Foe some years now I have had a TOM TOM 700 and in that time i have downloaded many camping sites all over europe and POI plus narrow roads& bridges.. This has been ok as we have just come back from motorhoming where it was a boon especially for the Aires.Now we have a Pegasus 462 2011 model I have been wondering about the new type sat nav where you input the size of your outfit.As I said before on our sat' whilst i input narrow roads etc you did not know until you got there which was ok for a m/h but could be ticklish with caravan attached.So , any one got the new type and how are you getting on with it?.
Sat nav query
- Thread starter Robert_374373903
- Start date
Rob,
Like you i have a Tom Tom, which over the years has been added to.
My question to you would be, why do you want to change your current unit for a new one costing a lot of money.
Your existing one can still be used in the same way by doing what i do, ignore the routes that have the low bridges, narrow roads etc.
That way you still get to your destination safely, with a unit you are familiar with, and loaded with exactly what you want, AND save yourself a small fortune.
Mat
Like you i have a Tom Tom, which over the years has been added to.
My question to you would be, why do you want to change your current unit for a new one costing a lot of money.
Your existing one can still be used in the same way by doing what i do, ignore the routes that have the low bridges, narrow roads etc.
That way you still get to your destination safely, with a unit you are familiar with, and loaded with exactly what you want, AND save yourself a small fortune.
Mat
Sat Navs should never be used as the sole source of driving information. I usually take with me a pair of eyes and brain which coupled with tell tale signage on the road side warns me of unsuitable roads ahead, so I can take evasive action.
Seriously though, what did we do before sat nav's? we used our brains and maps, and there were probably fewer incidents of large vehicles stuck up farm tracks than we have now. Personally, I plan longer journesy with a map book and only begin to use Sat Navs in unfamiliar territory such as city centres where they are great for keeping you updated with positioning information.
If I am going to an unfamiliar camp site, then I will pre-plan the approach to site and add it to my sat navs route plan. I also have a back up, My wife is good map reader anyway.
Seriously though, what did we do before sat nav's? we used our brains and maps, and there were probably fewer incidents of large vehicles stuck up farm tracks than we have now. Personally, I plan longer journesy with a map book and only begin to use Sat Navs in unfamiliar territory such as city centres where they are great for keeping you updated with positioning information.
If I am going to an unfamiliar camp site, then I will pre-plan the approach to site and add it to my sat navs route plan. I also have a back up, My wife is good map reader anyway.
Hi
We have the snooper ventura 6000... excellent peice of kit, you enter the lenght and width of your outfit and away you go. it has all CC and C&CC sites and loads and loads of POI's never taken us down a narrow track yet...£340 not cheap, but worth the money considering that i am one of thoose people who do not look at maps or google earth prior to travelling. if you are going to invest in technolgy at least trust it!!!
We have the snooper ventura 6000... excellent peice of kit, you enter the lenght and width of your outfit and away you go. it has all CC and C&CC sites and loads and loads of POI's never taken us down a narrow track yet...£340 not cheap, but worth the money considering that i am one of thoose people who do not look at maps or google earth prior to travelling. if you are going to invest in technolgy at least trust it!!!
I bought a Tom Tom XXL last year and I am totally dissappointed with it. It's difficult to plan a route in advance as you can only use where you are as a start point. It's liablle to send you down dirt tracks even though you ask for the fasrest route ond not the shortest. Its so slow to recalculate and the screen is usually about 10 yards behind your actual position (probably less but that what it feels like!!). It doesn't have enough memory to put the whole of europe on it and its not expandable.
ITS CR***P
I wish I had gone the extra mile and bought the Snooper but do your research regards memory and speed.
ITS CR***P
I wish I had gone the extra mile and bought the Snooper but do your research regards memory and speed.
Many years ago in mainland europe I use to use map and compass to get around and as said it worked. Then came the TOM TOM 700. She who sits asleep most of time until I say "look at that"does not have a clue where we are. So sat nav, greatest thing to have , no more looking at maps until nightime in unit planning new direction.Yes we have had laughs where its taken us but thats part of holiday.Its only UK when we book up sites and that could be be on the day when travelling. Last time to Rome we only booked the site outside Rome and that was because they do this trip around the place the rest was where ever we were at the time.
