GPS

[gypsydan]

On 8/22/2020 at 10:26 AM, Bill Joyce said:

Make sure your iPad has a GPS built-in, since some WiFi-only models do not.  You can tell if you have a GPS when maps show your location correctly.

Thanks.

[johnpeters]

I think Garmin is a great choice. Garmin’s trademark feature shows the driver which are the suitable routes for the size of their vehicle. In addition, it gives out detailed instructions on everything in your path, including the size and height of any bridge along the way.

Edited September 30, 2021 by johnpeters

[vermilye]

I have a Garmin 890, which is a modified Android tablet that can be set for car or RV - You add the specs for your RV.  No problems other than here in the East is is almost always warning me that there is a sharp curve ahead...

[franco-bolli]

late comer to the GPS discussion... 

Even though I've had at least 3 lower end Garmin GPS, that have been less than stellar performers,(turning off when you really need them, touch pad quits working or screen is 10 second delay after a touch, system won't turn off, or won't turn on when you want)
Based on the comments in several forum posts, I'm torn between the RV 785 and RV890 and may go with the 890 due to the ability to store more information (256Gb)
I've looked on the Garmin web site and downloaded a couple of manuals, but don't see the words "lifetime map update" in the literature or in the sales pitch on the Garmin web site, unless of course, I missed it🙃.
For those of you that have the 785 or 890, are the updates free for the life of the product?
I've seen a couple of folks comments about other Garmin products that you have to update often to keep the "free" updates going but it's not clear that they are free for the models mentioned.
I would hope they are free, given what these are costing now..

Last question,  I'm towing a trailer with a pick-up and dash space is becoming a premium as I have the TPMS monitor and a, Back up camera that want to sit up there.  Sure I can take the back up cam down until I need it, but have any of you tried to put an  7 or 8 inch display on your dash? If yes, whats been your experience with it blocking line of sight?

Thanks for your responses!

GFB

[sandsys]

I put my GPS to the left of the steering wheel. It's rarely used space and I didn't have problems with sun angle there.

Linda Sand

[Steven@146]

We use RV Trip Wizard to initially plan our route, then use a Garmin RV 660 on the road which we got a long time ago. Both have our rigs specs loaded into them for proper routing. We plug our Garmin into the internet every once in awhile to get the updates free. We had to put a sim card in our Garmin to handle the updates. I don't know what the other Garmin's mentioned here have over our 660, maybe more memory, bigger screens, more interaction?

We can link our RV Trip Wizard route from our cell phones into our Ram trucks display screen. Both RV Trip Wizard and our Garmin RV660 pick and follow the same routes 95% of the time. The Garmin gets better updates as to current road closures, construction, heavy traffic, accidents and so forth.

I get it, yup, rear RV camera, Garmin, TST507 TPMS for the rig, have a lot of monitors on the dash or down below on the console. We never use our Ram truck navigation system, my bugaboo, you buy these big 1 Tons with all the tow options and they give you a car GPS!

Edited January 8, 2022 by Steven@146

[Kirk W]

9 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

late comer to the GPS discussion... 

No problem at all, and happy to have you join in. I have a long history with Garmin GPS beginning with their Quest model in 2005 and moving through several models along the way. I was also part of the prototype testing for the Rand-McNally GPS but my experience with them just confirmed my loyalty to the Garmin line. I have also had some experience with Magellan GPS in the hiker models. I do not consider myself to be an expert on them, just fairly experienced and reasonably well read. I currently have a Garmin RV660 in one vehicle and an RV770 (purchased to get the larger screen) in our other vehicle. Both are the LMT versions, with LMT meaning life time maps.

9 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

Based on the comments in several forum posts, I'm torn between the RV 785 and RV890 and may go with the 890 due to the ability to store more information (256Gb)
I've looked on the Garmin web site and downloaded a couple of manuals, but don't see the words "lifetime map update" in the literature or in the sales pitch on the Garmin web site, unless of course, I missed it

In looking at the Garmin website, the 785 has an available slot for an SD chip that comes with an 8GB card and can be updated to as much as 64GB. I would think that would be sufficient memory? It is also compatible with their backup camera so that could be added. 

Looking at the Garmin website, the 890 comes with 16GB of memory and has an empty slot for an SD card where up to 64GB SD card can be added, so they share that feature. The 890 is also compatible with their backup cameras so one could be added. 

10 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

For those of you that have the 785 or 890, are the updates free for the life of the product?

With both models, the Garmin website does state that it comes with free lifetime map updates in the specs section. As far as I could find, the reason that there are no more LMT models is that all Garmin GPS models now come with free map updates, while it used to be that you could buy the same GPS either with or without map updates and the LMT indicated the map updates were included. I have found that with our Garmin units we get map updates at least every 6 months. I keep a copy of "Garmin Express" on my computer and regularly activate it as it will then check and tell me if there are any map updates for my GPS. I do hope that some of this has been helpful. 

