Our first 8000 miles with a Garmin RV890
OK we're back at home base for a few weeks after our spring loop. We added a Garmin RV890 to our truck and so far this is my opinion of the system:
Overall I give it a B+
1)It has almost never led us astray, or down a goat path even tho we traveled down some very secondary roads. It does have one quirk, once you tell it you are pulling an RV it will send you down routes that it thinks are RV safe for your unit. That's good but if it was a bit easier to switch back to truck only mode it would be nice. Now it requires some menu diving to pull it off.
It did once seem to forget where it was going and I had to re-enter the destination.
2) it is mostly non irritating, meaning when you get off the track it wants you to take it does not bombard you with "OFF TRACK" audio. Mostly it adapts the track to your new route but once it kept insisting on it's route. And I have to admit that I came back by it's preferred route and it was faster...heh.
3) It does a fair job, I give it a C, of finding locations you tell it to search for. It's campground database is notably less complete than Campgroundreviews. And if you type in the actual address of the desired CG it sometimes identifies it as a cg. So there is some indexing issues with their database. This is a minor irritation.
It is much weaker finding aother spots like Auto Parts stores and so on.
4) It has great depth, you can modify the screen appearances for example. If you are thinking about buying one of these watch this
TechRV series on the RV890
5) It can be a boondockers buddy, it include the iOverland app that contains many western boondocking spots. It is weaker in the east of course. I find that the included app is much easier to use than the web based iOverlander site.
6) It contains quite a bit of info on places in its database, phone numbers for example and some mini reviews. It contains the Forsquare app which show some restaurants and other places.
All in all I'm quite satisfied with the unit, shop around we got it for $300 off one Amazon vendor, which is a considerable discount off the list price.
I have resisted switching to a dedicated nav system, we used the PC based DeLorme and Microsoft software for a long time. Finally using the DeLorme since it was somewhat less out of date. But it was leading us astray once or twice a day, leading to searches for a place to make a U-Turn with a 30 ft trauiler. And it's extremely irritatating "OFF ROUTE!!!" audio blasts finally broke my resistance down.
I still use RVTW for route planning and will continue to do so.
Overall I give it a B+
1)It has almost never led us astray, or down a goat path even tho we traveled down some very secondary roads. It does have one quirk, once you tell it you are pulling an RV it will send you down routes that it thinks are RV safe for your unit. That's good but if it was a bit easier to switch back to truck only mode it would be nice. Now it requires some menu diving to pull it off.
It did once seem to forget where it was going and I had to re-enter the destination.
2) it is mostly non irritating, meaning when you get off the track it wants you to take it does not bombard you with "OFF TRACK" audio. Mostly it adapts the track to your new route but once it kept insisting on it's route. And I have to admit that I came back by it's preferred route and it was faster...heh.
3) It does a fair job, I give it a C, of finding locations you tell it to search for. It's campground database is notably less complete than Campgroundreviews. And if you type in the actual address of the desired CG it sometimes identifies it as a cg. So there is some indexing issues with their database. This is a minor irritation.
It is much weaker finding aother spots like Auto Parts stores and so on.
4) It has great depth, you can modify the screen appearances for example. If you are thinking about buying one of these watch this
TechRV series on the RV890
5) It can be a boondockers buddy, it include the iOverland app that contains many western boondocking spots. It is weaker in the east of course. I find that the included app is much easier to use than the web based iOverlander site.
6) It contains quite a bit of info on places in its database, phone numbers for example and some mini reviews. It contains the Forsquare app which show some restaurants and other places.
All in all I'm quite satisfied with the unit, shop around we got it for $300 off one Amazon vendor, which is a considerable discount off the list price.
I have resisted switching to a dedicated nav system, we used the PC based DeLorme and Microsoft software for a long time. Finally using the DeLorme since it was somewhat less out of date. But it was leading us astray once or twice a day, leading to searches for a place to make a U-Turn with a 30 ft trauiler. And it's extremely irritatating "OFF ROUTE!!!" audio blasts finally broke my resistance down.
I still use RVTW for route planning and will continue to do so.