Its a good job you take your eyes and brain with you Prof, otherwise the sat nav would be of no use to you, not being able to see it,and of course not being able to understand what it was saying eitherProf John L said:
Wondering Prof, do you have any stats to back up your concerns of lorries getting stuck down unsuitable roads because of sat nav use? How many confirmed stories have you herd 10?20? 100? 500? in what the last decade! with 200,000 hgv vehicles on the road daily, its not even news worthy any more and certainly to use it as an example for not using a sat nav only, its rather a weak argument given the numbers involved.
Indeed I agree with using my head and eyes, but even when the road appear unsuitable, my Sat nav at the press of a button can re route, where as the non user has to found a safe place to park up usually interfering with traffic movement, get the map book out and replan! Sorry Prof Sat navs are far superior to map books and indeed safer, you can concentrate wholly on your driving for a start.
and as this is a repeat debate how many ordinance survey map books would you need to carry and look at to get the same map function a decent sat nav can give you.
robert. Garmin are just unvailing their new trucker sat nav, about £340,It should be good as it also has their Traffic info linked to it, plus other dynamic routing engines. Tom Tom and snooper also make them. The cheapest is Pro nav Around the £200 mark. They all work fine, we had problems with the Pro Nav version trying to get to an adress in chelsea which involved a 5 tonne weight bridge,and the other option was a pedestrian way, which actually does have vehicle acess. other than that it too works fine. Of couse we have no way of knowing if the other units would have fared better with these obstructions.
Hello Jonny,
My first paragragh should have had a smily face after it, for some reason it didnt make it to the post, but I think you spotted the intentional irony of it.
I have no stats for the numbers of misdirections, which is why I used the word 'probably'. I doubt anyone has the stats, but there were certainly several notable incidents of mainly continental drivers relying on sat nav instructions rather than using the road signs and the evidence of their own eyes.
Several villages reported massive increases in HGV traffic when SN's became more popular, and some local authorities were trying to get the digital road data companies to modify their data or mapping engines. So there is no doubt there were Sat Nav related problems.
I do agree with you that Sat Nav's can provide a prety comprehensive service these days, and they have evolved now offering better linking between vehicle size and suitable roads, but call me a ludite, anything that needs batteries can fail, where as good old paper maps seem to have a very long battery life.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti Sat Nav, I do use one, and as you say it does allow you consentrate more on the driving.
I also like the ability to warn of speed limits. The other facility which I have so for not needed to use, is the ability to give a map reference to the emergency or breakdown services.
All mapping systems have one major failing, and that is they are basically out of date almost as soon as they are updated.
My first paragragh should have had a smily face after it, for some reason it didnt make it to the post, but I think you spotted the intentional irony of it.
I have no stats for the numbers of misdirections, which is why I used the word 'probably'. I doubt anyone has the stats, but there were certainly several notable incidents of mainly continental drivers relying on sat nav instructions rather than using the road signs and the evidence of their own eyes.
Several villages reported massive increases in HGV traffic when SN's became more popular, and some local authorities were trying to get the digital road data companies to modify their data or mapping engines. So there is no doubt there were Sat Nav related problems.
I do agree with you that Sat Nav's can provide a prety comprehensive service these days, and they have evolved now offering better linking between vehicle size and suitable roads, but call me a ludite, anything that needs batteries can fail, where as good old paper maps seem to have a very long battery life.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti Sat Nav, I do use one, and as you say it does allow you consentrate more on the driving.
I also like the ability to warn of speed limits. The other facility which I have so for not needed to use, is the ability to give a map reference to the emergency or breakdown services.
All mapping systems have one major failing, and that is they are basically out of date almost as soon as they are updated.
This poor chaps sat nav took him the wrong way
I felt sorry for him with about 10 people videoing his predicament
I felt sorry for him with about 10 people videoing his predicament
You've posted that before,but this time i have looked at it in detail. and the width is not a problem at normal road height as you can see the problem is at plus 6 feet in height as the building overhangs the road. Clearly the sat nav is NOT at fault, he clearly has a standard sat nav that does not take into account height and width and he either ignored a sign that should tell him 6 foot 6 max width, or there was no sign saying so.
Sat nav is innocent................ PS he is also a crap driver more than enough room to get through........
Sat nav is innocent................ PS he is also a crap driver more than enough room to get through........
JonnyG said:
Yes, he did get through but not without damage to the top of both sides of his vehicle plus his nearside mirror although it had been retracted. If you study it closer you will see he is imbedded into the overhang by about 1 inch despite the strip of angle iron that was supposed to protect it and there was a nice score mark down the wall of the other building because he had to steer to the nearside or bury himself more into the overhang.
