GPS

Look at the Garmin NUVI 50LM. It's bright, has big screen, and easy to use. I bought a 2nd one for the car.

Do NOT get an RVND 5510. I wasted my money on one of those. While it has a lot of POI's, tons of info, RV Specific, and overall great when it works. That's the problem, it freezes up constantly, continues to tell me I will be on a dirt road in .6 miles even on a highway, and their customer service barely speaks English. Their solution to the problem is to always do a file repair. I have never had a GPS where the processor is so unstable it requires repeated file repairs. Especially handy when it freezes up and you are on the DC beltway. And finally it's heavy. Downright brick. Still keeps it from being too light for a boat anchor. Expensive paperweight. Now I use CoPilot app on my Iphone. Works great. The co pilot app is only about $10.00 if you download the maps. I'll never buy a gps again.

Our TOMTOM XXL 550TN boat anchor works fairly well, however as a backup we have a marine compass mounted on our dash and maintain a current road map. :B

bob_nestor wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
I used to be a Garmin fan, but I switched over to the Magellans. They are all pretty good and all have some bugs, but the Magellan has a better search feature than Garmin.

I've got multiple Garmins and one TomTom (in-dash). The TomTom wouldn't even make a good boat anchor. Looking at replacing it with a Kenwood/Garmin in-dash. As for searching in Garmin, all of mine are different. I wish they'd try and use the same User Interface on all units, but it's a small price to pay for something that blows the doors off TomTom.

BTW, the Kenwood/Garmin I'm looking at is new this year. It's the DNX570HD that lists for about $850 but can be picked up at some places for $600. I'm surprised at how much the prices have come down from last year's models.

I used to use mine in law enforcement so I needed to be able to enter addresses fast and the Magellan was the best for that. When you wanted to enter an address you started with the City and it always give you the city you were in as the first option. Once you selected the City then you would select the street. As you typed you are only able to type in streets that actually exist as letters black out on the keyboard if they don't match an existing street. And you enter the numbers last and again you are only able to punch in numbers for blocks that actually exist. When I had Garmins they were never like that. You would always have to type in and select the City from the entire database. It just took too long.

msmith1199 wrote:
I used to be a Garmin fan, but I switched over to the Magellans. They are all pretty good and all have some bugs, but the Magellan has a better search feature than Garmin.

I've got multiple Garmins and one TomTom (in-dash). The TomTom wouldn't even make a good boat anchor. Looking at replacing it with a Kenwood/Garmin in-dash. As for searching in Garmin, all of mine are different. I wish they'd try and use the same User Interface on all units, but it's a small price to pay for something that blows the doors off TomTom.

BTW, the Kenwood/Garmin I'm looking at is new this year. It's the DNX570HD that lists for about $850 but can be picked up at some places for $600. I'm surprised at how much the prices have come down from last year's models.

I have owned Garmin (Several), Tom Tom, and my DW bought me a Magellan Roadmate 9165T for Christmas two tears ago. They will all have you scratching your head as to why in the world is it sending me this way. I always found it amusing they will send you one way to get to a destination and a totally different one on the way back.

Of the those that I have owned, Garmin appears the least problematic.

The DW got the Magellan at CW to use in the RV as it was supposed to be RV friendly and recommended by CW/GS. I find it interesting that CW/GS has not logoed a Rand McNally product as their GPS unit.

I don't like the fact it won't recharge itself when connected to the laptop for map updates. You have to be sure to have a full battery before you start the update process.

There are a myriad of options out there but I'd try to get a "last generation" model with lifetime updates.

I'd only buy Garmin. TomTom is horrific in my experience.

I'd buy based on parameters - the latest ones should have:

Spoken street names (text to speech)
Correct lane identification for complex interchanges (awesome feature)
Flat profile for packing if needed
Lithium ion battery if for some reason disconnected from power
Traffic updates
Under $150 or 200 unless that is not a concern

For RVers, there are also options for truckers that includes height limits in navigation and truck routes.

Aside from using this forum to search the previous GPS posts of which there are literally hundreds, I vote for the Garmin Dezl 760LMT. While not made specifically for a RV, its trucking features are close enough for our needs.

If your looking for outside resources we found these two articles helpful when we were shopping:
What’s The Best GPS For RVers?
RV GPS Comparison and Review: What are the Best Options?

I used to be a Garmin fan, but I switched over to the Magellans. They are all pretty good and all have some bugs, but the Magellan has a better search feature than Garmin.

Bought the large Garmin dezl 760 because I like Garmin products over the others, but have not really used it yet.

Whatever you buy, get one with the lifetime maps. You don't really need to update them very often, but it's nice when needed. One of my older GPS', which would cost about $50 to upgrade the maps, doesn't show the new (5 years old?) cloverleaf on the highway, so it always shows that I'm out in the trees when I go home. When I go to Vancouver, WA every year, I always update that GPS because there's always new overpasses or exits down there.

Bill