RV-specific GPS. Is it worth it?

[Mustang79]

Have a Garmin RV version and won't leave home without it. Drove from Oregon to Florida and around the Carolina's, Nashville, Minnesota and S. Dakota and back home. Its total peace of mine. During the trip, warned us a couple times about dead ends and lack of turnarounds. On one trip, can't recall where, it warned of a 13' bridge. We are 13'1". I grabbed a turnout and disconnected the Jeep to scope it out. Turns out it was an older arched tunnel with 13' clearance on the lower right and left edge. We were fine, but the point was it provided a great heads up. No brainer.

[GregoryL]

I have a Rand McNally RVND 7725 we got few years ago. It's been great for us, input RV size, height, weight, length, propane tanks etc.
Has weather, and traffic (with wifi), lifetime updates, 7 inch screen, adjustable speed warnings, steep hill, sharp curve ahead warnings, upcoming turn alerts, very good split screen for upcoming freeway exits, so you can get in right lane, with adjustable warning distance. It lets you adjust the allowance for trip time to give better estimates of arrival time depending on your driving habits.
In the destination has a button for Travel Centers, so you don't have to search through lists with just plain gas stations.

Has some minor map glitches, speed zones, or errors (like all GPS) but has excellent

Feed back feature when you do map updates to send to Rand.
Can also switch to "car mode easily.

[Lighting546]

I have the factory navigation system in my F-350 that I use only when I’m not towing my Puma 257RESS 30’ 5th wheel. When I’m headed out on a camping trip I use an older Cobra trucker gps, it came with lifetime free map updates and has saved my bacon on more than 1 occasion.

I used to haul a lot of hazmat loads that require taking specific routes and without the gps I would have broken the rules and driven straight through a city using the shortest route possible. With the gps I use it lets you enter in the length, height and weight of your trailer and the same info for your tow vehicle, once that information is entered it won’t route me on roads that have any kind of restrictions. We have a Petro and 2 Pilot truck stops in the town I live in, and the side road you have to take to get to the fuel pumps and the truck parking area is weight restricted to a max of 30,000 pounds, I would have never known that info if it wasn’t for the trucker gps unit that I have.

On one trip to Perth Amboy, NJ it kept me from taking the route my fleet manager sent me when he assigned that load to me. The route he sent me had me taking an exit from the interstate that had a 12’ 6” overpass. The one thing it didn’t do properly is that it didn’t tell me to avoid a street that had double parking , it took the help of a couple of city cops to stop traffic so that I could backup and take a different route back to the interstate.

I also used to use my laptop and the co-pilot software as my gps and like others have said it wasn’t the best thing to use, especially for hazmat loads.

[Le Whaley]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

My garmin came with lifetime maps AND traffic. (770) but I'll also mention that you can get the CO-PILOT app for your phone which DOWNLOADS the maps you need into the phone memory so you are not reliant on a good cell connection like google.
They have a reasonably priced RV specific app. We run both when on the road as they won't always agree. Either way...I would not leave the interstate without an RV specific route BUT it is also important to note that not every road that will accommodate you is included as "safe".
When it looks like I'm being routed the long way... I'll also hit google maps satellite view and look for trucks on the road I'm thinking about taking. So far...so good!

My experience with CO-PILOT was that it kept locking up once I started my route.

[Grampy Dan]

Like all devices they can have issue that may cause you problems. After my GPS led me astray, I decided to double down and use two systems to reduce possible errors.

I set my GPS that shows tunnels, bridges and traffic issues plus I use Maps on my iPhone.

Works for me. 👍

[RCPatt]

We got the Garmin DEZL (I think 770) as we figured if it was used by truckers it would work for us since with our 5th wheel we are almost as long as a semi-rig.
Never had an issue and update annually just before the season at no cost. You enter all your information which it retains and your good to go. When sightseeing without the trailer (car mode) you can set it with the push of a button so that your not directed to routes that only can be used pulling the trailer. Updates to the main database may be a little behind occasionally as I was warned once of a low overhead when the bridge had been removed totally the prior year.

[LittleBill]

Thinking about maybe getting a dedicated GPS. Question for those of you have one - Do any of them give live traffic and possibly reroute you around problems (construction, accidents, etc.)? Don't necessarily want to sit in a traffic jam if it can be helped.

[Mikeytheb]

Originally Posted by BaltimoreMark

My Garmin 770 gps works most of the time. Sent me up some wrong roads. Voice Command is difficult at best. I have had many Garmin devices over the years and this is a major disappointment. Would not buy it again.

