Sat nav
Our last van came with a sat nav. We are now buying a new van which does not come with a sat nav. There are so many out there that seem to be very similar. What would anyone recommend. Tempted by the one advertised in the club magazine but it's very expensive.
The OH thinks a cheaper one from Halfords would be fine. Any advice would be welcome.
Comments
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fairly basic Tomtom, £100 ish....dont waste you're hard earned on anything from the magazine, plenty of fed up users if you check other forums like Motorhome Facts Or Motorhome Fun for the Capital Stores Sat Nav....
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We're looking for a new satnav. We have a £90 Halfords 'special offer' Garmin which does the basics but it spends most of the time at home. I need one that is as good but works with Base Camp and allows me to set the route because I prefer different routes
to the satnav basic route finder. I was quite taken with the £299 Avtex offering through the CC when it was demonstrated to me at the Lincoln motorhome show. However, I don't need the CC bits [the handbook has never let me down for directions] nor do i want
to enter van size so I'll look for the non CC version in the expectation it is cheaper. I don't want to pay that much either!I have always preferred maps and a piece of paper with the route directions to satnavs. Increasingly, though, Councils are cutting back on maintaining the hedgerows etc and so it is becoming more difficult to read a sign covered in greenery.
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Yes Aspenshaw - I wouldn't advise anyone to ditch the CC directions in the book I think they are absolutely essential. A good map too. Being a solo traveller though it is easier to follow a sat nav than find places to stop and read a map! Don't forget
you can get the camping files onto most sat navs - if you are - or know someone who is savvy at that sort of thing! I have managed to get CC and ACSI sites showing on mine and also CLs but I have got the dimensions of the outfit wrong and it insists on calling
it a MH! I will redo it one day!0 -
I have been a fairly long term user of tomTom sat navs and I have found them pretty reliable in terms of getting me to my destination. I always add that they are not foolproof so always best to check the route before setting off. Mine has a handy feature
of being able to view the planned destination so I can compare with the site directions.David
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If you have a smartphone try sygic which does software for car, truck, caravan, r/v etc. used it for 5yrs now and its the best i have had and very reasonably priced. also includes live traffic, re routing, heads up display, dash cam etc. Its worth having
a look http://www.sygic.com/truck-gps-navigation/caravan you will often find special offers which usually drop the price considerably, I got full europe lifetime updates with traffic for 27
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We have the Garmin Camper which has all europe lifetime updates ACSI campsites(we did not need)but other wise its identicle to the AVtex /Snooper and where did we get ours?
ALDI for £135
and i have put our car/c/van outfit dimensions in and it seem to keep us off the "bum clenching" routes that our Tom Tom tried to take us on
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My girlfriend wanted (needed!) a navigation system so bought a TomTom one from a very nice man at Hall Frauds for about £150. I wanted one to monitor road speed more precisely than the Land Rover speedometer so bought one for £15 from the Internet.
Mine does more than hers - but does not have some of the complicated bells and whistles that she never uses as she can't understand them - and neither can I at times.
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Yes Aspenshaw - I wouldn't advise anyone to ditch the CC directions in the book I think they are absolutely essential. A good map too. Being a solo traveller though it is easier to follow a sat nav than find places to stop and read a map! Don't forget
you can get the camping files onto most sat navs - if you are - or know someone who is savvy at that sort of thing! I have managed to get CC and ACSI sites showing on mine and also CLs but I have got the dimensions of the outfit wrong and it insists on calling
it a MH! I will redo it one day!Actually the CC directions to a CL can be very poor in many cases. We have the file downloaded from the CC website onto our TomTom which is the Camping and Caravan unit.
I was under the impression that the co-ordinates would be used for a CL, but on a number of occasions it has taken us to the wrong location stopping before or after the actual CL. Now I use Google Earth to verify the actual location, but if the correct
co-ordinates supplied to the CC by the CL owner then this would not be necessary.0 -
If you have a smartphone try sygic which does software for car, truck, caravan, r/v etc. used it for 5yrs now and its the best i have had and very reasonably priced. also includes live traffic, re routing, heads up display, dash cam etc. Its worth having
a look http://www.sygic.com/truck-gps-navigation/caravan you will often find special offers which usually drop the price considerably, I got full europe lifetime updates with traffic for 27
eurosAgreed, I've used the normal car app for years and it been very good. I've thought about the caravan one but my Snooper with ACSI/CC just keeps on going.
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I haven't any problems with the Avtex garmin CC unit, it got through Germany and Holland this year without any dodgy routes, Even when we had no time to plan a route, because we were forced to leave a site when it was going to flood. We were sat in a layby
phoning sites and when we found one, the address was put into the garmin and it took us straight there.0 -
Yes Aspenshaw - I wouldn't advise anyone to ditch the CC directions in the book I think they are absolutely essential. A good map too. Being a solo traveller though it is easier to follow a sat nav than find places to stop and read a map! Don't forget
you can get the camping files onto most sat navs - if you are - or know someone who is savvy at that sort of thing! I have managed to get CC and ACSI sites showing on mine and also CLs but I have got the dimensions of the outfit wrong and it insists on calling
it a MH! I will redo it one day!Actually the CC directions to a CL can be very poor in many cases. We have the file downloaded from the CC website onto our TomTom which is the Camping and Caravan unit.
