Who has been the most....Lost? ? ?

[Dollytrolley]

Ok I have been fiddling around with various GPS do--dads and Apps and it could be a adventure IF I depended on these things too much.

 

Obviously some folks on the forum have some comments regarding adventures with Copilot software and I have to wonder IF those folks were just making fun of me when I was a a$$pering to be a Copilot in my early bird-boy days.....

 

GPS has some good points and some "other" points.....not sure it has made some of us any better navigators.....

 

Have you been lost lately?

 

If..... a few folks come "clean" about "navigation adventures"  I  Might share a couple of ......my trips that were longer than the map route seemed to show.......

 

Drive on.........(shucks the map just.... flew out the window)

[rickeieio]

Personally, I use a GPS to show me where to position myself for the next highway interchange. For major navigation, I use a paper map.  I've been hosed by a GPS too many times to trust them.

As long as you have fuel, you're not lost.

[Big5er]

Where do you mount GPS do-dads on Dolly? And how do you do it? Velcro?

[beyerjf]

OK, I will bite. I have been using GPS since they first came out, the first was a Lowrance, which cost $500, purchased because it was the OEM choice of Paccar in around 2000. 

Although they make excellent Marine and Aviation stuff, they got out of the "consumer" GPS area almost immediately, realizing they couldn't charge near enough money to support the unit. Soooo, I switch to a Garmin Dezl 510.  

Maybe my 2nd trip with the unit, not knowing it's weaknesses. Trip from St Louis, MO to Lubbock TX with a 53' van filled with "haz mat", in this case pressurized helium containers designed to fill balloons at Walmarts. Logically you would take I-44, then I-40 to Amarillo and go south on I-27 to the target. 

Just after entering Texas on I-40, near Shamrock, the machine tells me to take the next exit and make a left. Seems I would save  75 miles or so by doing so. Gee, Texas is wide open, decent farm to market routes in addition to lots of state and Federal routes, what could go wrong. 

I make the left, go down about 1/2 mile, the road turns to dirt and skinny, real skinny immediately. I should have stopped at that point and backed up the 1/2 mile to the interstate. But noooo, I continue looking for a wide spot, intersection, whatever. No where to turn around, the road degrades into gullies, up and down small hills, almost impassable, and would have been if it had rained recently. No houses, farms, even the jack rabbits had moved out of town. About 30 miles of this, I finally come out on a paved Farm to Market road. 

Failure analysis, after I got to the next town. The factory default settings said "Roads Allowed" and first on the list was the word "dirt", with a check mark beside it. I unchecked it. For the past 3-4 years or so I run a Rand McNally truck version, and a Garmin Dezl simultaneously, maybe paranoia has taken it's toll from these things.  

 

 

 

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Right now, I depend on a mix of CoPilot, Google maps, and an older Garmin.  Plus the right seat navigator that says  "TURN HERE NOW"....

Back before civilian GPS, I have gotten misplaced enough that I broke out a sextant and shot the sun for a location.  Only missed Bermuda by 100 miles or so to the north..... (That trip the "Offical" navigator didn't take into account the gulf stream that flows north at 3-5 knots)  Loran-C could only pick up 1 signal and you really can't triangulate on 1 beacon.

[somewhereinusa]

I too had a Lowrance as my first, I loved that one, I could put in all of my stops from one end of the country and back and tell at a glance how far from "here" to any of the stops.  Unfortunately that one died and by then I couldn't get another. There were no "truck" units back then.  You had to be careful what you told it to avoid.  I once had it programmed to "avoid tolls" , you can go from NC to CN with no tolls but the route takes you around the Great Lakes and into Canada. That makes a 500 mile trip over 2000. It also did this one day I think in KS.

After that I had a Garmin that worked pretty good but one died and another got stolen then Garmin quit making that model. When I retired from trucking  I was using two different "truck" models at the same time just to get a general idea of what was going on. The Rand McNally was the absolute worst. Longer routing, constantly trying to get me off of truck routes sometimes on to dirt "farm" roads that I could see the gate across.

I am now using a Garmin 760 the RV version and it is acceptable but I don't have it set to " RV" It keeps giving me the message about not having the information about RV.

I used "car" GPS units in the semi for years, as with anything you can't just blindly accept that it knows where to go. I did custom hauling of autos and we did "door to door" which meant I would go into neighborhoods. Very few people can actually tell you how to get to their house in a large vehicle, that includes receptionists at car dealerships. The bigger the city, the less likely.  "Big trucks do it all the time" is a sure way to get into trouble. You do not want to be on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn in a 70ft Semi.

 

Prior to GPS I would spend the evening before printing detailed maps of how I was going to get in out of a city delivery. But even now you still have to read a map.
 

[Pat & Pete]

2 hours ago, rickeieio said:

 

As long as you have fuel, you're not lost.

That^ .

I've never used a GPS .

I've missed turns because they were un- or mis-marked by as much as a couple miles . That's as close to lost as I can claim .

[hone eagle]

Never forgot a quote I read in a SR 71 pilot memoirs "you 've never been lost until your lost at 1700 mph"

[LindaH]

Although the RV in my signature came with a GPS unit, we've never used it (we've never used our hand-held GPS unit, either, other than to get coordinates of our location for various purposes).  We're map people, mostly using the Benchmark state atlases for the Western states in which we travel.

