Sat Nav - Motorhome Friendly

[Shandyotoole]

I would sugget you try the Co Pilot app on your mobile phone. Allows you to input the dimensions of your vehicle (L W & H) and select the most practical route over the fastest.

Used it over 700 miles in Wales abd 700 miles in the North of England and scotland recently without issue. Also gives live traffic updates and speed limits and will bluetooth into the radio for verbal instructions

The good thing is you get a 2 week free trial to see if it works for you. Think its about £25.00 after that , does not auto renew so no CCard details required.

Run it along side your usual system and compare

Obvs if there is only one way to get to a remote site they will be the same, however , this should not take you to where your MH cannot go.

 

[Mike Warland]

Anyone tried RoadLords? That allows you to enter vehicle dimensions.

Yes I used it this month on a trip to Scottish Highlands and it performed quite well although on one part of the A9 north of Perth the road had been relocated a hundred yards and clearly the sat nav did not have the change as it kept trying to take me off. I also found the speed shown to be very erratic. Often showing 10mph faster.

 

[Norfolk Nige]

. It can be a little confusing as to what a Avtex Tourer 2 is. As I understand it it is a Garmin Camper 780 with pre-loaded sites for CAMC.

Not just CAMC SITES.pretty much every one. I am happy with mine, always got me where I want to go. Mind you I have always ignored sat navs when I know where I am.

 

[Wee Bold Davy]

I think we've all become very lazy (that includes me) when it comes to route planning. For 12 years I drove lorries doing deliveries to both business and to customers homes. I carried a good road atlas and countless town/ city street maps. We had around a dozen drivers and all had bought various town maps (covering all of Scotland) and we passed photo copies to the other drivers so that we all had a complete set and rarely became unstuck. If I couldn't find any place I did what my mum always taught me ' You've gote a good Scotch tongue in yer heid, use it'.
I still have all those maps even though it's almost 20 years since I used them, not much use here in Wales!
I wouldn't be with my sat nav now, I love them. I often wonder how I managed without one although I still carry a truckers map in the mh.

 

[POH]

Mine sits in on the passenger seat with a map book and gives pretty good directions

Yeah but you gotta feed and water that one and they get grumpy quite often

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[Boomba's]

We just brought and fitted the Aguri comes with a built in dash cam.
Just entre in all your vehicle sizes and all seems to work well. Possible a little on the quite side mind.

 

[Wee Bold Davy]

Yeah but you gotta feed and water that one and they get grumpy quite often

What are you doing with my wife in your vehicle

 

[dochiley]

OK so CoPilot, has anybody else used it enough to pass judgement?

There is a certain logic of using the technology in the kit (phone) you have and not spend another £300/£500 duplicating all but the software!!

 

[drpeej]

Cant blame the SatNav but I once took a wrong turn and went through the back lanes of Mousehole.

I would imagine they are still talking about me.

 

[Guigsy]

I used CoPilot in north Norfolk. Sent me down the same extremely narrow roads as Google. And tried to send me through a 6'6" section when I'd input my width. As did RoadLords and Sygic Truck.

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[84546]

My Garmin Drive 50 Sat Nav always picks routes which include unnecessary sections down tiny lanes to the point where I don't want to use it. Can anyone suggest any settings or changes I can make to Garmin or a more motorhome friendly Sat Nav? Google maps consistently provides more motorhome friendly routes but I don't have the data to use it in Europe.

We have had a Garmin Camper 770 for a few years now. Far better than our previous "camper" satnav (a Snooper Venura as recommended by the Caravan Club, which was awful). The Garmin can store the camper's dimensions and even comes with loads of campsites preloaded. Not cheap, but well worth what we paid for it. We now use it in preference to the sat nav pre-installed on our Adria Twin.

 

[Mike123]

My Sat Nav took me through Nant Gwyant in Snowden - in theory if the road is big enough for one vehicle it may send you in that direction.

I didn't know the route (should have checked before) - but hey what views we got.

 

[Guigsy]

There are lots of tiny back country roads that are technically fine for everything including an HGV. But everyone would be making use of passing points. If that's the only road into a quaint little camp site, then your satnav should use it.

But a motorhome satnav should assume the journey time on these roads is very slow. Then, when it's finding the fastest route, it's unlikely to route you down them. But I've not seen any satnavs that are any good at doing this. They just seem to think you'll manage to go much faster than you do.

 

[JockandRita]

But a motorhome satnav should assume the journey time on these roads is very slow. Then, when it's finding the fastest route, it's unlikely to route you down them. But I've not seen any satnavs that are any good at doing this. They just seem to think you'll manage to go much faster than you do.

