Route Planning App

[p40whk]

Not having any luck finding what I'm looking for either as a mobile app or online tool.

I want to plug in my starting point and time and my final destination and my average (estimated) speed then have the App give me the best routes and the time to travel certain distances.

So let's say I left Cincinnati at 3:30pm and wanted to drive west towards Denver 7 hours at an average of 60mph what approximate location would this put me.

Better yet, give me my complete route and when I click on certain locations it gives you how long from your starting point.

Then enter overnight stops and a new starting point for the next day.

Is there something like this out there?

[vmax]

Originally Posted by p40whk

Not having any luck finding what I'm looking for either as a mobile app or online tool.

I want to plug in my starting point and time and my final destination and my average (estimated) speed then have the App give me the best routes and the time to travel certain distances.

So let's say I left Cincinnati at 3:30pm and wanted to drive west towards Denver 7 hours at an average of 60mph what approximate location would this put me.

Better yet, give me my complete route and when I click on certain locations it gives you how long from your starting point.

Then enter overnight stops and a new starting point for the next day.

Is there something like this out there?

Truck Router
This is a good one.

[ependydad]

That Truck Router is pretty neat.

I think www.RVTripWizard.com supports what you want. It's owned by the same people who run this forum. But I've never tried it- I'm too cheap to pay the $36/year.

Personally, I use www.RVParky.com from a computer (not tablet or phone). It has a Trip Planner that's fairly rudimentary but actually works pretty well for me. I know that I tend to travel at about 45 mph once you factor in stops. So 7 hours * 45 mph = 315 miles. I'll start putting in locations and will guess/check until I find something between 300 and 350 miles. Then I'll start looking for RV parks in the area (often using RV Park Reviews - Trusted Reviews of Campgrounds & RV Parks / also owned by the same people who own this forum).

Here's a full write-up of how I attack trip planning:
Let’s go! Trip planning apps and websites | Learn To RV

[p40whk]

Hmm, Truck Router is blocked by my firewall here so I'll have to try that when I get home. The RVtripwizard had so much on the map that it was confusing and the demo doesn't allow the use of any features so not sure I want to drop $39 to see if it works for me.

RVParky is like the standard mapping tools where you need to already know your stops so that's not going to work for me.

I did just stumble on this online tool https://trips.furkot.com/ui

It seems to work so far but I've only played with it for about 10 minutes. Plus, it's free.

I'll check out your write-up tonight!

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by p40whk

RVParky is like the standard mapping tools where you need to already know your stops so that's not going to work for me.

I use RVParky for finding stops when I know my start and destination. For instance, I’ll be headed to Branson in May from Orlando. I know we’ll have a stop in Huntsville. I’ll need to figure stops between here and there.

For me, it comes down to knowing how many hours we want to drive and figuring out an average number of miles per hour we go.

I’ll eyeball the scale of the map and will guess a next location based on that (and major highways between the points). RVParky tells you how far it is between stops. If it’s not far enough, I look a little further and if it’s too far, I look a little closer. I guess and check until I can narrow in a stop at the approximate mileage that I want to go.

I just did this on there for friends who are starting in California and are wanting to make Branson at the same time. They are pretty strict “no more than 250 milers” AND had calendar/time restrictions for how long it could take. It was a fun one!

It’s safe to assume you’ll average 50mph once you factor in breaks, fuel, and meals. Plan for 350 miles per day (at your 7 hours) and you can definitely use RVParky’s Trip Planner. I do it all the time.

[p40whk]

ependydad,

We definitely plan our trips differently. I've made the trek from Cincinnati out to Glacier, Zion, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons (4 different trips to 4 destinations) and in each trip the first leg of the trip is to get as far as possible with minimal stops. It's not uncommon for me to drive 900 miles in a day (granted with many stops).

My next trip is back to Southwest Utah with my first real destination (multiple days) at Capitol Reef National Park. There is literally nothing between Cincinnati and the Colorado Rockies so I tend to want to drive as much through that boring part as fast as I can.