I was under the impression that the co-ordinates would be used for a CL, but on a number of occasions it has taken us to the wrong location stopping before or after the actual CL. Now I use Google Earth to verify the actual location, but if the correct
co-ordinates supplied to the CC by the CL owner then this would not be necessary.Yes, the coordinates should be for the entrance, not the club house or somewhere else on the site. CC have let us down badly on this.
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In July we used our CC Snooper to go to Berwick site and chose 'by the book' however just entering Billendean Terrace it then said to turn left onto Askew Cres which we didnt take as it is a narrow road in front of houses and is a crescent leading back onto
Billendean Terrace.Wrote to Snooper about the error hopefully they will fix it but seems not as yet.
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As I already own a tomtom satnav, I've taken advantage of the half price maps offers that TomTom are currently running and bought a year of map updates of its Camper/Caravan maps. This allows you to enter the size/weight and max speed of your rig. Not yet
used in anger but I'm hoping it'll give me confidence that the satnav is not sending me down inappropriate roads especially if rerouting mid-journey.It cost £45 for the map updates and £5 for a sd card to install the map on. Unfortunately the camper/caravan map is not compatible with all tomtoms so check that first by entering the first 2 characters of your serial code on the purchase page http://tomtom.com/en_gb/sat-nav/maps-services/shop/travel-map/europe-camper/
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My Snooper has given me problems too, having challenged them at the NEC with some examples of going to post code, rather than actual location, they said that all their info is supplied by CC. They also promised to look into my examples and remedy them. It
seems to be always OK in my experience, at CC full sites, but not CLs. None CC sites are a bit of a lottery, as it's not possible to view the suggested route in any detail, so I tend to use my Garmin, studying routes on PC screen is so much easier.0 -
In July we used our CC Snooper to go to Berwick site and chose 'by the book'
however just entering Billendean Terrace it then said to turn left onto Askew Cres which we didnt take as it is a narrow road in front of houses and is a crescent leading back onto Billendean Terrace.Wrote to Snooper about the error hopefully they will fix it but seems not as yet.
That has also been the case with the inbuilt sat nav in our 2007 XTrail and also in the 2014 version. It must be down to who supplies the mapping for these things. I don't think that short stretch of Billendean Terrace exists in the data set, so it tries
to send you round the loop. The routes can only be accurate if the data is there. I have come across a few cases of missing motorway junctions, so it tries to take you further up the motorway and then back down to the junction on the other side. I always review
the full route on the sat nav when towing, though not always when solo.0 -
I had to take my daughter to hospital in the centre of Leeds yesterday and on a couple of occasions the in built sat nav in the Xtrail suggested left or right turns when the signage clearly indicated the opposite. I find it best to use sat nav with a pinch
of salt and eyes wide open0 -
It cost around £220 for my TomTom. Lifetime updates. When oung to a site I put in the post code and then change destination using POI to a caravan site on the list
We have tried the post code first and then the co-ordinates supplied by the CC and on a number of occasions the CL is located further down the road or elsewhere. Surely the co-ordinates should take you to the entrance to the CL and not a location elsewhere.
Incorrect directions are the fault of the unit and not the CC or C & CC however a combination of incorrec directiosn on the unit due to incorrect co-ordinates is not helpful even if you use Earth Google to check first.0 -
I have a Garmin, It cost about £230 and has been well worth the money.
Over the years, it has never failed to take me precisely to the location of any CC or C&CC site, CL or CS by using the POI's supplied by the two businesses.
K
Ps -- I always carry O.S. maps and a compass and have the ability to use both if ever required.
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I wonder what I am doing wrong with my Garmin then? Mind you I still wouldn't be without it but it won't get you to the Caravan Club site at St Davids - and from home it tries to take me up a mile of single track road about 4 miles longer than the direct
route to the A46 at Market Rasen - beware anyone coming from the East to the Market Rasen site - go past the racecourse before obeying sat nav! That single track is a pig - only two passing places and really soggy verges!0 -
Aldi have garmin 660 camper sat nav for £130 on sale this week
Write your comments here...If it is in your Aldi get it as they have not been available for some time ,we managed to get one while away for £130 ,they are the same as the one in the magazine but without the cc sites installedit is the Acsi sites
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I have a Garmin, It cost about £230 and has been well worth the money.
Over the years, it has never failed to take me precisely to the location of any CC or C&CC site, CL or CS by using the POI's supplied by the two businesses.
K
Ps -- I always carry O.S. maps and a compass and have the ability to use both if ever required.
I find it is not so much a problem with the destination, but how it wants to get there. I always review the route it has picked and some have been along totally unsuitable roads, despite telling it I don't want the shortest route. This can be overcome by
selecting way points, although my current fitted sat nav only allows one of these. So it is necessary to ignore some of the directions and let it reroute. Still a very valuable tool, as long as you use it with caution.0 -
I have contibuted to a couple of threads here about the TomTom 5/6000 series.
OK (after a fashion) if used for car navigation, but pretty useless for m/home or caravan. Also depends if you have used previous TomToms POI systems and Itinary routing, This generation of TTs have gone back to the dark ages.
Rgds
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As a HGV driver and long time caravanner I can highly recommend Xgody sat navs, very cheap and highly reliable. As with all systems common sense has to prevail.
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