Best Satnav for towing

Apr 30, 2012
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Hi all
Our 10 year old Tomtom satnav has given up the ghost so we are now looking for a new one, preferebly one that gives the option for caravan routes, could anyone recommend a model they have found useful but without spending vast amounts of money. Many thanks in advance
 
Dec 9, 2009
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Hi Bagpuss
We have a Snooper Venturapro S5000 which allows the user to input details of the caravan (L W H and wt).
It also has locations for ACSI, Bordatlas and Camperstop sites in Europe together with Caravan Club and Camping & Caravanning Club sites in the UK. Can recommend it
I see a presumably updated version is advertised on pages 4&5 of this months CC magazine - now named as a Snooper S5450 CC - costs £349 (so not cheap!) from www.capitalstores.co.uk/caravanclub
Mike
 
Mar 14, 2005
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I,ve recently bought a Snooper S6400 and so far it seems pretty good. I've mounted mine as close to my left hand as i reasonably can, as the touch screen needs quite a frim touch. The auto-scale feature is quite good in some ways, giving a large scale view of roundabouts etc. but it's a bit difficult to reduce the scale to see a larger area of the surrounding countryside.
You can download sample pages of the instruction book from the snooper website to give you a feel for the controls and features; the full instruction book comes on CD and I've opted to print off the UK part 9i.e. in English) - all 84 pages of it. It does take a bit of reading.

The kit comes with an unidentified 'thingy' with a USB connection lead on one end and two leads on bearing a fuse carrier on the other. This is for connecting the device permanently to the car 12v supply and is presumably a filter/surge supressor as the book warns you not to have the cigalr lighter plug-in power supply in place when starting the engine due to possible surge damage.
The voice commands are good but the quality is somewhat tinny (but I'm comparing it to the previous car with a built-in system playing through the car radio/music system.

it takes a little time to set up for a trip as you have to go through a start up and choice (car, car+caravan) stage each time.
The display does not seem to have automatic day/night illumination but perhaps it's there and I just haven't got that far into the book. Speed camera alrets are on a separate data base which has to be downloaded for a fee. The standard screen does, however, display the speed limit applying to the road you are currently on.
I have tested the choice of route to a known destination using car and then again using car+caravan and it showed two different routes - those I would have chosen from experience, so that's encouraging.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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I've got a Garmin 1490T which now retails around £120 although when I bought mine three years back it was a lot more. It can be programmed via the PC which I like as it gives me total control of a route when towing especially the last bit on the actual 'landing approach'! For solo I just let it take me on its own route. It takes POI from Google and ask the complete C&CC sites are on the Garmin website for free download. Last year when we went to Krakow I used the Garmin rather than the cars own satnav as its quicker to navigate and with quarterly updates carries the most up to date info. I still tend to do most of my driving without using the satnav as I always have up to date large scale map book in the car, and when abroad prints off of Google maps. But satnavs are useful in cities especially when solo.
 

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