RV Specific GPS

Bill.Satellite wrote:
I hope you didn't take that Million Dollar Highway drive to Durango! We were in Durango headed to Grand Junction and every map and GPS said to take 550. It was about 100 miles longer the other way. I saw some twists and turns in the road using Google Maps but I knew it was through the mountains so that did not surprise me. Luckily, a very loving friend e-mailed me when I posted that I was leaving Durango headed for Grand Junction with a warning about the road ahead. That's a real friend and we took the long way 'round!

Yep..That was the route we took! Towing our 36' fiver.I would go 500 miles out of my way to keep from taking that road again!

My Rand McNally RVND5510 is the worst GPS I’ve ever owned because of routing and mapping errors. BTW, I have the most recent map updates available from Rand McNally. Here’s my most recent experience with my 5510 for our trip to Branson, MO and yes, the GPS was in RV mode.

I used the POI function to find the Compton Ridge Campground in Branson, MO for our trip from Imperial, MO. Our RM5510 mapped a route that was correct until we were within a mile and a half of the campground. Fortunately my wife was reading the map otherwise the GPS would have taken us passed our turn and away from the campground.

After getting our fifth wheel setup in our campsite I decided drive the truck to see where the GPS would have taken us for Compton Ridge. Oh my God, the route took us over a very narrow road that ended at a rocky trail and according to the GPS the campground was 2 tenths of mile down that trail. It didn’t even recognize the trail as a dirt road. What a disaster that would have been if we had our fifth wheel in tow.

The next day, using the POI function, we let our GPS guide us to Treasure Lake Resort and once again it took us to a completely wrong location. Next we tried Acorn Acres Campground and the GPS guided us to the Blue Mountain campground about a mile short of Acorn Acres. But at least it was on the correct road.

Silver Dollar City’s Wilderness cabins and RV park is directly across the road from Compton Ridge and when we chose that as our destination the GPS guided to that same narrow road for Compton Ridge that dead ended at a rocky trail. We tried Tall Pines Campground next and the GPS took us right past the campground to another gravel road that was three quarters of a mile past the actual campground. The final campground we check was the ABC Campground and I was surprised when it was actually spot on for that campground.

I have no idea if the many other campgrounds in the Branson area are located incorrectly or not but if you’re using a Rand McNally for a Branson, MO trip you had better double check the routing info. The most grievous error was Compton Ridge since there wouldn’t have been anyway to get turned around.

Our RVND5510 wanted us to go down that trail.


One other discovery on this trip. We were going to “Ride the Ducks” in Branson and since I couldn’t find it in the Points of Interest I tried to program in their address of 2320 W Hwy 76. The Rand McNally didn’t have W Hwy 76 only E Hwy 76 and 2320 was an “invalid address” for E Hwy 76.

Have used the RM 7710 on 2014 spring trip of 6000 miles, 2013 spring trip of 5500 miles and 2012 trip of 3500 miles. The more I use it, the better I like it. For this old man, it takes a while to get use to new toys.

I have experienced the Garmin RV 760 taking a longer route using wider roads vs. the car route. Again NO GPS is perfect or foolproof but the Garmin 760 has been an effective tool for my needs

I hope you didn't take that Million Dollar Highway drive to Durango! We were in Durango headed to Grand Junction and every map and GPS said to take 550. It was about 100 miles longer the other way. I saw some twists and turns in the road using Google Maps but I knew it was through the mountains so that did not surprise me. Luckily, a very loving friend e-mailed me when I posted that I was leaving Durango headed for Grand Junction with a warning about the road ahead. That's a real friend and we took the long way 'round!

I know from experience the Good Sam RM 7725 does keep you off roads with low tunnels. I was going to the Oregon Coast and couldn't figure out why it was routing me south of where I wanted to be then back north up the coast. Later I found out from others at the GTG that there was a low tunnel on the direct route. Another time coming out of Yosemite Valley it was only showing Hwy 140 as an route. The tunnels on 41 and 120 have low clearances next to the curb. I used 120 anyway because I knew the low height was far to the right and with the arched tunnel roof I could hug the center line and clear.

The RV760 does give, at least some,different routing for RVs and cars.I decided to take the car route when the GPS routed me over a much longer distance to get to the same place.After checking the maps and Google Earth,The car route seemed like it would be OK to take the 5th wheel.

Long story short,I should have taken the longer,RV, route! We got where we were going but my fingerprints are permantly embedded in the steering wheel,
and the DWs side has dents in the floor from her stepping on her "invisible
brake pedal.

When we got into Durango CO,the GPS seemed to be completly lost,both the map and voice were confused in parts of the town.

RV's are considered really big cars as far as the rules of the road are concerned "other than" weight, height and length. There is no requirements that an RV follow any kind of truck routes as laid out by local and National Governments. Therefore there is no need for an RV GPS to use trucker based software. The RV GPS units DO have more RV related POI's and hopefully the required data that would keep an RVer off roads with limited weight bridges and low clearances. However, I wonder if anyone has tried entering information in their RV GPS that there coach/tow vehicle is 70' long and then see where it routes you in CA. It should not allow you to travel on any road in that State if it's doing it's job properly.

rware wrote:

Gjac wrote:
I have been basing my conclusions on Bill's reply to my question which is there is NO RV routing on any GPS only car routing and Truck routing.

The basic point about routing may or may not be true, I have no idea. But your conclusion that an "RV specific GPS would keep you off of direct routes" is wrong in my experience. That was the point I was trying to make.

You can certainly save some money. A comparable unit to the RV 760LMT would be the nüvi® 2797LMT. $399.99 vs $269.99. You could save more with less features, smaller screen, no traffic etc. You can add POIs that alert you to obstructions but you also have to keep those up to date.

So it is certainly possible to come up with something similar for less, for me the RV package was worth it. YMMV.

rware I have no idea how they work either that is why I asked the question. Maybe to get a better understanding of how they work a follow up question would be do these RV specifc GPS's use the car routing mode along with low bridge POI's to rout? If that is the case then it makes sense, and the routing would be more direct than if they use the the truck routing.

Gjac wrote:
I have been basing my conclusions on Bill's reply to my question which is there is NO RV routing on any GPS only car routing and Truck routing.

The basic point about routing may or may not be true, I have no idea. But your conclusion that an "RV specific GPS would keep you off of direct routes" is wrong in my experience. That was the point I was trying to make.

You can certainly save some money. A comparable unit to the RV 760LMT would be the nüvi® 2797LMT. $399.99 vs $269.99. You could save more with less features, smaller screen, no traffic etc. You can add POIs that alert you to obstructions but you also have to keep those up to date.

So it is certainly possible to come up with something similar for less, for me the RV package was worth it. YMMV.