Hello Chrissy,
Is Sat Nav it worth having?
Well I have four answers:
No for towing, as it is better to plan the route using good maps to avoid difficulties, and as I usually have my wife with me when towing, she is a capable map reader. I will usually have the Sat Nav on but only showing where I am, so if there is any doubt we can quickly check our position again.
Yes For long distance solo driving. It is unlikely that any of the roads it sends me down will be unsuitable for a car! But I have eyes, and if a road sign or other tell tale signs says its unsuitable, I stop and turn round.
Definitely Yes in unfamiliar towns & cities, The directions are usually very helpful in getting into the correct lane before the next turn, and finding car parks and other points of interest.
Yes for keeping track of your real speed and notifying you of Speed (sorry safety) cameras.
It is very much an aid rather than a complete substitute for good driving skills and maps.
Is Sat Nav it worth having?
Well I have four answers:
No for towing, as it is better to plan the route using good maps to avoid difficulties, and as I usually have my wife with me when towing, she is a capable map reader. I will usually have the Sat Nav on but only showing where I am, so if there is any doubt we can quickly check our position again.
Yes For long distance solo driving. It is unlikely that any of the roads it sends me down will be unsuitable for a car! But I have eyes, and if a road sign or other tell tale signs says its unsuitable, I stop and turn round.
Definitely Yes in unfamiliar towns & cities, The directions are usually very helpful in getting into the correct lane before the next turn, and finding car parks and other points of interest.
Yes for keeping track of your real speed and notifying you of Speed (sorry safety) cameras.
It is very much an aid rather than a complete substitute for good driving skills and maps.
RogerP, no Garmin mapping(NAVTEQ) or software offers routing suitable for lorries to avoid narrow roads etc. It's as above.
I'm happy to be proven wrong but I think Legsmaniachas been lucky judging by comments on other forums and help sites for TomTom and navigon. It's much the same as Garmin and NAVTEQ but they are all planning new update for trucks and carvaans.
The summary by JohnL I find very poor for others. It's geared to him and his interpretation of what is good.
As a Lady Driver that has towed a lot of solo miles since Satnavs came within reach of regular motorists I would never leave home without satnav running when the caravan is hitched.
The emphasis should be on planning route before you start a journey and using that information re narrow roads with your satnav.
I set Satnav in a way that I avoid problem spots. And with Satnav guidance running it gives me good warning of upcoming junctions, can be a good saftey aid when passing trucks that obscure your veiw of road signs. I also have TMC traffic management guidance and on major routes if there is a hold up on my route ahead I get warned in good time and have chance to re route. TMC is not a lot of good without routing working.
Satnav is only a driving aid, but with a little thought and planning it is a must have aid to help with trouble free towing and can aid safety and road awareness.
Some people are good at navigation and others are not and some just want to sit and watch the country side go by and then get flustered when the realise they have drifted off with there thoughts instead of keeping an eye on a map and the rurns they are passing. Satanav never sleeps when switched on, and it tells me the road I am on and the name of the one I'm turning into when a person would still be turning the map book ;-)
I'm happy to be proven wrong but I think Legsmaniachas been lucky judging by comments on other forums and help sites for TomTom and navigon. It's much the same as Garmin and NAVTEQ but they are all planning new update for trucks and carvaans.
The summary by JohnL I find very poor for others. It's geared to him and his interpretation of what is good.
As a Lady Driver that has towed a lot of solo miles since Satnavs came within reach of regular motorists I would never leave home without satnav running when the caravan is hitched.
The emphasis should be on planning route before you start a journey and using that information re narrow roads with your satnav.
I set Satnav in a way that I avoid problem spots. And with Satnav guidance running it gives me good warning of upcoming junctions, can be a good saftey aid when passing trucks that obscure your veiw of road signs. I also have TMC traffic management guidance and on major routes if there is a hold up on my route ahead I get warned in good time and have chance to re route. TMC is not a lot of good without routing working.
Satnav is only a driving aid, but with a little thought and planning it is a must have aid to help with trouble free towing and can aid safety and road awareness.
Some people are good at navigation and others are not and some just want to sit and watch the country side go by and then get flustered when the realise they have drifted off with there thoughts instead of keeping an eye on a map and the rurns they are passing. Satanav never sleeps when switched on, and it tells me the road I am on and the name of the one I'm turning into when a person would still be turning the map book ;-)
Hello Shady,
I make no apologies for my posting, I believe I attempted to answer Chris' top line question, and to give reasons for my answers, and yes it is is based on my own experience.
I am surprised that you found it 'poor' as having read your own posting it seems we agree to a very large extent on the pros and cons of Sat Navs.
The fundamental issue of sat navs and towing,like you I plan my route before the journey, the difference is that you then plot YOUR route into the sat nav, where as my wife likes to map read and is capable of doing so.
If I was towing solo then I would probably programme the sat nav with my route, but with my model that is actually quite tedious. I also do not have TMC, so I can't take advantage of that facility.
