, and it deactivates the inteligent/smart thinking which can deviate you along the journey to what it thinks is a faster route. Tom Tom support helped me sort that out some years ago

Check HERE

I've used TT for many years and am familiar with its foibles, and can live with them on the whole, but the logic of switching to minor roads only to return to the same main road is most annoying. You can delete a section it's true, but not easy without parking up. Someone mentioned the main roads option he had on his sat nav that sounded like it would overcome it. The conversation swerved and never returned. Since roads can be classified by their width, I understand, it doesn't seem impossible to do.

 

[GrahamnSue]

I used an early Tom Tom which used to take us up a dirt road because it was 50 yards shorter, but after getting into difficulties in Marseille that took over an hour to retrace our route I bought a Snooper Truck Satnav.
It was worth every penny!

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[Guigsy]

I'm currently using the Tom Tom app on my phone and displaying it on the dashboard screen over Android Auto. If you sign up for the beta, it does enable you to put in your dimensions, so it does dimension sensitive routing. I believe the routing and mapping should be pretty much identical to the dedicated Tom Tom Camper units.

I've used it for a few hundred miles so far. But its actually very rare that my vehicle size is an issue. It's only in places like North Norfolk and Cornwall that it makes a difference. And even then, the really narrow back country lanes are legally allowed to be driven by HGVs, so the satnav will still take you down those routes.

I'm sticking with it, but the voice guidance and traffic info isn't as good as Google Maps. I also miss the feature on Google that continuously shows you alternative routes on-the-fly with the additional time they take. So in situations where it's taking you off a main road and down a narrow lane to cut the corner off, on Google Maps you'd normally be able to see that continuing on will only cost you 1 minute extra and a lot less stress.

 

[Reallyretired]

Chinese cheapies allow an 'easy' route, which is what I usually use. Keeps road changes to a minimum.

 

[tacr2man]

No sat nav out there will be able to differentiate road widths as the information just isn't out there to use in the algorithms , the best they can do is use prohibition widths , eg "Max 6' 6" etc .

 

[Guigsy]

No sat nav out there will be able to differentiate road widths as the information just isn't out there to use in the algorithms , the best they can do is use prohibition widths , eg "Max 6' 6" etc .

That's true, there isn't good data on road widths (and even width/height/weight prohibition data is pretty ropey). Although some satnav manufacturers are starting to add some intelligence. They live track users when they drive down roads to assess how quickly the average driver manages along each road link and use that to adjust the expected speed. If it's a nadgery slow single track, it'll assume the journey time is slightly worse, so it's less likely to use that road in a fastest route calculation. However, most data is collected from users in cars, so it may not provide a representative speed for a wider motorhome.

 

[63720]

Use satnav for the first and last mile then road signs between towns will usually give you the best route.

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[WESTY66]

Even the ones with size inputs are sometimes soooo wrong!!!
We went to a Lidl in Ogulin (Croatia) and the Garmin camper 785 camper took us down a road that if there was an awkward pedestrian on it we couldn’t get past!! We had people in the gardens gawping at us (I can read their minds, it was like “what the feck you brought that down here for)?

 

[Guigsy]

Even the ones with size inputs are sometimes soooo wrong!!!
We went to a Lidl in Ogulin (Croatia) and the Garmin camper 785 camper took us down a road that if there was an awkward pedestrian on it we couldn’t get past!! We had people in the gardens gawping at us (I can read their minds, it was like “what the feck you brought that down here for)?

There's a village in Norfolk that's had a 6"6' restriction on it's dinky high street for at least a decade if you look back at the historic view on Google Streetview. Neither my (now abandoned) inbuilt Zenec satnav, Road Lords app or Sygic Truck app knew about it.

 

[Viennese]

Ours will take us miles out of our way to use motorways. It hates smaller roads. Recently wanted to take us west via Bristol instead of roads going due south which was crackers because there isn't a handy motorway to the south coast from Oxford.