[vermilye]

I also have a Garmin 890 on the left side of the steering wheel.  It might get in the way with a smaller vehicle, but works fine with an F150.  The 890 has built in WiFi so you do not need a computer to do updates.  You can even use the built in browser as long as you have a WiFi source.

I'd include a photo of the dash placement, but I can no longer add images.

[franco-bolli]

6 hours ago, Kirk W said:

No problem at all, and happy to have you join in. I have a long history with Garmin GPS beginning with their Quest model in 2005 and moving through several models along the way. I was also part of the prototype testing for the Rand-McNally GPS but my experience with them just confirmed my loyalty to the Garmin line. I have also had some experience with Magellan GPS in the hiker models. I do not consider myself to be an expert on them, just fairly experienced and reasonably well read. I currently have a Garmin RV660 in one vehicle and an RV770 (purchased to get the larger screen) in our other vehicle. Both are the LMT versions, with LMT meaning life time maps.

In looking at the Garmin website, the 785 has an available slot for an SD chip that comes with an 8GB card and can be updated to as much as 64GB. I would think that would be sufficient memory? It is also compatible with their backup camera so that could be added. 

Looking at the Garmin website, the 890 comes with 16GB of memory and has an empty slot for an SD card where up to 64GB SD card can be added, so they share that feature. The 890 is also compatible with their backup cameras so one could be added. 

With both models, the Garmin website does state that it comes with free lifetime map updates in the specs section. As far as I could find, the reason that there are no more LMT models is that all Garmin GPS models now come with free map updates, while it used to be that you could buy the same GPS either with or without map updates and the LMT indicated the map updates were included. I have found that with our Garmin units we get map updates at least every 6 months. I keep a copy of "Garmin Express" on my computer and regularly activate it as it will then check and tell me if there are any map updates for my GPS. I do hope that some of this has been helpful. 

Thanks for the detailed reply Kirk, I appreciate you going the extra mile to find the additional information.  I found a web site that was influencing my choice while I was comparing notes on the RVNETWORK blogs.
Here it is:
https://www.rvweb.net/garmin-rv-785-vs-890/

The editor claims that the 890 has 16GB built in where as the 785 does not.  The 890 will accept a 256Gb mini sd card where the 785 will accept a max of 16Gb. I've not been able to substantiate the information yet.

I'm going to hunt around for a "deal" on the 890 in my planning for our cross country trip from SW Idaho to the Happiest place on Earth (Disney World, Ft Wilderness) in May. 

THanks also to vermilye for the heads up on the size in the F-150. It would be great to see a picture if you have one. I think we can share images through the private messaging tool here on this forum.

Safe Travels and stay healthy!

[franco-bolli]

7 hours ago, Steven@146 said:

We use RV Trip Wizard to initially plan our route, then use a Garmin RV 660 on the road which we got a long time ago. Both have our rigs specs loaded into them for proper routing. We plug our Garmin into the internet every once in awhile to get the updates free. We had to put a sim card in our Garmin to handle the updates. I don't know what the other Garmin's mentioned here have over our 660, maybe more memory, bigger screens, more interaction?

We can link our RV Trip Wizard route from our cell phones into our Ram trucks display screen. Both RV Trip Wizard and our Garmin RV660 pick and follow the same routes 95% of the time. The Garmin gets better updates as to current road closures, construction, heavy traffic, accidents and so forth.

I get it, yup, rear RV camera, Garmin, TST507 TPMS for the rig, have a lot of monitors on the dash or down below on the console. We never use our Ram truck navigation system, my bugaboo, you buy these big 1 Tons with all the tow options and they give you a car GPS!

Thanks  Steven for the tip about Road Wizard, I've found the web site and will be digging in to see if it meets the need.  I see the RV LIFE has a 25% Escapees discount and 100 day demo, as seen on the Escapees web site.

~$40/ year and I use my current phone or about $400 now for a dedicated GPS.  It turns out the iPad we have, isn't equipped with GPS..

I had my truck built instead of buying it off the lot. The one regret I have is ordering the really cheap display unit instead of the better one, even if it's a car GPS..

Cheers and stay healthy!

Edited January 8, 2022 by franco-bolli

[Kirk W]

34 minutes ago, franco-bolli said:

The editor claims that the 890 has 16GB built in where as the 785 does not.  The 890 will accept a 256Gb mini sd card where the 785 will accept a max of 16Gb. I've not been able to substantiate the information yet.

You have a really misinformed review. If you look at the Garmin site for 765 under the specifications tab you will find the actual information. 