I set my maximum speed for single carriageways, for the type of vehicle I am driving, eg, 50Mph/80Kph, which gives me a very realistic destination arrival time. When I check the alternative routes, they can often show different mileages and timings.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Guigsy]

I set my maximum speed for single carriageways, for the type of vehicle I am driving, eg, 50Mph/80Kph, which gives me a very realistic destination arrival time. When I check the alternative routes, they can often show different mileages and timings.

Cheers,

Jock.

The issue is that tiny single tracks across the Highlands are very different from the A5. But a lot of satnavs can't tell.

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[JockandRita]

The issue is that tiny single tracks across the Highlands are very different from the A5. But a lot of satnavs can't tell.

Agreed, but it does take into account speed limits. Would a tiny single track across the Highlands have a 60Mph speed limit?

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[John Russell]

I've been using Sygic Truck on Android with a Samsung S5e - great display, bright 10" screen - but had a few problems with Sygic's maps.

I'm looking at trying TomTom MyDrive Android app; under 'Plan Route' there is a tiny vehicle icon on the right, above the map. Tap on that and you can select Camper - light, heavy or car with caravan - and enter dimensions, weight, axle weight and maximum speed. There's a small annual subscription for the app.

Locally TomTom's maps and routing seem more accurate than Sygic's for larger vehicles.

These are also available from the web app https://mydrive.tomtom.com/en_gb and routes can be transferred to the Android app on the same account.

Has anyone used this?

 

[Jasz]

Avtex Tourer 2

I find the Avtex Tourer 2 is better in car settings than camper setting. If I go down a better route than it suggests then in car settings it quickly changes to the way I want to go. If I change my route in camper setting it keeps trying to send me down tiny little lanes (far smaller than the road I am on) to get back to the route it wanted me to go down in the first place.
Although you can view and adapt the route before you start it is not always easy to go through the whole journey.

 

[Guigsy]

Would a tiny single track across the Highlands have a 60Mph speed limit?

Yep. All national speed limit.

 

[MikeMex]

OK so CoPilot, has anybody else used it enough to pass judgement?

There is a certain logic of using the technology in the kit (phone) you have and not spend another £300/£500 duplicating all but the software!!

I’ve used Copilot for a good few years now on my iPad and iPhone. Pretty good for the car but not so good for the MH, took me down some pretty tight roads. Take at look at the reviews, they are not good. I agree that if you get a dedicated SAT NAV you are paying for the screen and associated electronics which you already have with iPhone/iPad/tablet/android phone etc., but I bit the bullet and bought the Avtex Tourer 2 (a Garmin 780 with pre-installed CMAC sites) which is not perfect but one of the best SAT NAVs I have ever owned and works well for my MH in the UK and France. You can search for any campsite, and has many other good MH features.

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[MikeMex]

Yep. All national speed limit.

Absolutely - 60 for a MH up to 3500kg, 50 for MH over 3500kg on single track roads unless marked otherwise.

 

[Howard B]

I sacked my Garmin Camper as it was too cautious. Took me on routes which it didnt need to that added miles to the trip.

 

[tonyidle]

Agreed, but it does take into account speed limits. Would a tiny single track across the Highlands have a 60Mph speed limit?

Cheers,

Jock.

It would. All single carriageway (or single track) roads unless otherwise signed are limited to 60mph.

 

[Badknee]

it’s the standard Boxer unit so I’d have thought it would understand the vehicle dimensions and stick to more realistic routes. (To be fair we‘ve never actually got stuck, just don’t like going down lanes where both mirrors are touching the hedges…)

It’s a standard boxer cab which the sat nag knows about but someone stuck a house on the back of it that it doesn’t know about

 

[JockandRita]

Yep. All national speed limit.

Absolutely - 60 for a MH up to 3500kg, 50 for MH over 3500kg on single track roads unless marked otherwise.

It would. All single carriageway (or single track) roads unless otherwise signed are limited to 60mph.

Yes yes yes, I am well aware of the appropriate speed limits for varying vehicles/weights, etc. I was suggesting that the full length of the tiny roads through the Highlands may/will be subjected to mandatory speed restrictions at certain areas, in the interest of road safety, ie, which the programmed Sat Nav would take into account when providing a route and timings.

Cheers,

Jock.

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[MillieMoocher]

It’s a standard boxer cab which the sat nag knows about but someone stuck a house on the back of it that it doesn’t know about

No, it’s a PVC so the external dimensions are identical to the LWB van (well, technically, minibus) the factory sold to Autosleeper …

 

[vzac]

We have a human co pilot and use a old fashioned map, in actual paper form. When we get stuck, we have a little row, though the book have a laugh and pick up the book again. About £15.99 per yr,, as book does get a good battering.