 

[Dorwyn]

I had a. Motorhome special where you could input dimensions, if you disobeyed the instructions it would immediately ignore them and send you down the narrowest roads it could find. On a campsite.in Italy near Lake Garda it said no route possible to return the way we came. So I'm well aware of their.limitations!

 

[Ninjabob]

Whatever you do with TomTom and whichever model you have make sure you deactivate "TomTom Services - Online Routing". This service should be renamed "Magical Mystery Tour".

The Android Version of TomTom Go has a beta testers version that includes "truck routing" which when set pretty much mimicks my TomTom Camper routing.

My best advice for not getting sent down farm tracks etc. is to set you vehicle profile to that of an articulated lorry, then you will be sent down sensible roads.

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[DaveFromBarrow]

As an aside, when planning routes I usually ‘drive’ down them using Google street view. I look for bus stops etc and generally get a great feel for the road capacity. Takes minutes and gives you some reassurances.

d

 

[Dorwyn]

As an aside, when planning routes I usually ‘drive’ down them using Google street view. I look for bus stops etc and generally get a great feel for the road capacity. Takes minutes and gives you some reassurances.

d

We are presently 1000 km from home. That's 2k km return trip. Plus I do not want to plan, just drive and experience spontaneously. But thanks for the tip.

 

[DaveFromBarrow]

I was only suggesting you check out the tricky looking bits. That’s all I do.

d

 

[JockandRita]

Chinese cheapies allow an 'easy' route, which is what I usually use. Keeps road changes to a minimum.

Yep, and they also have an Alternative Routes button, which gives a choice of routes of different colours, so that you can opt for a different route.

I find that Easy and Fast are very much the same routes, with only the very occasional difference.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[bobnick]

That Sat Nav we bought that came recommended on here, the one you put your MH diamentions in to keep you off the roads that are too small for you, well, i am not sure that feature works as we have never been on a road too small yet

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[Old Gibber]

My van came with an 8 inch Xzent which has guided me faultlessly for 5,000 miles this year. It uses Tom Tom sat nav software which allows for width and height of the motorhome. The best setting for route preference is "Easy" which avoids small roads wherever possible,

 

[Dorwyn]

was only suggesting you check out the tricky looking bits. That’s all I do.

d

Sorry if that sounded a bit naff, didn't mean to be rude, was trying to make the point that we all use them in different ways.

 

[JockandRita]

That Sat Nav we bought that came recommended on here, the one you put your MH diamentions in to keep you off the roads that are too small for you, well, i am not sure that feature works as we have never been on a road too small yet

Or maybe it didn't come with the correct files for dimensions and weights, which many of the Chinese brands also lack..........until you update them out of the box.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[bobnick]

Or maybe it didn't come with the correct files for dimensions and weights, which many of the Chinese brands also lack..........until you update them out of the box.

Cheers,

Jock.

Jock, it works brilliantly. One of those Garmin things. Came highly recommended on here for larger MH use.
Works great as the comment was meant to indicate.

 

[JockandRita]

Works great as the comment was meant to indicate.

Which I got having just re read your post Bob...........

well, i am not sure that feature works as we have never been on a road too small yet

............but I've been to Specsavers since you posted, and now.

Glad to know that you are happy with your Garmin.

Cheers,

Jock.

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[minesapint]

I've tried a few sat navs but am looking for a simple but fast one with main roads preference. I do not need one where you input height and width, and prefer a dedicated unit, such as a Tom Tom. Present one has shortest route, quickest, motorway, but resorts to silly small roads at random.

CM Navigation, sell excellent units with a great service backup, and free map upgrades. I think he sells on facebook marketplace now.

 

[Guigsy]

Example of bad mapping:

This 2.2m width restriction is on TomTom, Sygic Truck and RoadLords. It's been there for a long time. But it's the wrong side of the roundabout on all 3. So it says it's not possible to get to the housing estate to the left with a 2.3m vehicle.