Thanks you everybody for your opinions - they have given me good advice. I personally found John L's points informative and if they are his findings, surely that is what we all do by just speaking of our personal experiences.
Sorry John but you said as an answer to "is Satnav worth having"
No not for towing.
As fine a map reader as you wife may be you then said that you have Satnav on "but only showing where I am" Sorry but I thought your wife knew ;-)
I see very many caravanners and motorhomers using Satnav and I can't think of any caravanner I know that does not use it when towing.
The main problem is unsuitable roads for caravan outfits, that's the same for most lorries and many large vans and other outfits and many of them use Satnav and manage to overcome and work around the drawbacks and find Satnav a must have usefull tool.
Sorry but to say "No for towing" seems poor advice and against what many do as I assume like me they find it has good reason to be in front of the caravan outfits driver.
No not for towing.
As fine a map reader as you wife may be you then said that you have Satnav on "but only showing where I am" Sorry but I thought your wife knew ;-)
I see very many caravanners and motorhomers using Satnav and I can't think of any caravanner I know that does not use it when towing.
The main problem is unsuitable roads for caravan outfits, that's the same for most lorries and many large vans and other outfits and many of them use Satnav and manage to overcome and work around the drawbacks and find Satnav a must have usefull tool.
Sorry but to say "No for towing" seems poor advice and against what many do as I assume like me they find it has good reason to be in front of the caravan outfits driver.
Hi Sadie,
Thank you for your explanation of your point of view and personal experience. As I wrote in my comment, we seem to be extolling the same point, that we do not trust the auto-route finding capabilities of our respective models of Sat Nav to accommodate caravan towing, and to circumvent that short-coming we both adopt a method that uses traditional map reading skills to plan our route rather than relying on the Sat Nav software to do it for us ;-)
Long live Ordnance Survey, well at least until Sat Nav can understand narrow lanes and steep hills.
Thank you for your explanation of your point of view and personal experience. As I wrote in my comment, we seem to be extolling the same point, that we do not trust the auto-route finding capabilities of our respective models of Sat Nav to accommodate caravan towing, and to circumvent that short-coming we both adopt a method that uses traditional map reading skills to plan our route rather than relying on the Sat Nav software to do it for us ;-)
Long live Ordnance Survey, well at least until Sat Nav can understand narrow lanes and steep hills.
John. Last year on UK trips I only had one mid journey point that Satnav needed assistance with and at other times it was only with the last few final approach miles that I set routes to avoid narrow lanes. In Ireland and in France and Italy I had no problems.
During my two continental trips this year with the caravan the Satnav needed no assistance.
I've no idea of what your outfit combination is, but in all our years of caravanning we've only ever used Ordnance Survey maps for walking. And a normal map book always did the job fine before Satanav came along and that I think would be the same for many others.
I find that the satnav routes often mirror ViaM or other onliine route finders and it easy to check out any problem points and if in doubt Google earth can confirm a problem point.
A lot of the time I tow solo and have no partner with me to navigate. I could not afford to use Satanv if it was a constant problem, If I get in to the wrong place I would be lost with no one to help me reverse or un-hitch if needed.
During my two continental trips this year with the caravan the Satnav needed no assistance.
I've no idea of what your outfit combination is, but in all our years of caravanning we've only ever used Ordnance Survey maps for walking. And a normal map book always did the job fine before Satanav came along and that I think would be the same for many others.
I find that the satnav routes often mirror ViaM or other onliine route finders and it easy to check out any problem points and if in doubt Google earth can confirm a problem point.
A lot of the time I tow solo and have no partner with me to navigate. I could not afford to use Satanv if it was a constant problem, If I get in to the wrong place I would be lost with no one to help me reverse or un-hitch if needed.
Well if a driver alone can use Satnave with no trouble...................
Thanks JohnL you old sweetie. It's a pleasure ;0)
Thanks JohnL you old sweetie. It's a pleasure ;0)
hi rob
my sony satnav is the nav-u nv-u82 it has a 4.8 inch screen which at the time i got it was the biggest screen around
the only problem with it is you cant download different voices yet and because im a hgv driver you cant download bridge heights which would be very usefull to me but when i bought it i got a free download for speed cameras
ive had it since christmas and have had no problems at all with it and with the big screen its very easy to use and see
hope this helps
hgv dave
my sony satnav is the nav-u nv-u82 it has a 4.8 inch screen which at the time i got it was the biggest screen around
the only problem with it is you cant download different voices yet and because im a hgv driver you cant download bridge heights which would be very usefull to me but when i bought it i got a free download for speed cameras
ive had it since christmas and have had no problems at all with it and with the big screen its very easy to use and see
hope this helps
hgv dave
We have a Mio C210,... when we first saw it we were very unsure, we had never heard of it, but after reading report about it for a few days we couldnt find anyone who said a bad word about it.
So we purchased one a couple of years ago, and it have never let us down once
As far as towing is concerned we have it set for `Lorry`, and `cheapest route`,..[it could be set for either car taxi, bus, or lorry, and `fastest` and shortest routes]
Stuart
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