RV GPS

taigarazz wrote:
We have been managing well using Google Maps' navigation feature on our smart phone. Would a stand alone GPS unit offer us significant advantages over our present method?
linda

Yes in two circumstances. First, if you go someplace with no cell service and need guidance. Second, if you go to Canada or Mexico and don't want to pay for data at > $1 a megabyte.

New story. We were using the wife's phone GPS (slow) and she was driving the car to our new camp site a d I following In the MH.
Her gps warned her late and so did mine and she slammed on the brakes and so did I just to make the turn. I left 2 big black streaks on the hwy with my right rear tandems.

We have been managing well using Google Maps' navigation feature on our smart phone. Would a stand alone GPS unit offer us significant advantages over our present method?
linda

Executive wrote:

wny_pat wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

fltrker wrote:
I understand now. If you own a motorhome that is tall or an RV-Magellen that you have but don't use and don't know much about.
Don't go on any highways but interstates.
Okay.

Just don't take the RV out of your driveway. You'll be safe that way.

that is a very true statement if one has to depend on a GPS unit to warn of low clearances! "Just don't take the RV out of your driveway."

WHY would you need ANY GPS unit, if you never take it out of the driveway....:S........:B:B....Dennis

I'm still trying to figure out how I got around for years without a GPS. Found my way all over the country without one. But must admit that I did peel a trailer roof on a low bridge. But that was my fault, GPS would not have made a difference!

wny_pat wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

fltrker wrote:
I understand now. If you own a motorhome that is tall or an RV-Magellen that you have but don't use and don't know much about.
Don't go on any highways but interstates.
Okay.

Just don't take the RV out of your driveway. You'll be safe that way.

that is a very true statement if one has to depend on a GPS unit to warn of low clearances! "Just don't take the RV out of your driveway."

WHY would you need ANY GPS unit, if you never take it out of the driveway....:S........:B:B....Dennis

Oh yes, GPS horror stories. Late one afternoon, actually twilight, we came to a fork in the road (someplace in Texas) and the GPS did not indicate whether to continue straight - change route - or bear right - stay on the same route we had been on for several hours. We were tired and as driver I elected to stay on the same route. GPS squawked within a 100 yards, but it was too late to correct.

GPS indicated an alternate route. As we drove down a back road in growing darkness an oncoming pickup flashed his lights at us several times as the road turned to dirt and the DEAD END sign appeared. There was an indicated left turn at that sign and we groped our way into a one lane dirt road, actually a double track with high grass between tracks. WE inched our way forward and only stopped briefly for three head of cattle moseying across/along the road. Two or three miles of this - it seemed like 100 miles - brought us back to a paved road and another mile or so brought us out onto the highway we were supposed to have taken. The GPS was correct, but . . .

It is good for laughs today, but we did not see the humor until the next morning as we began the tour of the Foretravel factory.

We have used De Lorme Streets and Co-Pilot on the lap top. We like to use it on the laptop because the screen is larger than a hand-held or in dash unit. Both programs can be set up with RV criteria as well as other details that help with traveling.

The main thing to remember about using a GPS while traveling in any type of RV is "they are never 100% accurate" so always double check each planned route with a current atlas. If they should ask you to make a turn and it is wrong...it's a bear to try to turn around and reroute yourself once you know what is correct especially in remote/rural regions.

A friend of ours once ended up on a rustic mountain road high centered on a snow drift all because he religiously followed the GPS. We had it once ask us to make a turn into a rancher's pasture! And worst of all it routed us through an old single lane railroad underpass that was 8' wide and 8' high yet it wanted us to go through...guess they missed cataloging that one!

But, on the other hand on occasion they can be a handy tool.

msmith1199 wrote:

fltrker wrote:
I understand now. If you own a motorhome that is tall or an RV-Magellen that you have but don't use and don't know much about.
Don't go on any highways but interstates.
Okay.

Just don't take the RV out of your driveway. You'll be safe that way.

that is a very true statement if one has to depend on a GPS unit to warn of low clearances! "Just don't take the RV out of your driveway."

fltrker wrote:
I understand now. If you own a motorhome that is tall or an RV-Magellen that you have but don't use and don't know much about.
Don't go on any highways but interstates.
Okay.

Just don't take the RV out of your driveway. You'll be safe that way.

To the original question; I would not and have not paid extra for an RV specific GPS. Indeed even the unit built into my coach is not RV specific as it does not have height information. Since I can get height information from the POI Factory and load them into my Garmin, that is what I did once.

In over 100K miles back and forth across the country I have seen at least a dozen well marked low clearances, and we spend most of our miles well off the interstates on blue highways. I even had to detour around one in a nearby town because I "knew" where I was was and forgot about it. Had enough advance warning BIG SIGN to modify my route through a neighborhood I had never seen.

We now use the onboard GPS for general routing and keep a smartphone handy with google nav ready to provide alternate directions when the first GPS guidance seems spooky. We use DeLorme Street Atlas to plan extended route Say Charlottesville VA to Austin TX and then build a daily route into the GPS for guidance and turn reminders. We do like the newer units that have lane guidance for getting through large cities. Traffic is nice to have, but in the coach a stop or a slowdown is really no issue and frequently the alternates are no fun.