X2 on this. Just this week we were camping and went for a drive (without 5th wheel). I have the unit in RV mode and have avoid unpacked roads selected on the options. The GPS sent me down a one lane dirt road- 5-1/2 miles long and nowhere to turn around. Major fail for an RV GPS!!!

[samTummo]

I use truck map app on my iPhone. Height, weight and length inputs. Has worked great for me.

AND it’s FREE!

Samtummo

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/truckmap-truck-gps-routes/id1198422047

[Qwkynuf]

Originally Posted by LittleBill

Thinking about maybe getting a dedicated GPS. Question for those of you have one - Do any of them give live traffic and possibly reroute you around problems (construction, accidents, etc.)? Don't necessarily want to sit in a traffic jam if it can be helped.

I think that most of the Garmins have traffic, either included or as an option. I have a 5 year old Nuvi 2699 with traffic and it works fairly well. You need to remember that that at least on the Garmins traffic is received over-the-air to a built in antenna, and relies on local DOT to broadcast.

What that has meant for me in real life is that it is not as up to date as Waze, for example. It also doesn't take distant traffic into account. A couple of weeks ago I had to drive from near Portland, OR to Bellingham, WA. There is basically no reasonable way to do that without driving through metro Seattle. When I compared the ETA between my Garmin and Waze, the Garmin was telling me that I was going to make the 250 miles in just over 4 hours, running freeway speeds all the way. Waze was figuring on nearly an hour of traffic along the way. Waze was a lot closer to reality. The Garmin didn't start figuring Seattle traffic in until I was about 60 miles away.

That said, and while I am a big fan of Waze, I have not yet found a phone-based mapping app that did a good job when I had no cell signal. I know that most let me download maps for the area that I'm planning to travel through, but there have been more than a couple times where I was driving through eastern Nevada or southern Utah where the map had me bouncing across the desert, miles from the road that I was actually on. The Garmin has excellent base maps that are loaded onto the device and don't rely on external data. Are they wrong sometimes? Yep! but I have used my Garmin in probably 40 states and can count on one hand the times it was wrong enough to actually cause a problem.

[ramosans]

I agree with much of all of the above. One point makes a different is about checking Propane tank on your RV GPS. When you select this attribute, RV GPS will change your route even-though there are no tunnels or road restrictions. I do used dual GPS when traveling. The Gaming 770 is the main one, Google or Waze as second option. However, just be careful using auto vs RV. I got into an area where clearance was only 9'.5 so I have to turned around but I was lucky the wife seen the warning sign.

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by samTummo

I use truck map app on my iPhone. Height, weight and length inputs. Has worked great for me.

AND it’s FREE!

Samtummo

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/truckm...s/id1198422047

We do the same............I run he GPS in the truck and DW follows along iwt TruckMaps to insure no low bridges.

[Invisibleman]

If you haven't tried it yet, try Sygic Truck. I believe it is one of the top used trucker GPS apps. You can setup weight, height, width and many other parameters. If you are driving any distance its really nice to know you aren't going to be sent under a low overpass. I recently used in on a long trip in uncharted territory side by side with Google Maps. Every time the Sygic was the better route for driving a large setup. It has a few issues, but they are minimal. You aren't going to get a list of campgrounds in the area because it is a trucker app, not necessarily an RV app. But considering Google Maps doesn't offer an RV filter, and in my opinion RVlife is too commercialized, Sygic is currently my first choice.

[dalford]

For me, I have not owned a gps for quite sometime. I found them somewhat cumbersome in loading multiple stop trips.

I guess the biggest factor is the technology you are comfortable with plus what your tv or mh has for technology.

I have a 2018 F350 which has Apple CarPlay. This allows me to run google maps on my dash display. Now, that alone does not give me a RV safe route. It alone just gives me a car route but that is really nice when I jump in my truck and I can voice command to any location and it will give me a list of location by the nearest first.

But for RV routing I use RVlife Pro. Yea, I know it is not free. It is $49/year. I guess I could buy a $300-$400 gps or pay $49/year for 7-8 years for the equivalent cost of a gps. Plus in 7-8 years it will be time to upgrade to another gps. I have a feeling gps units will eventually be obsoleted by phone and tablet apps like RVlife Pro.

RVlife Pro gets you RVlife and RVtripwizard.com. RVTW is a great app for planning a trip. Now if your just going a few hundred miles away it might not be so valuable to you. In that case any gps will be fine for you. RVTW is the ultimate in trip planning. It is set up just for RV’s. It is all inclusive. Look at the demo video on their web site. There are way to many features for me to cover here. I used RVTW exclusively to plan a 7000 mile trip from Florida to Glacier National Park with stops in Arizona, Utah, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, ets. Everything was at my fingertips. It is not an app. It’s a web based product. You can log in from any device where you have internet.