Quote

yes (Dash Cam 8 GB microSD™ Class 10 data card included; accepts up to 64 GB microSD card for dash cam, Class 4 or higher, not included)

There is no doubt that the 890 has features that the 765 does not, but make the choice based on facts and not bad reviews. If the price is the same, then I would also choose the 890 but your reviewer is not a good source. One thing that I have found is that the larger screen GPS can block vision if you do not have a good location for them. I use the 660 in our car for that reason. There just isn't a place to put a larger screen GPS that doesn't block my view of traffic. 

For route planning I am using Garmin Basecamp which is designed for use with Garmin products and is available free from Garmin. My only negative thought on it is that because it has so many features, there is a fairly large learning curve for it but it is very effective and it works either with a copy of the maps your GPS uses or it can even operate on the GPS own map if you connect it while planning. 

[franco-bolli]

Thanks for the quick reply Kirk,
Each product review I've seen or read has some information that is, well, lets say, needs to be verified as you noted in your reply.

I've used Garmins basecamp in my previous Garmin GPS, mostly with sucess. I do need to ingrain the trip review session of each days trip to be sure that I'm not going through a housing sub-division  to take the shortest route.  I've had a couple of issues with routing that took some back streets in small towns to avoid the main drag. Yes, they were less crowded, but one was a dead end road that continued on the other side of a railroad embankment, which looked like it had been there for many years.

Are the all Basecamp routes perfect, No. As much as I would like perfection, I realize that there are issues that need to be reckoned with and double checking the route beforehand helps.

Size does matter, especially with displays on a truck dashboard, so I'll be keeping that in mind as well.

Thanks again for sharing your time and experience.

[jimnlin]

You do know you can manually move the route you had the software made.. I let BaseCamp make a route from A to B and then review it. If I want to change any part of the route, that can be done by dragging the route where I want it. Play around with it and you will find it is fairly easy to get what you want.

 

Jim

[franco-bolli]

1 hour ago, jimnlin said:

You do know you can manually move the route you had the software made.. I let BaseCamp make a route from A to B and then review it. If I want to change any part of the route, that can be done by dragging the route where I want it. Play around with it and you will find it is fairly easy to get what you want.

 

Jim

Hi Jim,

It was my own fault that I ended up on the dead end street, I didn't pre-check the route before downloading it into the GPS. Even with that, if the map was wrong by thinking it was a through street, I may not have caught it.

Quite a while ago, I added in POI for HAM repeaters into the trip, where the GPS would alert me when I was within 30 miles of a POI HAM repeater site. I don't have access to the same repeater information and as I recall, it took some extra time to set it all up. It worked OK, but not perfectly and it used up some memory in the older GPS.

I made a choice of the RV780 and ordered one from Garmin web site. The price was no more or less than other sites I checked. Based on input and consideration of ideas from folks on this web site, as well as realizing the space limitations on my dash, this was the best choice for me. I'm looking forward to an RV version of the GPS.

Thanks to all who contributed ideas and experiences.

Safe travels

[franco-bolli]

I joined RV trip wizard and created a route to texas from SW Idaho.
The attached image is the routing that  Garmin Basecamp provided based on an exported GPX file from Trip Wizard.

Trip Wizard didn't have this excursion to a side street. 

I had hoped that I wouldn't need to review every 1/2 mile of the trip, but it looks like I will need to do so.
When I removed this excursion, the map straightened out and followed the path that RV Wizard had suggested.

Thanks for the recommendation to RV Trip WIzard!

Others in this forum have said this "review the trip before you travel"...  Good advice.

[Kirk W]

My Basecamp only does that if I plug in the name of a town and nothing more. That is because when you do that it appears that you wish to go into the town. I find it very easy to deal with when such happens by either drag and drop the city point onto the highway, or when I am driving I usually know that I didn't wish to go into town so I just pass the exit by and my Garmin very quickly adapts and corrects the course. Either way is very easy. 

There is no GPS, phone app oar anything else that I know of which doesn't on occasion require the operator to use a little bit of logic. There are no perfect maps and even if there were, streets and highways are constantly changing which is the reason that the user must also keep the maps updated. 

[franco-bolli]

Kirk, your absolutly right, none of them are perfect.

This will be an easy fix.

Safe travels, and stay healthy.

[Kirk W]

11 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

Kirk, your absolutly right, none of them are perfect.

If they could just get the dad-blamed things to operate on what we are meaning rather than going by what we actually put into them........... !!   A GPS plans routes on a point to point bases. When you just plug in the name of a town, how do you expect it to know exactly what point in that town you are wanting if you don't supply it? Perhaps you want to stop at the cheapest fuels seller, or maybe just blow past? When you put in the town name do you want to visit city hall, the main business district, or some point around the city limit? I don't know of any brand GPS that reads minds, yet!  😏

[vermilye]

One feature I'd love to see on a GPS is "Stay on this road".  When driving the non interstate US routes, all the GPSs I've owned insist on routes that hop onto other roads, sometimes eventually back to the one I was on.  Seems like it would be simple to add a command that would let you choose US 50, for example, and stay on it.