Width restriction mapping is so unreliable, that I'm not convinced that it's actually useful on any of the satnavs I've seen. And these 'dedicated' satnavs for campervans and trucks tend to be more out of date and have less recent features than standard car nav. So personally I prefer Google Maps or Waze most of the time.

 

[Old Gibber]

Example of bad mapping:


This 2.2m width restriction is on TomTom, Sygic Truck and RoadLords. It's been there for a long time. But it's the wrong side of the roundabout on all 3. So it says it's not possible to get to the housing estate to the left with a 2.3m vehicle.

Width restriction mapping is so unreliable, that I'm not convinced that it's actually useful on any of the satnavs I've seen. And these 'dedicated' satnavs for campervans and trucks tend to be more out of date and have less recent features than standard car nav. So personally I prefer Google Maps or Waze most of the time.

All mapping programs have their weaknesses. Google Maps won't let me turn left out of my cul-de-sac in a car, even when that route is quicker. My dedicated sat nav has pretty much all the features found on any recent sat nav.

 

[Guigsy]

All mapping programs have their weaknesses. Google Maps won't let me turn left out of my cul-de-sac in a car, even when that route is quicker. My dedicated sat nav has pretty much all the features found on any recent sat nav.

Birmingham city centre changes its road layout nearly every week. Google normally reflects the change in days and it's automatic. Open Street Map is pretty good (although that's crowdsourced, so is always updated quicker in populous areas). You're not going to get daily updates with a dedicated satnav that you have to manually update.

Google/Waze also has really good traffic info. It's reliable enough that when it says there's congestion ahead on a main road or motorway, you can let off the accelerator as you round the corner because you know it'll be there. From the few hundred miles I've done with TomTom, it's nowhere near that accurate.

Google also has alternative routes displayed on the map continuously. Imagine you're coming up to a junction and it's signposted towards your destination, but Google is saying to go the other way, on the map you can see the other route marked with a grey line and a marker that says how many minutes slower it is. It provides excellent confirmation. Or you're going along the main road and it says to pop down a side-street, but you can see that continuing on is only going to cost you a minute, so you stick on the main road. I've not seen any other satnav do this on the fly. It's incredibly useful.

The only thing that the dedicated satnavs have over Google Maps is awareness of road width/weight/height. But none of them even claim to stop you going down narrow lanes... because technically you are still allowed to go down them. So you'll still end up burying your mirrors in a hedge. It'll only stop you going through restrictions. But I've found so many errors in the satnavs I've tried that I actually think it's a little bit dangerous because you trust that it'll work and it doesn't. Also... restrictions are in reality pretty rare, so having a mediocre satnav just because it claims to know about restrictions isn't really worth it in my experience.

 

[Nigel P]

Example of bad mapping:
View attachment 632000

This 2.2m width restriction is on TomTom, Sygic Truck and RoadLords. It's been there for a long time. But it's the wrong side of the roundabout on all 3. So it says it's not possible to get to the housing estate to the left with a 2.3m vehicle.

Width restriction mapping is so unreliable, that I'm not convinced that it's actually useful on any of the satnavs I've seen. And these 'dedicated' satnavs for campervans and trucks tend to be more out of date and have less recent features than standard car nav. So personally I prefer Google Maps or Waze most of the time.

I used to work in Bicester and the particular restriction you show is designed to prevent all the goods vehicle traffic from Churchill Road using that route to head north, it forces them onto the southern ring road instead. The restriction is only a 50 yds section by the roundabout (with prior warnings) and the rest of Churchill Road is accessible from the southern end for all vehicles (huge trading estate there). No places are inaccessible completely otherwise nobody would have their bins emptied and the fire service would be compromised etc. I totally agree that many local authority signage is outdated and inaccurate and any satnav will have its limitations, at the end of the day they are meant to help a driver not replace them. There is a danger that blindly following a satnav may cause a driver to miss the road signs. Others have mentioned the same problems, especially in newer developments where new roads crop up on an almost weekly basis, local signs are likely to be more useful than even the most expensive satnav and they are free!

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