sat-nav

[amanda_374392949]

At the moment i am using a garmin street pilot c320 and i find that it sends you down narrow country lanes. as we have just bought a caravan i am a bit worried that it might send us down a narrow lane and we will get stuck. i was just wondering if there was a certain type of sat nav that is specialy made for caravans/motorhomes or other big vehicles. or what people use and think are the best.

Thanks

Amanda

 

[mikecandsarahb]

there are sat navs for this, a they now do them designed for hgv, which include weight, width and height restrictions, but i dont know what there called,

im sure some of the expensive sat navs have an opition for height to, i just use my navi 200 basic and check the route first before i follow it, as sat navs have taken me down little roads before not fun in a 44 tonne artic.

mike

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Amanda

Too many people rely blindly on Sat Navs these days. It is always wise to plan your main journey using conventional maps, and effectively use the Sat Nav as a prompt for those fiddly bits at then end or through cities where there are a lot of junctions and lane changes.

Before Sat Navs there were very few instances of large vehicles getting stuck in unsuitable roads, why not?, because there are road signs that warn of low bridges and narrow roads, and any sensible driver would recognise when they are leaving the main wide routes, and entering narrower roads with potential hazards.

The driver is ultimately responsible for their vehicle, and they must obey the road signs and other real life prompts over and above instructions from a Sat Nav.

There are some Sat Navs that claim to offer better route planning suitable for large vehicles.They have been mentioned in other threads on this forum. Try using the search facility.

 

[g_374369443]

hi Amanda.

there are a couple of sat navs that do this sort of thing, syrus to name one brand, but even they are no way near perfect,nor do they give 100% coverage as yet.

Caravan pk tend to be out in the sticks so as john says,its best to pre plan your route with a map.

Gamin have just updated there map 2009,the update cost

 

[TD42]

maplins do one for HGV use www.maplin.co.uk

ProNav - Sat Nav for HGVs and LCVs

only

 

[mcghee]

i think the best plan is to follow john's advice.

i always say sat navs are like calculators; unless you already have a pretty good idea of the answer it can tell you anything.

 

[jo_374385568]

i think the best plan is to follow john's advice.

i always say sat navs are like calculators; unless you already have a pretty good idea of the answer it can tell you anything.

Amanda most sites do send directions with confirmation and advise what problems can occur with using sat nav only I have a sat nav my husband got me it for visiting his parents as they live in an area we don't really know but I also use a conventional map and common sense

 

[Icemaker]

as has been said its far better to use a map and a good set of eyes rather than rely on your sat nav, they are good tools as a guide but to rely on them is rather short sighted.

being a bit of a techy i had one of the very first tom tom available and ive upgraded as they got better but after some pretty spectacular **** ups on hehalf of the sat nav like sending me down roads that are only green lanes or now closed i no longer use one at all. my tom tom is boxed up and in the loft and my map is in the back of the car, however my nokia n95 mobile phone has a pretty good inbuilt sat nav if ever i need to double check so i supose i do sometimes revert to the old fashioned way!.

 

[Reg]

I personally wouldn't go without my satnav. I use a Medion Go-Pal but I think there are probably better.

I plan the route very thoroughly before hand using Google maps and Microsoft virtual earth. I generally have all my night stops preplanned as I don't like having to search around for sights after doing a couple of hundred miles. Using Virtual Earth I can also work out where (if possible) I want to park on the site. I hate shady sights.

I cannot tolerate a voice giving me instructions so I have the voice turned off.

One of the good points about the Medion is that I can choose motorways, peage or no peage, and the fast route option only uses main roads. It means that I only need to look at the last few miles from trunk road to campsites to ensure that I don't get stuck.

And probably the best feature about all sat navs is you are never lost as happened to us frequently when we used the dead tree instruction guides i.e. maps.

'Er Indoors doesn't like map reading.

Satnavs...... I luv em!

 

[Zafiral]

What I do is use the Sat nav, and if it tries to send me down a small road or one with restrictions, just carry on, eventually it will reroute, hopefully onto a bigger road!!

 

[ShadySadie]

Snooper new Satnavs look good, they have Navteq routing and avoid narrow road etc for trucks!

We saw them at the NEC yesterday.

 

[Legsmaniac_374344731]

I've never had a problem with my SatNavs sending me down narrow country lanes. Not if you set it to Fastest Route in which case it always tries to use the main roads and motorways. If you set it to Shortest Route then yes, it WILL try to take you across country.

I currently use TomTom 7 and wouldn't be without my SatNav either. I've also installed Caravan Club POI's

 

[Guest]

Legs. Fastest route relates to the road speed, we've found times when quite narrow country roads have 60mph limit but the "main road" route carries a 40 or 50 mph.

If you don't keep an eye on the route you can find yourself in trouble.

We bought orselves and Sadie the Snooper with the HGV software yesterday, I had a brief trial this morning and hope to report later in the year on caravanning with it.

 

[Legsmaniac_374344731]

Yes Euro, I do realise the Fastest Route relates to the journey time but it invariably does pick out the faster main roads. At least, it always has on the trips we've done.

That said, it's still a good idea to check either paper maps or PC Maps such as AA RoutePlanner or AutoRoute AND use common sense and keep your eyes peeled at all times. ;-)

 

[Legsmaniac_374344731]

OH - PS

Wil be interested to hear how you get on with the Snooper. I've been looing at getting a new purpose built SatNav later in the year but can't make my mind up which one to go for. Have mainly been looking at TomTom and Garmin at the moment.

I say "purpose built" because I'm using a PDA at the moment. The beauty of the PDA is that I can install almost any mapping software I want. The downside is - if I let the PDA go flat, it loses it's memory so I have to reinstall the software.