Sat Nav for Caravans

[bill_374352895]

Hi all, looking for advice.
I have just seen the Sat Nav Snooper S5450 Ventura Pro Caravan Club Edition advertised in March Caravan Club Magazine.
Does anyone out there have one and do they do what it says on the tin??
I was looking at Tom Tom UK and Western Europe at approx £150, and the Snooper is £349, is it really worth an extra £200??
Bill

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Bill,

I do not have a snooper, but have seen various varied reports from brilliant to poor. So I hope others will respond to your post about the abilities of the unit.

For my sins I use a Tom Tom based unit on a mobile phone, but I don't rely on it to plan new towing routes. I still prefer to use a road atlas and OS maps to plan the route, but then I transfer key way points onto the sat nav, so it can guide me with timely reminders of lane changes and turns.

I find sat navs really come into their own for solo driving in town and cities where one way systems can defeat newcomers but you still have to keep your wits about you.

Doing it this way, I have kept an older sat nav working without the need to purchase expensive updates, because the £5 road atlas covers any of the major road changes.

Although satnav mapping has improved and there are so called professional units designed for HGV's etc, they do not absolve to driver from using good road craft and sense. Despite the advances, you still hear or read of the odd case of where a driver has ignored the road conditions or sign-age and has ended up stuck in a narrow lane or the wrong way in a one way street etc.

How did we manage without them - I wonder

 

[TonyG]

Hi Bill
Check out this thread http://www.practicalcaravan.com/forum/equipment-accessories/snooper-sat-navs
Personally would not touch a Snooper with a barge pole, see my post in the above thread... Now if you had said that you were considering the Tom Tom truck, which is what i have, it is an excellent peice of kit. we have downloaded all the camping cheque, ASCI, CC club, CL sites and the C&CC on to the Tom Tom.. never let me down, unlike the snooper!!!!

 

[otherclive]

Bill
I use a Garmin that can be programmed using Mapsource maps on my pc. Then I just export the chosen route into the Garmin via the PC this way I am confident it will take me on the route that I want when towing the caravan. For solo trips the cars own satnav is used especially in towns but maps are always with me too.