Also, if you modify your trip on RVTW it automatically syncs the changes to RVLife Pro.

The nice thing is RVTW syncs with RVlife if you are a Pro member. The RVlife app will give RV safe route instructions or you can use non RV safe routes such as google maps. WAZE, or Apple Maps. It will give you the option. RVlife will also download, if you want, the map data for the states you will be traveling thru so you don’t need internet connection to constantly update the map where you are.

RVlife app will route each leg of your stops. Just select the leg you want to route and it will deliver instructions to your phone. I sometimes ask for a RV safe route and a google or Waze route. The google or Waze will be on my trucks display and the safe route will be on my phone display.

I know some don’t want to pay the $ but it looks like a wash. Some don’t have the latest technology but you can still run the RVlife route on your phone or a tablet. RVTW can be used on any device but without RVlife Pro it is an excellent trip planner but you will need to load each route daily and make sure it is a RV safe route. There is a way to download a multiple stop route to some gps units but it looks a little cumbersome.

[youroo]

We have had several RV GPS,lifetime this and that! We also have Paper Maps and Rand McNally atlas. If you travel enough off the "Beaten Path" you will encounter times where a "Phone Call" is required to Drive to your Location! Several times the Campground will say,"Don,t Come the way GPS tells you"! Then they will give Proper Directions! Traveling gives a person Lots of respect to "Lewis & Clark"! Youroo!!

[Homebrew]

Youroo has a good point. We stayed in a area in Virginia and on some of the back roads there were signs telling truck drivers not to use there gps. Well turns out the entire area screwed with your gps. People were coming in on back dirt roads and there gps had dirt roads shut off . My gps took me 20 mile on back roads to get to a restaurant a half a mile away.

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by Invisibleman

If you haven't tried it yet, try Sygic Truck. I believe it is one of the top used trucker GPS apps. You can setup weight, height, width and many other parameters. If you are driving any distance its really nice to know you aren't going to be sent under a low overpass. I recently used in on a long trip in uncharted territory side by side with Google Maps. Every time the Sygic was the better route for driving a large setup. It has a few issues, but they are minimal. You aren't going to get a list of campgrounds in the area because it is a trucker app, not necessarily an RV app. But considering Google Maps doesn't offer an RV filter, and in my opinion RVlife is too commercialized, Sygic is currently my first choice.

I just downloaded that app, it looks GREAT even a 3D display. I will play with it to get proficient but from te looks of it so far, and the parameters you can set I see no reason why anyone would need anything else.

As far as campgrounds, I have several apps to use to find those prior to departure, or even enroute if we change our minds. Now I have this one to navigate to them.

a bit of advice to those who may want this, be certain to type in "Sygic Truck" in the app search. I tried typing just Sygic and touching the one it displayed that had the word Truck also but it kept taking me to an off-road app.

Typing in both took me to the correct one.

Ill get back after Ive used it.

One question about it, does anyone know if it will update if there are traffic problems on the route and offer detours?

[5picker]

Originally Posted by DouglasReid

I just downloaded that app, it looks GREAT even a 3D display. I will play with it to get proficient but from te looks of it so far, and the parameters you can set I see no reason why anyone would need anything else.

As far as campgrounds, I have several apps to use to find those prior to departure, or even enroute if we change our minds. Now I have this one to navigate to them.

a bit of advice to those who may want this, be certain to type in "Sygic Truck" in the app search. I tried typing just Sygic and touching the one it displayed that had the word Truck also but it kept taking me to an off-road app.

Typing in both took me to the correct one.

Ill get back after Ive used it.

One question about it, does anyone know if it will update if there are traffic problems on the route and offer detours?

Correct!

I first downloaded the Sygic app from the Play Store and it was for automobiles.
I then searched for "Sygic Truck" and found the one slated for trucks and R/Vs.

It does 'look' promising (sitting here at my desk!) and being able to download the maps for all of North America and store on my SD card is a BIG plus! (85+GB)

[Invisibleman]

There is an add-on feature for daily updates.

[NXR]

You can download the Garmin Drive app and pair it to the later RV GPS units. It provides weather and traffic updates via the phone's Internet connection.

On our last trip it warned us on the RV 785 screen and by voice from the GPS that the interstate had all lanes closed due to an accident that was dozens of miles ahead of us. It gave us an alternate interstate route that added about a half hour to the trip. But the interstate was closed for three hours so it was really helpful.

The interstate reopened when we were almost to the campground. We would otherwise have been stopped in traffic for literally hours.

Ray