[Imurphy907]

I use the LMT780RV and trusty old google maps. I look at both maps and routes and see if they are the same. If not I look them over and decide what one I like best.

[Heavymetal]

I will admit it. We were headed to the Tampa RV show in Jan 17 and wanted to stop at the SAMs club before we arrived. I had the Goggle maps app open instead of my gps. Goggle maps is like 99% of paper maps north is always up, and my gps up is the direction of travel. I was headed south so every turn I made trying to find SAMs was 180 degrees WRONG. I thought I was going insane for about ten minutes until I stopped and blocked all traffic from going in or out of a Walgreens and figured out the SAMs club had not disappeared I was just on the wrong side of I 75. 

[Hot Rod]

I can honestly say I have never been lost.  Mind you I define that by not knowing where I am.  I always know where I am.  Now, not being able to find where it was that I wanted to be is another story...

I have had several gps units over the years, but have never used one to go any distance.  The nice laminated spiral bound trucker map book from truck stop tells me just fine that I take I-75 all the way from Ohio to FL, hang a left on I-10 and a right on I-95 and I'm in Daytona lickety split.  I generally only use the thing to find "things" like the next Flying J or Taco Bell.  And of course with a voice activated smart phone in my pocket, the gps unit is growing dust fast.

I do like the thing running on the dash on the skinny roads though, it gives me a nice running view of the upcoming curves, etc., and has a nice blinky red light when I hit the speed trap zone.

And apologies to all you Texas types for uttering "Taco Bell", it's the only poor excuse for a taco joint we have up north here.

beyerjf, you weren't wrong about Texas FM roads, you can usually get where you want to be anywhere in the flat part of Texas with a compass and FM roads.

[Heavymetal]

7 minutes ago, Hot Rod said:

And apologies to all you Texas types for uttering "Taco Bell", it's the only poor excuse for a taco joint we have up north here.

As a Texas type "born and raised" I happen to like Taco Bell! They  have some pretty good eats and are cheap and fast, but the road side taco trucks are pretty hard to beat. We spent 5 years stationed at Fort Drum, NY where we didn't even have a Taco Bell it was like serving hard time on the Rock. 

[Hot Rod]

I did have one "learning experience" about the "pink" roads in the map book years back.  Going from NE Ohio to Staunton VA via I-79, and thinking I was smarter than the map, it looked like I could save a whole bunch of time cutting straight east over the ridge into  VA instead of looping all the way down to I-81 and back up.  Long day, short story, unlike the Texas dirt road this one was paved but ended up involving winding 9% grade both up and down with a 40' trailer, and by winding I mean you had to wind the rig around the overhanging rock outcrops over the road and I swear they thought it was cheaper to build the road around every tree in WV instead of cutting a few down.  Not fun.  Moral of the story, stay off the pink roads in hilly states.

[dblr]

I tell the wife I am never lost....temporarily misplaced now that is different story. I am old school and don't even own a gps but I use Google, Yahoo map or Map Quest then look at my atlas to compare routes.

[Dollytrolley]

On April 17, 2017 at 4:38 AM, Big5er said:

Where do you mount GPS do-dads on Dolly? And how do you do it? Velcro?

This is a easy set of question to answer for us henpecked stable-boys.......

 

You see most equine-related A$$occesories are attached to the saddle and the  GPS (Georgous-Pretty-Slavedriver) sits tall in the saddle and this "navigator" KNOWS exactly where to tell you to go.......AND.....Dolly AND me might no be very smart but we don't have to be......we have a GPS to order us around.....

 

Now as I recall you have been devorced from your GPS for a while and might being trying to get by using your puppy as Guide-Puppy-System but shucks Phil how many fire-plugs per day do you need to find.......its just not the same as being ordered around by a slavedriver.......cheeper, but not the same......

 

Drive on......(puppy-love ain't tha same as being......slavedriven)

 

[DuneElliot]

Nope, never lost...I've always explored, but never been lost.

I most use my large paper map but occasionally use Google maps when I'm in a city I'm not familiar with...it's just easier and safer than trying to negotiate lanes, traffic direction, looking at sign posts/street signs etc all at the same time.

[rickeieio]

If you don't care where you are, can you ever be lost?  I might be late for supper, but never lost....

[Dollytrolley]

On 4/17/2017 at 7:34 AM, hone eagle said:

Never forgot a quote I read in a SR 71 pilot memoirs "you 've never been lost until your lost at 1700 mph"

In the stone age I had the pleasure and honor of having considerable quality time with many U-2 & 71 drivers and crews.......

The only "lost" that the 71 drivers would become concerned about was if the tanker drivers became "lost".......items that move at a few thousand miles a hour tend to need some fuel at times.......sure the tanker arrives on time......

Somewhere I have a couple of old declassified U-2 manuals and I would grin when I would read the emergency section of the Ops-manual.........went something like this.........

