Caravan friendly sat nav.

[Andrewbutcher]

Hi all, we used to have a Tom tom one sat nav, but decided to get rid after a trip to Norfolk, when it wanted to take us down sone extremely narrow roads, rather than stay on the main road.

My question is, are there any 'caravan friendly' sat navs out there, or which unit would you recommend?

thank you for any replies, Andrew.

 

[ShadySadie]

It's a machine, you just have to use it correctly. You still have to put in some effort yourself with satnav.

As far as I know there are no caravan specific satnavs, but you can get route programable satnavs and you can check the route you have chosen on the satnave or on pc or laptop.

You may not have had the TomTom set correctly for your route needs, throwing it away is rather silly.

Even if you get a programable satanav you will still have to sort out narrow roads and suitable route for the caravan yourself.

We use ViaM or Multimap to check out suitable routes before setting the satnav.

 

[Froggy1]

Andrew

Had the same experience myself with the TomTom.

If you look on TomTom home, you can download additional Points Of Interest (POI), some of which are narrow roads/bridges etc, unsafe to enter streets, speed bump road areas etc. Not exactly the 'caravan friendly' cure all, but as Sadie says, with a map and some effort on your part, you will find it much easier...............as I have found out recently!

Good luck

John

 

[John_374354584]

On Tom Tom 1 xl after you have set route you can ask for alt4ernatives.

 

[Roy_374355334]

Hello

I use a sat nav for my job and you must have the navigation set to the fastest route and you should be kept on the main roads if it is set on the shortest route then you could end going over fields and dirt tracks.

 

[darren_5041788]

Hi i work for a haulage contractor and we use a syirus snopper as you can programe them for weight, width and height. we have been using them for about 3 months now and are brill. they are around

 

[steve_374234388]

Try this link. http://www.snooper-radar-detectors.co.uk/s1.htm

Cheers.

 

[RogerP]

Not sure this is of any help but I started to use the TOMTOM PDA version (v3 I think) a few years back and liked it a lot.

That allowed me to go to the map and select the actual place I want to go to and then add in way points along the route.

This obviously needed a certain amount of user input and knowledge but generally worked well for me. Especially if I wanted to go via a prefered route and , in a lot of cases the destinations postcode was not where the actual place was.

The only reason I stopped using it was that the PDA cradle failed and I wanted full post code search (my verison was partial). To buy a new cradle and upgrade was actually more expensive than buying a brand new stand alone unit.

I should have saved my money (or rather paid the extra) I went for a Navman unit and , to be honest , have stopped using it for the reasons above. Its totally not user dynamic.

I've recently got a new PDA / Smartphone and will be loading the old TOMTOM software onto it and then upgrade it later. The cradel for my new unit is a few quid rather than

 

[Andrewbutcher]

It's a machine, you just have to use it correctly. You still have to put in some effort yourself with satnav.

As far as I know there are no caravan specific satnavs, but you can get route programable satnavs and you can check the route you have chosen on the satnave or on pc or laptop.

You may not have had the TomTom set correctly for your route needs, throwing it away is rather silly.

Even if you get a programable satanav you will still have to sort out narrow roads and suitable route for the caravan yourself.

We use ViaM or Multimap to check out suitable routes before setting the satnav.

Dear shady, thanks so much for your acidic reply! I am not a fool, and always, always use the site directions for final approach!

I didn't mention throwing the Tom tom away, i sold it! due to finding it not too 'caravan friendly'

Happy caravanning!!!

Kind regards, Andrew.

 

[will2]

We use the RAC sat nav system it has a setting for lorries.

But this still tries to take you down those small single track lanes.

Will

 

[ShadySadie]

Settings for lorry's just alter the average speed setting for arrivals.

For those throwing away Satnavs you can use Mapsource and EasyGPS pc programs to ease route planning, there are other like programs for TomTom and other Satnav brands I believe.

 

[swpostie]

As Darren mentioned, the Snooper Syrius Truckmate will calculate route according to weight, length, height and width of unit.

I may get one when my Tomtom packs up.

http://www.thesatnavwarehouse.com/productdb/snooper_s2000_with_truckmate/index.html?gclid=CLTduJ7tgZMCFQpaMAodIAfHAw

 

[Jessica_374358715]

We use a Garmin Nuvi and set it to the lorry setting but we always check with our destination if there is a specific route we need to fallow to get in at the end because they have the local knowledge.

 

[darren_5041788]

Hi spoke to my boss today and he bought his from his volvo truck dealership. these included lifetime updates of speed cameras and uk mapping inc bridges, speed, weight. he just plugs it into the usb where it auto update.

cheers

darren

 

[Brian_374234561]

Hi all, I can inform you that the AA (who I work for) are about to launch a new Route Planner web service for caravanner's that will allow you to get a caravan friendly route which avoids height, weight and width restrictions as well as advising on steep roads. I'll keep you posted on timescales etc as I get the information. Cheers, Brian

 

[cokey1970]

Although obviously not a satnav, the ViaMichelin online route planner has an option for caravans. I've used it and the routes it comes up with are very good.

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm

 

[cokey1970]

I forgot to add that the planned route can be exported a file to a ViaMichelin satnav device.

 

[ShadySadie]

Do check out Via Michelin Satnav has there has been talk of them being dicontinued.

Note.

This product may be of use to some people, Paper GPS is available from

http://www.perpetualkid.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2668
ps for Andrew.

I use satnav for personal use and work and provide some of my staff vehicles with satnavs. I also tow our caravan solo and with non map readers. Having used satnav for quite some time I would not be without it now and especially when using the caravan solo.

We also have an old retired friend who travels solo in a quite large motor home. He uses a very basic I3 Garmin to get around europe and manages to overcome the problems you hi-lighted as well.

As Many caravanners and motorhomers cope quite well with satnavs it would be a shame for your post to deter others from trying it out despite the drawbacks.

But I agree that caravan and lorry routing should idealy be a feature on any Satnav routing.

 

[john_374359031]

Hi Andrew.

I can see where you are coming from,and as Darren as already stated there are indeed a few systems out there that can actually do what you want.

They are intended for lorry use,but really fit the bill to be used for caravanning or whatever.

At the moment they are a little expensive at around

 

[Mike_374341361]

Your best bet, is to check your route on a good old mark 1 road atlas first. The AA style ones are usually good.

Once you have established suitable roads, you can programme way points into your sat nav.

After a while you instinctively know whether to follow a sat nav or not, but if you also have a road atlas at hand, this is an enormous help.

Sat navs are great at negotiating major routes, but if you have a broad idea of the last 5 miles or so, of your journey, even making some rough notes, can help a lot

Most advertised sites leave you with some basic directions at the end of the route . Take a look at this site http://maps.live.com/, this is useful for planning