Motorhome satnavs

[EileenandSteve]

Following the decapitation of our satellite tv dome in a Paris underpass, we’ve decided to buy a motorhome-specific satnav. Are these useful and reliable? What are the best models?

 

[Snails Pace Ste]

Following the decapitation of our satellite tv dome in a Paris underpass, we’ve decided to buy a motorhome-specific satnav. Are these useful and reliable? What are the best models?

I recently purchased an avtex garmin which enables you to put in your vehicle and its dimensions and comes with free lifetime map updates and is now running on the 2020 version . It also has caravan and motorhome club listings for UK and European club sites with various other site listings with foursquare, TripAdvisor and various other searches built in. Option for a bluetooth reversing camera voice command and hands free calling. They are very expensive though, in my opinion but having tried others this can't be beat.

 

[Eyegeedee]

Thanks - really helpful. Will probably avoid reliance on internet connection and go for dedicated satnav. The Garmin one you mentioned has some good reviews - do any other Funsters have views on Garmin versus Tomtom or other make?

I can only comment on the Garmin. I have used it extensively in the UK, Holland, Germany and Italy. I found it to be very accurate and directions were always spot on.

 

[edzt]

I'll give a shout out to an old iPad air 2, Garmin Glo and Co-Pilot app subscription.

How well does the Glo work, I’ve read it doesn’t work with Waze or Google maps

 

[Snails Pace Ste]

I have only ever used Garmin as long before Tom Tom and all the others came out if you were on a boat or a ship or most forms of transport except traffic you would see Garmin domes of receivers so they know there stuff. If you choose Garmin look out for the letters L.M.T. in the model name as this means FREE lifetime map updates and have just done mine after remembering angle now have 2020 software os and maps.

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[AndyVW]

Snooper.. Motorhome version, free updates, never put a foot wrong, heights, speeds, and weights, High side winds, all notified, Vehicle Dimension programmed in, Bluetooth your phone, yes its expensive.
I guess you get what you pay fore.

 

[Snails Pace Ste]

I know it's all down to personal preference, I'm no expert and I did say they're expensive and I certainly wouldn't have got one if it weren't for the fact that I only paid (believe this or not) £34!!! from someone on Ebay who didn't know what they had.

 

[DJA]

But....you can if planning online and sync to the app....so far so good...

Be aware if you create the route using the My Drive Website or App and send the stops to a TT Device or App the route may change and it will advise you of an Traffic issues during your journey. If having created the route you save it in My Drive and then sync it to a TT device or the App then you have created a Breadcrumb route that will be followed exactly and you will not be advised of any Traffic issues.

 

[DJA]

Hi Richard-Denise

If you use the My Drive Website or the My Drive phone App you can create routes and save them there to your My Routes folder. You have to check the box that yo want the route to su=ync to your devices so that when the Go Navigation App on your phone logs into your My Drive account then it should sync a route you have created and saved to the My Routes folder in the App. Be aware any route created and synced this way is fixed based on the rules set when created for the route ie MoHo but you will not get Traffic data and be able to redirect based on the new data. If however you use the My Drive Website or the My Drive App you can plan a route and send the stops to the Go Nav App or a TT device. The difference doing it this way is that the App will check and change the route your receive on the basis of it being a car in the App or the Vehicle set depending on the TT model, but whatever the result you will receive Traffic data and can amend the route accordingly to avoid any delays.

 

[deleted79651]

Feeling quite pleased with myself after last week's faux pas when I fixed the Garmin 780 Screen Sucker to the windscreen before I realised that this would foul on the Remis Screen Blinds. A moment of inspiration! Move the Sucker to the multimedia screen, after all, we don't use it for navigation now and we won't be faffing around with DVDs etc. Told Elaine who just looked at me for about 3 seconds ...

'You've been playing around all week trying to get the Reversing Camera to work, how you gonnae see the screen now?' ...

Take 3: Move the Screen Sucker to the otherwise redundant interior mirror. No blinds, no reversing cameras, but it may be designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for the Lesser Spotted Fife Tsetse Fly during the breeding season of 1st January to 31st December ...