The u-2 had NO fuel gauges.......it had a low fuel warning light that lit up when you had  forty gallons of usable fuel left so..........the procedure for the lite blinking 400 miles from the airport was so simple..........simply climb to .......7 0, 0 0 0 feet and then .......S H U T the engine down........ then simply G L I D E the remaining 3 0 0 miles to the airport and then restart the engine and idle in to a landing.......

 

As I recall the glide ratio was about 23:1 so for each mile above ground level you were cruising you had 23 miles of glide range so........how many miles up is ........7  0,  0  0  0 ft????

The 71 drivers were not so fond of engine off ops.........they didn't idle in to land.........

 

Drive on.........(just hate it when the tankers a bit....... late)

  

 

 

[VegasFlyer]

Most people have no idea that every passenger jet out flying today will coast at an idle when they descend for landing, generally 90 to 120 miles from destination.  The 747starts down the farthest out, with all four engines at an idle.

Try that with your truck sometime.....lol

[BlueLghtning]

On 4/18/2017 at 0:25 AM, Heavymetal said:

I will admit it. We were headed to the Tampa RV show in Jan 17 and wanted to stop at the SAMs club before we arrived. I had the Goggle maps app open instead of my gps. Goggle maps is like 99% of paper maps north is always up, and my gps up is the direction of travel. I was headed south so every turn I made trying to find SAMs was 180 degrees WRONG. I thought I was going insane for about ten minutes until I stopped and blocked all traffic from going in or out of a Walgreens and figured out the SAMs club had not disappeared I was just on the wrong side of I 75. 

@Heavymetal, having north up vs direction of travel up is easily configurable when you have the google map screen up. Just hit the little compass icon on the screen. it will change from north up to course up and you can toggle between them 

Also this is configurable on most GPS's in settings, usually while on the map screen, go into settings and find that feature. Most default to course up, but if you prefer, you can change to north up.

I like north up when I'm just using the map as assistance as it always helps me keep my sense of direction. 

[noteven]

Dolleytrolley pilot-in-command: 

Google the AB town of Castor. See where Hwy's 36 and 12 intersect?  Hwy 36 traffic has stop signs. 

A fella in a suit and tie in a car stopped northbound on 36 flagged at me to stop and roll the window down. I was bob tail in the won ton, southbound. He waves Mapquest type printed pages and says, "Is this the way to Taber? I'm coming from Calgary."

So I sez to the guy, "You need to go this way..." pointing south, behind him, in the direction I was going...

He says, "Thanks!" ... and turns right / east on Hwy 12 and drives off, heading for Taber... 

He were lost.... 

[Dollytrolley]

16 hours ago, noteven said:

Dolleytrolley pilot-in-command: 

Google the AB town of Castor. See where Hwy's 36 and 12 intersect?  Hwy 36 traffic has stop signs. 

A fella in a suit and tie in a car stopped northbound on 36 flagged at me to stop and roll the window down. I was bob tail in the won ton, southbound. He waves Mapquest type printed pages and says, "Is this the way to Taber? I'm coming from Calgary."

So I sez to the guy, "You need to go this way..." pointing south, behind him, in the direction I was going...

He says, "Thanks!" ... and turns right / east on Hwy 12 and drives off, heading for Taber... 

He were lost.... 

Yep , Not.......sometimes folks get lost and you just can't help them.....

 

So far we have been talking pretty much about folks that become lost on the horizontal .......

 

For too many years I became involved with accident investigations, accident research, and legal actions........becoming "lost-vertical" is almost always ends in a grim fashion.......

 

For the most vertical lost events occur in marine and aerospace sectors but once in a while a HDT falls over the edge.....bad juju...

 

Drive on.......(stay back from the.....edge)

[Big5er]

On 4/17/2017 at 7:17 AM, beyerjf said:

I make the left, go down about 1/2 mile, the road turns to dirt and skinny, real skinny immediately. I should have stopped at that point and backed up the 1/2 mile to the interstate. But noooo, I continue looking for a wide spot, intersection, whatever. No where to turn around, the road degrades into gullies, up and down small hills, almost impassable, and would have been if it had rained recently. No houses, farms, even the jack rabbits had moved out of town. About 30 miles of this, I finally come out on a paved Farm to Market road. 

Once in Colorado (with the old truck and bumper pull trailer) I let the GPS turn me down a paved two lane road across a mountain. A few miles later it became a two lane gravel road but it was a nice smooth gravel road so I kept going. After a bit it turned into a one lane gravel road with pull outs so if you met another car head-on you cold back up to one. I got where I was going and as we checked in the clerk asked what route we took. I told her and she replied "Oh, it's open? They must have graded and opened it yesterday. It's been closed all winter."

[VegasFlyer]

2 hours ago, Big5er said:

Once in Colorado (with the old truck and bumper pull trailer) I let the GPS turn me down a paved two lane road across a mountain. A few miles later it became a two lane gravel road but it was a nice smooth gravel road so I kept going. After a bit it turned into a one lane gravel road with pull outs so if you met another car head-on you cold back up to one. I got where I was going and as we checked in the clerk asked what route we took. I told her and she replied "Oh, it's open? They must have graded and opened it yesterday. It's been closed all winter."

That sounds like a good script for National Lampoon Vacation VI