So for me, Planning requires less guessing and more mathematics. I prefer to input the amount of driving time I want to put in (depart at 6am and stop at 10pm), input the mileage my vehicle gets and the average speed and from that figure out where I need to make fuel stops and stop for the night.

That Furkot app I linked above seems to do that (although I haven't figured out the fuel stop portion).

Nothing like a good audio-book to pass the drive time!

[ependydad]

Sounds good. As long as you're comfortable with your plan- we're all different.

My guess and check is all ahead of time on the computer and my 45mph has been proven on hundreds of trips traveled. It is mathematics. The guess and check is simply on the RVParky website as I setup the plan and figure out the stops (which are planned mathematically based on hours * miles).

And we aren't that different.. we've done 500-900 miles a few different times. The 900 miles was a good one- left at 10pm and arrived at 6pm. Maryland to Florida.

Though, I'll challenge your statement that there's literally nothing between those two. Mostly not natural beauty like the rockies and if my time was limited, I'd pick the rockies over the other stops. But, St. Louis was a hoot (Arch, Zoo, City Museum). Kansas City had a cool downtown with a fun LEGO Discovery center, Hallmark Welcome Center, and neat looking aquarium. Western Kansas, we found the Monument Rocks National Natural Landmark to be pretty neat for a couple of hours of exploring plus some goofy roadside attractions to kill a little time.

[vmax]

Yes sir. Truckrouter is a semi truck program. Keeps you off of those windy narrow pucker factor roads. Good for going through the Rockies. I find planning easier than actually completing a prescribed schedule because with 3 girls , 2 dogs and a beta fish forget about keeping to any schedule

[p40whk]

Well, it's usually just me and sometimes a friend but most of my trips are to places to hike and camp (I'm more of the "natural beauty" type of road tripper. I try to stay away from major cities if at all possible and yes, my comment of nothing in between Cincy and the Rockies is just personal preference.

I do understand your logic of 45mph as that number also includes all of your stops.

[carlsbad]

Find an old version of MS Streets and Trips.

[DieselDrax]

Glad I found this thread, the Furkot site is just what I was looking for to plan fuel/sleep stops for our 3-week trip this Summer. Had no problem getting the daily travel time/distance limits as well as fuel stops based on range working. Awesome and free!

[spock123]

When we both worked we would plan everything out, all the stops and drove as far as we could. We are retired now and never plan any route until the last minute. We drive a lot of miles now but if we should get blessed with our two year old great granddaughter then the miles per day will be cut way down and we will have to plan more

[p40whk]

Originally Posted by DieselDrax

Glad I found this thread, the Furkot site is just what I was looking for to plan fuel/sleep stops for our 3-week trip this Summer. Had no problem getting the daily travel time/distance limits as well as fuel stops based on range working. Awesome and free!

Yeah, it's working out well for me as well. I'm planning a two week plus trip in November and trying to get the most out of my time at my destination so I want to minimize the time it takes to get there.

This app is nice in that it lets me shift stopping points to suit my parameters.

[Keystoner]

For those who use the Furkot app, why does it need access to the Contacts list, and photos?

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by carlsbad

Find an old version of MS Streets and Trips.

I can second that MS Streets and Trips (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micros...eets_%26_Trips) does exactly what the OP seems to be asking for. Used to use it in that fashion all the time. You input a start and end spot, your starting time, your ending time, and it showed you where to stop for the night. You could then build in overrides to allow you go that extra 1/2 hour if needed to get to a better location, or end earlier to stay at a better location, etc... Despite being an MS product, it wasn't that bad of an app.

The downside for RVing though was that it was built around simple car GPS. I don't remember being able to do any height, length, width, turning radius or other type of restrictions on it.

The Wiki site above seems to mention some alternatives to S&T, but I have no experience with any of those.

[p40whk]

Originally Posted by Keystoner

For those who use the Furkot app, why does it need access to the Contacts list, and photos?

I use it on the computer/web and signed in with my Google account, I don't remember it asking me for that when I signed in but there are sharing features associated with it that may require emails but not sure about photos. I read their Privacy Policy and didn't see anything that was out of the ordinary.

[Keystoner]

For the phone app the info is under "permissions" not privacy.