Mapping programs and Garmin RV770

I had a Gamin C330, it was one of the Garmin's first with commercial programing. Was it perfect? for the most part passable. I was a training engineer for one of the major truck lines and trained drivers to use it and their 'Drivers Atlas' together to verify clearances and restricted routes. My favorite thing was to have the Garmin programed to take the shortest route to one of our local consignees. I knew that within five miles of our destination that the garmin would try to take us into a street that had a five ton weight limit. I have seen several drivers set up for the turn and stop because common sense told them that a 80,000 pound vehicle should not be on that residential street. This was a useful tool. You need to have good software in your GPS and with that being said, back up your route with the knowledge of what your driving/hauling with a 'commercial driving atlas' that has all of the restrictions and height restrictions for your next adventure.

Ralph Cramden wrote:
Get Google maps on your phone, and carry a good and up to date paper map.

Garmin's database is far from perfect and even when a discrepancy is reported to them multiple times they fail to update/correct it. Don't be surprised if it directs you to campgrounds that are miles from where it tells you, to a bridge washed out in 2011 that will never be rebuilt, or to a locked gate on a one lane road requiring backing up 3/4 of a mile to turn around which is the maintenance road to an ACOE dam, yet Garmin says it is the campground entrance that is in actuality 10 miles away. The Garmin RV760 LMT that I just had to have when it was first released back in 2012 or 2013 was the biggest waste of $400 I ever spent. Also the fact you get 20 miles from the Interstate and its going to tell you "RV Accessibility unknown" in a lot of cases. The RV height and size feature works great if you never leave the main highway LOL.

My thoughts exactly. I have the Garmin RV760LMT with up to date maps. All I have to do is turn it on and it will get me lost. I never really trust it now. I use a trucker's atlas to plan my route and use the GPS to look ahead for diesel, food, etc. My phone has a better map program. The last time I was on I40 going through Oklahoma City it kept telling me I had to exit as there was a low clearance ahead (I'm under 12 feet high). I noticed the 18 wheelers were not exiting so I decided to take a chance but the Garmin kept telling me to exit. It even got to a point where it had a screen pop up that made me hit a button to confirm that I was ignoring the Garmin directions. Made it all the way to New Mexico and never saw a low bridge. It has done similar mis-directions many times but this was the craziest. I still use it when on the interstates to look for services at upcoming exits. My guess is if you program it to go to Alaska you'll probably find yourself heading south into Florida as it takes you around the world to Alaska. When I want to get lost I program the Garmin to head to Dallas, Texas so I can find all the dirt roads on the way. I never trust it any more but use the trucker's atlas and it has never been wrong. The Garmin was wrong many, many times. Can you tell I really don’t trust the Garmin?

Garmin Basecamp is supposed to convert routes from RV Trip Wizard to upload to my RV760. I tried it once, without success, and never bothered again. It will probably work for someone who wants to sort it out.

But I do use the combination of RV Trip Wizard and the RV760. The RV Trip Wizard will output a file with the geographic coordinates for the campgrounds that I have planned for our trip. These become “points of interest” to the RV760. I upload this file to the RV760 using the free downloadable Garmin POILoader program. Using this method, the RV760 has without fail taken me precisely to the entrance to the campground.

Note that the file I use gives coordinates for the end points for each leg, not the route to travel to get there. The RV760 figures out the route, but my trust in it to choose the most practical route is low. Therefore, I plan a route using the FMCA road atlas, and I also have an ancient TomTom, that I program with the street address of the campground, on the dash beside the RV760. In case of disagreement, I most often follow the TomTom route. (So, why not simply load the waypoints to the TomTom? Because loading is a more difficult process on TomTom.)

Wayne

Ralph Cramden wrote:
Get Google maps on your phone, and carry a good and up to date paper map.

Garmin's database is far from perfect and even when a discrepancy is reported to them multiple times they fail to update/correct it. Don't be surprised if it directs you to campgrounds that are miles from where it tells you, to a bridge washed out in 2011 that will never be rebuilt, or to a locked gate on a one lane road requiring backing up 3/4 of a mile to turn around which is the maintenance road to an ACOE dam, yet Garmin says it is the campground entrance that is in actuality 10 miles away. The Garmin RV760 LMT that I just had to have when it was first released back in 2012 or 2013 was the biggest waste of $400 I ever spent. Also the fact you get 20 miles from the Interstate and its going to tell you "RV Accessibility unknown" in a lot of cases. The RV height and size feature works great if you never leave the main highway LOL.

I agree 100% I have the RV 760 it is horrible I hate the thing. I have thought about throwing it out of the truck window,someday I will most likely do it.
The mapping is terrible it will put you on dirt roads and has taken me 30 miles out of the way.
I have changed all the settings and have also called garmin support. Nothing helps this thing.
I use google maps now with much better results.
I have a 400 dollar paper weight,I will never buy another garmin gps.