I'm not blaming sat navs or the driver but it was impossible to drive through without scraping both sides.
I have a garmin 1490T which you can programme from your PC using the supplied Mapsource software. That way I can decide which route I want to follow when having the van on the back. When solo it is used just as a normal satnav. The 1490T has junction view and will opimise your route if you have a number of stopping points. It will take in POI from Google but won't allow a Google Maps route to be loaded in. Now that smart phones have larger screens and satnav functions my next buy will probably be one witha Google operating system which loads Google maps. but on its own the 1490T is a good satnav.
All mapping systems have one major failing, and that is they are basically out of date almost as soon as they are updated.
And so are atlases and google street view. give me a decent sav nav anyday. i have far better things to do with my time than sit over a map planning a journey !!
And so are atlases and google street view. give me a decent sav nav anyday. i have far better things to do with my time than sit over a map planning a journey !!
Are there any other Tom Tom users out there?
As I mentioned on a previous post I have a XXL and it does have major issus with sending me on back roads. Just got back from france (solo no van) and it just persists in sending me down narrow almost unmade up roads when I specifically ask for the fastest route including tolls. Also if I use the route planning facility and change the route it still stores a previously entered point after I have deleted it and yesterday was directed to one and then told "turn around where possible". It nearly went under the wheel (my wheel) I was so fed up with it. If I had planned the route when at home I could have done the usual "google maps" check but I didn't have that facility.
It is frequently "replanning" the route after we have set off and thats when it appears to do these "short-cuts" instead of using the obvious route.
I really am losing confidence in it but at the same time find it hard to believe that Tom Tom would have released such a bad product.
Oh I wish I had kept my old Medion!!
As I mentioned on a previous post I have a XXL and it does have major issus with sending me on back roads. Just got back from france (solo no van) and it just persists in sending me down narrow almost unmade up roads when I specifically ask for the fastest route including tolls. Also if I use the route planning facility and change the route it still stores a previously entered point after I have deleted it and yesterday was directed to one and then told "turn around where possible". It nearly went under the wheel (my wheel) I was so fed up with it. If I had planned the route when at home I could have done the usual "google maps" check but I didn't have that facility.
It is frequently "replanning" the route after we have set off and thats when it appears to do these "short-cuts" instead of using the obvious route.
I really am losing confidence in it but at the same time find it hard to believe that Tom Tom would have released such a bad product.
Oh I wish I had kept my old Medion!!
Reg I have a Tom Tom XXL and don't have any problems with it as I can recall. Please don't ask what I'm doing different to you though. I've had it about 3 years now and before that I had a Garmin. Now that did take me to some off the beaten track places including a bridge to cross a river near Dolgellau which turned out to be a footbridge. Another time it sent me into a cul-de-sac because it couldn't see that where I wanted to go there was a major road bisecting the end of the cul-de-sac and the other side of the major road where I was trying to get to. There were many more instances but thankfully we didn't have the van on the back. That was one satnav I was glad to see the back of.
How about the time it says turn left on the motorway and you think I would not go that way but turn left anyway just in case it knows better then come to roundabout and it says straight on and low and behold your behind the lorry etc again who was in front of you.
Yes I do.
Last time I did an update it bricked it (locked it up) and I had to use a work-around to un-brick it.
Known fault!.........
..........................Not impressed!!
Last time I did an update it bricked it (locked it up) and I had to use a work-around to un-brick it.
Known fault!.........
..........................Not impressed!!
did you get technical advice from tom tom? Our first live 750 went wrong or maybe i didn't follow the update procedure properly,so TOM TOM send me some files to correct it.Reg said:
I purchased a Tom Tom 750 which takes an extra 4gb memory card which is more than ample for all of Europe, Africa, etc and every POI you can think of. One of the good points is that you can put in waypoints which will then plan the route that you want to take
Just in case anyone miss understands,the tom tom 750 has Europe already installed on its own internal hard drive,but yes you can expand its memory with a 4GB micro sd card .air siggy said:
We quickly learnt that "fastest route" has nothing to do with the type of road or track a satnav machine directs you along. Fastest route = fastest speed limit. When we first came to the UK we found that the satnav would direct us left in some villages and then to a right turn, another right turn then a left back on to the road we were travelling along. Reason being the village main road had a 30 limit through it and the road around it although very narrow had a higher limit. Scrolling out for a wider view of our location solved the problem.
We've got around pretty good just using a satnav.
We've got around pretty good just using a satnav.
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