TomTom has finally released their new truck navigation satnav in the US. This is a really good device and a great option for RV users. Here is the link: TomTom Trucker 620TomTom has had their share of struggles after the decline of the market. But their new products (these new devices and their new iPhone and Android apps) are really, really good. I've used them side by side with Google Maps for tens of thousands of miles now. The routing, ETA calculation and traffic is very, very comparable to Google Maps in accuracy and traffic coverage. TomTom is using the anonymous movement of Apple devices as one source of their traffic coverage.These new truck devices allow you to input vehicle profiles like size, weight and propane restrictions. The route takes that profile information into account. You can switch to a car profile too. The new devices are 5" and 6" in size. They now have Wi-Fi for updating both maps and firmware. They can also connect to your mobile phone via Bluetooth for voice, SMS and app notifications. There's a companion smartphone app and website for planning routes and saving POIs. Those routes and POIs synchronize to all devices and apps that are signed into the same account. This means that your traveling companion can research POIs on a different device and send them to the satnav while you are driving.The devices also accept custom POI files from websites like POI Factory so despite them being made for trucks you can add your own RV related POI files.The speaker volume is very loud in our Class C while driving. I've added a custom mount from ProClip USA to position the satnav within easy reach from the dashboard.Anyone that is not satisfied with the current navigation options for RVers (that's me!) should check these devices out. I am very, very pleased with these new products.

With $330 I think I will stick to free google navigation on my android. How do you like Tom-Tom traffic?My truck has traffic from Sirus and I had several misrouting. Typical is that when you have 3 minutes delay in front of you - it will try to guide you into 30 miles detour.

TomTom traffic is really, really good. What I'm amazed at is the amount of local road closures they pick up. There's a local 2 lane road in my town that is closed for construction and it's picked up by TomTom. As a comparison to Google Maps I find it very similar in traffic quality. Why I like TomTom better is that in the avoidance of traffic, Google Maps has a tendency to route me on some roads that aren't good for RV travel. TomTom does a better job of that in my experience.

At this website you can explore TomTom's traffic and routing at no cost to see what you think. TomTom Route PlannerJust be sure to go into the settings and turn on both traffic flow and traffic incident display. For some reason traffic flow is turned off by default.

Hi,Will it create a map route without a cell signal? Thanks in advance.

What program do you use for route planning and can you upload a route to the GPS like with a Garmin?

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Belgique
Explorer
May 25, 2018
Pirate: it didn't the last time I tried it (or I didn't see that it would). I'll look again. Thanks.
Pirate1
Explorer
May 24, 2018
Belgique wrote:
Will be curious to see how this works out. My opinion only.

It's not so much the hardware that is important, its the software. Most any of them are good if you want to stay on Interstates, I miss Streets and Trips: the only system I've found that would let you choose preferred roads on a sliding scale of like/dislike. Garmin and Google are absolutes. My NuVi will give me the most amazing routes if I say avoid highways or avoid secondary roads. IMHO, Garmin is the worst. I leave it on just because I have it but Google Maps is much better but even it will give you some weird solutions if I want to venture off Interstates...and I hate that it keeps insisting that it found a better route...

Playing with the TomTom route planner on the link I can't see that it will solve this problem that I have. But, will watch what you folks find. Thanks for the thread.
Doesn't copilot allow you to select road preferences as you mentioned?
jeffcarp
Explorer
May 24, 2018
There is no standalone software. The choices for building and managing routes are: through the website, through the MyDrive smartphone app or directly on the device (the only method that doesn't require a network connection).
fj12ryder
Explorer III
May 24, 2018
camperkilgore wrote:
...I'm not sure how effective it will be if we can't get online when we are in the mountains. I haven't found info indicating a downloadable freestanding version. Anybody know if it can be downloaded, or if it is freestanding if we buy the Tomtom trucker 620?
I looked around the site pretty good, and saw no indication that there was any kind of stand-alone software. Everything seems to be web oriented, and this doesn't seem to be any different.
camperkilgore
Explorer
May 24, 2018
Thanks for this post.

As an rv'er who is always trying to make things less aggravating for himself, I find this Tomtom tempting. I tried the Trip Planner through the link, and I am impressed so far. It's intuitive, and seems easy for my feeble brain to grasp. Some of the things that always irritated me about other planners is that when I try to put in a via/stop/alternate route around a city, the other planners do weird stuff to the route. Like sending us in loops or backtracking. This Tomtom planner does not do that. It works well as long as the stops/detours are put in sequential order as we would approach them when traveling.

I'm not sure how effective it will be if we can't get online when we are in the mountains. I haven't found info indicating a downloadable freestanding version. Anybody know if it can be downloaded, or if it is freestanding if we buy the Tomtom trucker 620?
Belgique
Explorer
May 24, 2018
Will be curious to see how this works out. My opinion only.

It's not so much the hardware that is important, its the software. Most any of them are good if you want to stay on Interstates, I miss Streets and Trips: the only system I've found that would let you choose preferred roads on a sliding scale of like/dislike. Garmin and Google are absolutes. My NuVi will give me the most amazing routes if I say avoid highways or avoid secondary roads. IMHO, Garmin is the worst. I leave it on just because I have it but Google Maps is much better but even it will give you some weird solutions if I want to venture off Interstates...and I hate that it keeps insisting that it found a better route...

Playing with the TomTom route planner on the link I can't see that it will solve this problem that I have. But, will watch what you folks find. Thanks for the thread.
gatorcq
Explorer
May 24, 2018
Google and Waze are good, but not good enough for high clearance or long vehicles or high weight trucks.

Between Gamin and our Rand Mcnally Vs Google, I'll leave Google until I need to research our final location or want a fly by.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
May 24, 2018
Yeah, working to create a route on a 5" or 6" screen doesn't sound like much fun. I like to create routes while we travel and not having access to offline route planning software is pretty much a deal breaker for me.
jeffcarp
Explorer
May 24, 2018
fj12ryder wrote:
I didn't see any offline route maker, it all looks web based.

On the device itself, there are menus for building a route, adding waypoints, reordering waypoints and saving/loading routes from the unit's memory. All of that can be done on the device without a connection to the Internet or a smartphone. *IF* you connect the unit and create an account then you can also send routes created on the web or on the smartphone app to the unit as well.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
May 24, 2018
jeffcarp wrote:
pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Will it create a map route without a cell signal? Thanks in advance.

Yes it will work completely offline. You won't get real time traffic in that case but you'll still get their historical traffic since it's built into their maps.

You can also get the real time traffic through a wifi connection instead of a phone connection.
I didn't see any offline route maker, it all looks web based.

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