Sat Nav

[Ken_374454146]

Hi All

Just got back from our first week away in the caravan, it was great. Only issues that I have are:

1. What should my caravan tyre pressures be with the van lightly loaded, I have put 40 psi into them.

2. On the way home the sat nav directed me on a different route to the on that I went by. I took the decision not to follow it blindly when the roads started to get rather narrow. We had no problems like getting stuck but we wasted an hour trying to get back on to a decent road as the sat nav had it firmly fixed in its mind that we should follow ever narrower routes. Is there a decent sat nav out there that can avoid this without costing silly money? Does any one have any experience of this software ~ www.hgvsolutions.com/proCAB-landing.htm

Thanks

Ken

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hi Ken,

First of all, your caravan handbook should tell you the necessary tyre pressures. The difference between empty and fully loaded is not a large percentage of the total caravan weight. As you are unlikely to be towing very far when empty,I would stick at the pressures the manufactures recommend.

Secondly Sat Nav, In my view you should never set out on a journey simply relying on Sat Nav alone.

I recommend that you always check the overall route you want to take using conventional maps. Either enter key points into your sat nav as way points, or use a crib sheet, then let sat nav deal with the details in cities etc where you dont have time to look at maps.

There are some professional sat navs that can determine the difference between major and minor /narrow roads, but most commercial units still are not selective enough.

What did we do before sat nav's ?

 

[DeliDave]

We use a Navman N60 which we got from Caravan Club,it is preloaded with many sites including ones in France.It has been very reliable so far (touches wood frantically)

 

[Mark_374456290]

The snooper ventura is about the only one on the market at the mo that plots routes suitable to the length of your outfit,bit pricey tho bout

 

[MikeB_374236518]

Back to my beef again. Bearing in mind the stories of people finishing up in fields etc. I would have thought that you could not rely on a route created by a black box especially if towing. The route needs to be checked using a map and specific site directions, then comes the problem of putting in the correct route, I haven't been back to Halfords to see how easy this is. The other alternative is if you can download a route from Google.

 

[Chris_374460038]

Back to my beef again. Bearing in mind the stories of people finishing up in fields etc. I would have thought that you could not rely on a route created by a black box especially if towing. The route needs to be checked using a map and specific site directions, then comes the problem of putting in the correct route, I haven't been back to Halfords to see how easy this is. The other alternative is if you can download a route from Google.

My only advice is not to switch off your brain when you switch on the Sat Nav'

The are brilliant in doing what they say - finding the quickest way from A to B. If that means using narrow roads so be it.

If you are towing a caravan you should always have a good map handy especially at the beginning and towards the end of the route, thet way you can identify most of the possible problems.

It is also a good idea to phone ahead and ask the site operator if they suggest a better route than that which may be shown by the Sat Navs

 

[robin munro]

Hi,

With a TomTom you can view your route as 'text', cross reference this with a map, any part of the route which doesn't suit, narrow roads etc, can then be avoided by using the 'find alternative' button and then 'avoid part of route' button. A bit of practice and it is really quite easy.

Regards

Robin.

 

[otherclive]

The Snnoper is now down to around

 

[Reg]

Now thats one thing the sat nav is really good at.

It always knows where you are when you are totally lost!

 

[otherclive]

Sorry but my message was a bit confusing. We don't get lost even without a satnav. I have an incredible sense of direction and what with the Kia's compass and altimeter and my wife's inordinate skill in navigating by intuition and map we get along just fine. Although our routes can be somewhat circuitous!

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

I recently had my car broken into by some lowlife who stole my Tomtom 700.

I looked around at up to date sat nav and settled on the Snooper Ventura. I got it at the price mentioned,

 

[laura_374424136]

The Snnoper is now down to around

 

[Tram]

hi pleaese could tell me which web link he found the snooper ventura sat nav for

 

[Tram]

So where did you source it for

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

I was searching the net and found it a couple of months ago. When I get a chance I'll look up the info.

 

[ChrisUK]

Now thats one thing the sat nav is really good at.

It always knows where you are when you are totally lost!

I really like this comment.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I was in Maplins (Cannock)and they had a ProNavsat van that claimed to take into account the size of the vehicle on the bottom self of the display cabinet by the door.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=224464
Catalogue price

 

[Tram]

It sounds ok John L except that it is UK only. But that would do me.

Anyone bought one and what do you think of it?

 

[Steve L]

Hi Ken.

John's advice on sat navs is very good. Especially the point about not relying on a sat nav as your only source of navigation. A 4 inch to the mile map for as little as a quid from poundland is very usefull to check that tom,garmin or navman haven't lost the plot.

I have a tomtom and a garmin i3. I've set both of these to truck in the vehicle menu. This guides the computer into avoiding secondary routes and to use main roads. But yet again that is only as good as the info put in. Sat navs have no regard for country lanes and if you have the "shortest route" option selected, it will still try to guide you down a single track road, as the road has a national speed limit (60 mph)the sat nav will assume that you can meet that requirement, regardless of the prevailing conditions.

This is precisely the reason why I have a map in the car as well.

I'm a very savy person as far as driving throughout the uk is concerned and can get within 10 miles of most places without a map, but that doesn't mean that I don't do my homework before I start the engine. I quite often find it amusing to see what routes are thrown up by tha AA, multimap and satnav's, as they can send you either down the single track road or miles out of your way on neumerous occassions.

As an example, the route from Rhyader to Aberystwith. A sat nav will send you via the main road via Llangurig. But my local knowledge is that the route using the Elan valley mountain road to devils bridge is 18 miles shorter and half an hour quicker. Which came in handy when I was working close to Aber for 5 weeks and comuting each day in the firms van from Leominster.

The lads could not understand why we used the mountain road in the morning but the main road home at night. But after I explained that in november time, if we broke down on the mountain road on the way home there would be little chance of passing traffic and the prospect of a ten mile hike to get to a house for help. Also the temperature would be well below zero.

They then got my point and even counted the cars we met each morning and joked that anything over 5 was a rush hour jam.

So the point of the tail is to, do your homework and think safely at all times as this mindset will save you a lot of bother.

Regards.

Steve L.

 

[lukebfox]

Hi i was just wondering if anybody has found that link for the snooper at 270 thanks luke