[Ro and Joe]

On 8/5/2020 at 1:53 PM, solo318 said:

I use sygic Rv on a the android stereo oin my RV. It works quite well, and hasn't let me down (yet).

Thanks for the comment on Sygic!  Been looking for someone with RV experience.  Thinking of going with the Truckers app which has the RV application on an android pad the next time I need a GPS.  Lots lower cost.

[franco-bolli]

On 1/15/2022 at 10:46 AM, vermilye said:

One feature I'd love to see on a GPS is "Stay on this road".  When driving the non interstate US routes, all the GPSs I've owned insist on routes that hop onto other roads, sometimes eventually back to the one I was on.  Seems like it would be simple to add a command that would let you choose US 50, for example, and stay on it.

I'd love that as well!  
I recall getting directed onto a frontage road for about 2 miles, and then back on the main highway.
I thought the system was directing me around construction work, or an accident, but it seems it was just providing me an opportunity to drive by some of the local businesses...

I usually mentally question these kinds of re-routes and choose to stay on the route I'm on, unless it's an interchange of some kind and I have to mind the traffic and not whether this is another expedition into a private neighborhood.

Apparently there is no way to tell the GPS that in some states it's OK to take a toll road and other states to ignore them. For instance, in Upstate NY, the major road through the state is the I-90 toll road. If you're off on a side road instead of the Thru-way, you are going through small towns at a much slower pace.

In Florida, the fastest way down the East coast is a toll road, but, you can't make an excection to the rules in the GPS to take that toll road if it's part of the over all planned route.  

Maybe I'll try making a seperate route for those sections with tolls in the GPS program, and make them active when I hit a way point...

[vermilye]

It would also be useful to be able to allow toll bridges but not toll roads.  I have been routed miles out of my way because of a $2.00 bridge charge...

[lappir]

The problem with the GPS is most of them have screens too small to actually see the roads you are going to travel in if you want to see the entire route. On a Map or an Atlas it was much easier to plan your route and "Stay On It".  It took a lot more time for sure and you wouldn't have the real time "Traffic Info" that some of the GPS devices have. 

I have had a GPS change my route too many times to count. I've also thought I hit the right destination only to find out when I'm half way there, that I chose a town with a very similar name in the same general area, but I wouldn't be arriving when and where I really needed to be. If only I had been a bit more careful. How many of us say that after an unfortunate event??

Any GPS is only as accurate as the person using it. Give them good information and usually they will get you to the place you want to go. I like the Android Auto feature I have recently started using. For around town I use the Google Map with the Satellite view, but for a longer trip I use Waze for the speed limit on the screen and the "Sharing" features. At some point I will upgrade my truck "Head unit" to one that will connect to my Android Auto on my phone. 

 

Rod

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, lappir said:

The problem with the GPS is most of them have screens too small to actually see the roads you are going to travel in if you want to see the entire route.

With Garmin products the company has a free program that you can download to plan your route on the same maps as your GPS has and you can keep things on a specific highway by using drag and drop and refine your entire route to your destination and then download it to the GPS. Like you I like to review my routes if I am not familiar with them before I start and use a paper map as a backup for that review. 

[franco-bolli]

In addition to the other things I've had happen, it seems to me, (could be wrong about this) that when I prep a route in RV road wizard, and transfer it to the garmin basecamp, that only the stopping points are transferred and not ALL of the route, so basecamp plots it's own set of highways.  IF I want to follow exactly what RV road wizard wants, I need to compare the route in basecamp to RVRW side by side to be sure they agree.  

THEN when I am satisfied that the basecamp is happy and transfer it to the GPS itself, I THINK (again no proof yet) that only the stopping points are transferred to the GPS and the GPS itself again calculates the best route. Otherwise, I wouldn't have entertaining excursions to a side road for 2 miles and then back to the main road that I didn't find while checking the route in basecamp.

Will I continue to use RVRW, YES.  Wil I continue to transfer the information from RVRW to Garmin Basecamp; YES and then on to the GPS; YES. Will I use an road Atlas to see what else may be worth seeing along the way to the destination, You Bet!

It seems the the GPS units are something we love to hate, but also hate to love.

Earlier, a poster mentioned that he uses both RVRW on the phone and a GPS at the same time and they mostly agree.  
I think I'll try this with my trip to Key West from SW Idaho.

Thanks again for the comments, I'm always learning something new.