Steve

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[Guigsy]

I used to work in the "intelligent transport systems" industry (and kinda still do). Mapping is hard. Not many companies have the resources to create maps useful for satnav. Keeping the mapping up to date is also expensive. There are only a few companies that can afford to continuously send cars around the network. So whoever you get your satnav device from, the mapping is probably bought from one of the handful of providers. Last time I looked, they were all way slower at making updates than Google.

Most of the mapping companies prioritise the data they collect based on how many customers it affects. Layout of a new road or junction is obviously top priority. Information about which lanes to take, or matching the voice guidance to whatever the road signs say is slightly less important. But not many customers use width, height and weight restrictions. So most mapping companies don't provide accurate data on how suitable a road is for your motorhome. Instead, the data is often based on guessing from some hand tweaked algorithms. Like how fast the average car travels down a road (slow even though it's a 60mph suggests it's tight) or whether trucks regularly use the road.

The other thing is traffic information. There's lots of ways of collecting traffic data, but they are all pretty unresponsive compared to tracking vast numbers of people's phones/satnavs in real time. There are always occasions where number plate recognition cameras can spot poor journey times, or someone phones 'Sally Traffic' with good info. But most of it now is generated by 'floating vehicle' data. Again, Google has a lot of this. Some mobile phone providers get reasonable data by triangulating the position of their vast number of users and spotting unusual speeds and flogging the data on. Even stuff like Waze is just providing additional info to the fact they know there's already an issue there because you are driving unusually slowly.

 

[deleted79651]

Even stuff like Waze is just providing additional info to the fact they know there's already an issue there because you are driving unusually slowly.

I'm driving unusually slowly because I'm still trying to hold the standalone satnav steady. There may be other reasons ...

Steve

 

[Jonno1103]

That's odd, i didn't know they ran off an sd card, and i have had the avics for years, i'm not saying you are wrong, but that doesn't sound right?
we have an avic 70 nav in my wifes little runabout car, i had to have that one in bits, to cut to the chase it does not have an sd card internally?
I would update it to the latest firmware, and maps, both free, see if it works, it might
What model is it?

Avic 70 DAB. the slot is behind the panel screen next to the microphone jack.

 

[MITHRANDIR]

Avic 70 DAB. the slot is behind the panel screen next to the microphone jack.

Yes but that is for reading/updating no sd card in there at the mo.

 

[Beemobile]

Don’t trust any sat nav. I have just acquired ( not bought or i wouldn’t be happy) Garmin 890 new with the latest update,tried it last week going to an industrial estate at Leyland my £80 truck nav took me straight to it Garmin decided it was more fun to go through the houses and in the back way . On the way back i took a different route to what was in the Garmin but it didnt want to re route just kept trying to turn round. When I left Leyland I was 80 miles from home sat nav had me 120 miles away at one point.

Scenic route!

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[DumfriesDik]

How well does the Glo work, I’ve read it doesn’t work with Waze or Google maps

I know the iPad will not work without it of course. I use it with CoPilot, pretty sure it works with Google, not tried Waze - I'll download and check it out later.

 

[Peggy Poo]

The gory details coming up. Our van height is 2.9 but with the tv dome it’s 3.2. The damage was done by the very first set of height warning “curtains” hanging down from the top of the underpass announcing a height of 2.9. We were at them before we could do anything (Friday night rush hour in Paris! Now, there’s a lesson for the future) and we expected a light brushing like you get from the ones at the Eurotunnel but they absolutely whammed heavily onto the roof like they were made of chain link and smashed off the dome! We saw no height warning before we reached the fatal height warning but maybe we didn’t look carefully enough, what with negotiating the Paris traffic. We’ll pay more attention in future.

I wish we had seen your post!! We saw no warnings before the first barrier which we sailed under, the second one hit hard and scratched our roof light… fortunately we managed to navigate round the third which I think would have acted as a ‘tin opener’. Be WARNED of height restrictions