Phone as gps

[cfd225]

I am looking for an app that we can use as out gps. I want to put in the truck and trailer combo so it does not send us down roads we would not fit. I know there are units we can get, was wondering if some one has found one as an app.

[RGar974417]

Last year we went to Missouri from Pa.We used our $325.00 RV GPS to get us to a campground in Indiana.The next leg to a campground in Missouri,our expensive GPS wouldn't allow us to enter the campground address so we used my Samsung S4 and it worked great.

[SCVJeff]

SCVJeff wrote:
Wife overheats too, tells you where to go even of voice nav was off, and doesn't need to be plugged in

And Wife doesn't cool down as fast as an overheated cellphone...

[SCVJeff]

Wife overheats too, tells you where to go even of voice nav was off, and doesn't need to be plugged in

[kvangil]

I have a corporate iphone with shared data across all of our phones. We don't come close to maxing out the data, so I simply use the iphone for GPS; use Google Maps app. Used it on our South Dakota trip last year from Illinois, and it worked fine all the way, through remote areas and a thunderstorm. Can't complain....

[OutdoorPhotogra]

I use both my phone and built in nav system in my truck. No experience with garmin/tom tom/etc.

Many of the objections to phones here are no longer valid or paritally valid. GPS works wtihout cell coverage but you needed to route while you have coverage or have downloaded the maps. No issues with phone calls, etc.

One issue I have that has been mentioned and can be a deal breaker is my iPhone 6 overheats when I keep the map on. It did it to me last Saturday and it was a mild day but phone was in sun combined with google maps. Fine for city but not long term. It does zap the battery too but you can charge it easily in the car.

What I like is traffic info so I will often use phone and truck nav system to see traffic if I expect it to be congested.

[goducks10]

willald wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
If the GPS fails then use a voice activated route service. It's called a Wife. It will roll down the window automatically and ask for directions. It's free and doesn't need any cell towers or satellites. 🙂

Nice. 🙂

However, anyone that thinks a 'wife' is anything REMOTELY like 'free'....Welll, they either live in a serious dream world, or haven't been married very long. 🙂

Will

Haha, true.

[willald]

goducks10 wrote:
If the GPS fails then use a voice activated route service. It's called a Wife. It will roll down the window automatically and ask for directions. It's free and doesn't need any cell towers or satellites. 🙂

Nice. 🙂

However, anyone that thinks a 'wife' is anything REMOTELY like 'free'....Welll, they either live in a serious dream world, or haven't been married very long. 🙂

Will

[goducks10]

If the GPS fails then use a voice activated route service. It's called a Wife. It will roll down the window automatically and ask for directions. It's free and doesn't need any cell towers or satellites. 🙂

[Naio]

I use a combination of physical maps for fine detail, google maps on my phone, and web research when parked with wifi. I don't have a stand-alone GPS.

I hate messing with ANY of that stuff while driving, so before I start I make myself a hardcopy, handwritten list of turns. Yep, I actually write it down in a notebook: 'L on 147, R on 95,' etc.

If I saw an app with the level of detail that AAA or Forest Service maps have, I would get it! Anybody know of one?

I use paper maps to get around google maps' insistence that only the main roads exist. Even if I zoom in to the level where you see individual buildings, it often refuses to admit there are roads there. But if I type in the name of a road, gleaned from a paper map, then, lo, there it is! I also like to be able to see the big picture, which is nearly impossible on a small screen.

And paper maps have a romance to them.. But I do keep trying to spread my fingers to zoom in :).

[MrWizard]

When was the last time you read or saw on the news
That reading the map caused the accident ?

Far more drivers distracted by their electronic devices

My memory still functions well enough, that I can remember what exit number and name I want that's 2 hours up the road, and watch for it
And like I said my mapping app on the phone will show me where I am
I don't need it to say get off here at 0.5 miles

Too each his own

[holstein13]

MrWizard wrote:
Here is my take on the situation
I'm a tech geek, but I use physical maps for route planning
I do not want turn by turn directions from any machine/device
I do use mapping and tracking on my phone, to track my position, miles covered etc..
But Not to tell me where the exits are or where to turn...NOT for directions
Technically GPS stands for global positioning system
Position info
Not directions info, I don't need a dash board mounted electronic driver telling need "where to go"
There would be less people going down the wrong road, getting lost and stuck, if they didn't use them for directions

I used to do the same thing 30 years ago but got frustrated by outdated maps, small, hard to read, cluttered maps, having a hard time figuring out where, exactly I was on the map, having to turn on the "map" light at night to read the thing. etc.

I'm also a tech geek, but I actually use tech now to solve those problems. My modern day GPS pinpoints my location, finds the shortest route, adapts to changing traffic conditions, reads out the turn-by-turn directions, helps me with lane choices as I approach the exit and a host of other useful things.

I wouldn't go back to paper maps unless, there was no other choice. There would be far fewer accidents and confusion if everyone used a GPS rather than being distracted reading paper maps.

[MrWizard]

Here is my take on the situation
I'm a tech geek, but I use physical maps for route planning
I do not want turn by turn directions from any machine/device
I do use mapping and tracking on my phone, to track my position, miles covered etc..
But Not to tell me where the exits are or where to turn...NOT for directions
Technically GPS stands for global positioning system
Position info
Not directions info, I don't need a dash board mounted electronic driver telling need "where to go"
There would be less people going down the wrong road, getting lost and stuck, if they didn't use them for directions

[APT]

I've been using Google Maps for Mobile for something like 10 years since Blackberry. Location based searches, quick access to current data and pionts of interest, and direct dial when we find what we want. Both our vehicles also have OEM navigation systems that we use for longer trips and routing, but in any city, GMM on smartphone just provides a far better and quicker experience.

[travelnutz]

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy S5 Android and it gives the full GPS mapping plus a lot more than my Garmin or my Tom Tom.

Her Samsung S5 has a free GPS and travel AP that gives your actual GPS location with a blue dot on the road or in a parking lot etc within + or - 1 meter (+ or - 3 ft) on very detailed color maps and you can enlarge the area with your fingers to less than about 1 city block area in size, the elevation where you are to the foot or meter depending on which you select, your speed to 1/10 mph, Compass direction of travel to the degree, the engine RPM's, the posted speed limits where you are, the temperature F or C where you are, the humidity level where you are, your route planned and showing any traffic tie ups/accidents, etc and routes you around them, miles traveled and miles to go, gives any weather alerts and tells you when rain or snow will start and when it will end in hrs/minutes, and the screen looks just like our Garmin background map screen. Tap on the question mark and it gives a list of points of interest where you are or CG's or fuel staions or resturants, or stores, etc. Tap again and it gives the directions to what you'd selected. A lot more info given but I can't remember all of it without looking at it. Voice command operated if desired or type info in or select the locations wanted on the map also.

We just got back on Thursday night from a 2+ week trip to the Smoky Mtns NP from West Michigan and guess which GPS we uesd? Maybe better to say the Garmin wasn't even plugged in! Before she got her Samsung S5 a year ago, the Garmin was the best with our Tom Tom as a back up but now the Garmin is just the backup. I have a Marine Garmin for our main boat though as they don't have the high quality waterway navagation maps I want yet for the cell but they say it's coming in 2016. Cell will work over open water for 20-30 reliable miles from shore depending on where the tower is located. Sometimes it's worked over open water more than 60 miles from the towers but may become iffy.

My wife and her cell is our co-pilot and has gotten very good at it!