Ralph Cramden wrote:

Lantley wrote:
You guys are selling the RV760 a bit short. I have had one for a few years now and have not had an major issues. I particularly like the integrated BC-20 wireless camera.
The GPS is only as smart as the operator, shortest distance setting includes dirt roads for this reason I never use shortest distance setting.
As always never trust any GPS 100%. Always verify with a 2nd source.

I'm not selling anything short...it's a piece of bug infested garbage at least where the database is concerned. The people I have met face to face at campgrounds who have purchased one, which is at least half a dozen or so, had the same opinion of it. Maybe you have the only one in existence that actually operates as Garmin's claims. The GPS is only as smart as Garmin's database which is flawed in a lot of cases, and despite being notified of the flaws through Garmin's own reporting system they created they do not make the reported corrections. At least they haven't over the last 5 years on the 5 inaccuracies I have reported, some of them multiple times.

X2 on what Ralph says. The 760 virtually ALWAYS gives a disclaimer it does not know the RV capabilities of any road rather than interstate hwys. It has directed me on very small farm roads that are not big enough for RV's and chosen them only because shorter. The 760 does not have a preferance setting for major hwys over shortest route like most other GPS's do. Of course I know to have a second source. In my case i have found Google maps on my phone picks the better hwys than the RV760 does so when they disagree, I go with Google, not Garmin now!

Lantley wrote:
You guys are selling the RV760 a bit short. I have had one for a few years now and have not had an major issues. I particularly like the integrated BC-20 wireless camera.
The GPS is only as smart as the operator, shortest distance setting includes dirt roads for this reason I never use shortest distance setting.
As always never trust any GPS 100%. Always verify with a 2nd source.

we've had one since it came out and I agree. I love the wireless camera, one of the very very few that is designed to work at the back end of a long trailer.

As for the mapping and directions, again, shortest distance means exactly that.

Garmin gets the map info like most others from a common source, yes it isn't perfect, I agree.

But at the same time I've used it to travel on FS improved and unimproved roads to find obsure out of the way site seeing places and it was dead on tracking the FS roads and correct turns (which anymore often aren't marked since vandals sometimes destroy the markers). In some cases even better and more accurate than USGS maps that hadn't been updated in a few years.

Lantley wrote:
You guys are selling the RV760 a bit short. I have had one for a few years now and have not had an major issues. I particularly like the integrated BC-20 wireless camera.
The GPS is only as smart as the operator, shortest distance setting includes dirt roads for this reason I never use shortest distance setting.
As always never trust any GPS 100%. Always verify with a 2nd source.

I'm not selling anything short...it's a piece of bug infested garbage at least where the database is concerned. The people I have met face to face at campgrounds who have purchased one, which is at least half a dozen or so, had the same opinion of it. Maybe you have the only one in existence that actually operates as Garmin's claims. The GPS is only as smart as Garmin's database which is flawed in a lot of cases, and despite being notified of the flaws through Garmin's own reporting system they created they do not make the reported corrections. At least they haven't over the last 5 years on the 5 inaccuracies I have reported, some of them multiple times.

I use a combo of google maps and a paper map to plan a route, then put that into our Rand-McNally GPS. I never turn on a dirt road unless I know it well, regardless of who tells me to go that way.
My wife is very good with maps and the GPS is used more as a reminder for upcoming turns, which lane to get into, how far we have to go, is there a gas station nearby, etc.
Lots of campgrounds tell you not to use a GPS to find them as well as a lot of other places.

X3

It only takes a little forethought to go through the various settings to pick the ones you want or need.

On mine for instance, since I normally do not like toll roads, I will set my Garmin RV660 LMT to ask if I want to use toll roads when the Garmin makes a route than includes them. I can either say yes, include, or no, exclude. If I pick exclude, the Garmin will do another route that includes no toll roads. And IIRC, there is a choice which causes the Garmin to never include a toll road.

I think dirt roads is an exclusion choice also.

And as has been mentioned, always double check. Never accept a Garmin on blind trust. But even paper maps will usually not tell how steep the road may or may not be.

GordonThree wrote:

Lantley wrote:
You guys are selling the RV760 a bit short. I have had one for a few years now and have not had an major issues. I particularly like the integrated BC-20 wireless camera.
The GPS is only as smart as the operator, shortest distance setting includes dirt roads for this reason I never use shortest distance setting.
As always never trust any GPS 100%. Always verify with a 2nd source.

X2 ... I enjoy using my 760, but always have a grain of salt ready (using alternative maps) to double check it. Usually have it set up for quickest route and avoid dirt road turned on.

For folks that blindly follow a machine's commands either Garmin or Google, I just shake my head.

Lantley wrote:
You guys are selling the RV760 a bit short. I have had one for a few years now and have not had an major issues. I particularly like the integrated BC-20 wireless camera.
The GPS is only as smart as the operator, shortest distance setting includes dirt roads for this reason I never use shortest distance setting.
As always never trust any GPS 100%. Always verify with a 2nd source.

X2 ... I enjoy using my 760, but always have a grain of salt ready (using alternative maps) to double check it. Usually have it set up for quickest route and avoid dirt road turned on.

For folks that blindly follow a machine's commands either Garmin or Google, I just shake my head.