Sat Nav for caravanners
I'm going to buy a sat nav that I particularly want to use when touring with the caravan. Each issue of the Club magazine advertises the Avtex Camper Premium Caravan Club Edition sat nav @£299.00. Is this the best to go for? I'd appreciate any feedback
on this and/or what other sat navs caravanners use. Thank you, Ian
Comments
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I have the Caravan Snooper model advertised in the CC Mag. It does allow you to program your outfit which then should pick suitable routes. It does have the plus side of having all CC and CL sites which generally have worked well for us. However overall
I have been disappointed with the build quality, highly reflective screen and its slowness to re-route if you decide to ignore a particular junction.0 -
Ian, whatever you buy don't depend solely on it, use it in conjunction withh a good road atlas and take note of the clubs information regarding routes to avoid when travelling to sites....
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in recent times, with the advent of this type of 'specialist' device, there have been innumerable threads on the merits (or not) of these devices....
my own straw poll....a waste of the extra money over a normal decent Tomtom, and a modicum of common sense....
they are tools....and have to be viewed as such. there is insufficient road size detwilling to provide fool proof navigation.
'camper' satnavs are still an expensive 'gimmick' at the moment.
save your cash and get a good tomtom with lifetime updates, or even co-pilot on a tablet which is getting good feedback.
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Like others I am not convinced that they are worth the extra money. TomTom sell the Camper Maps as a separate download so with a reasonably priced device plus extra maps you could save at least £100. Even without the extra maps you can manage providing you
are willing to review the route before setting off. Most sat navs have the ability to avoid part of the route if that is required. You can also add your own waymarks but you do have to be careful as you can sometimes set them for the wrong side of the road
which can lead you round in circles as this very experience sat nav users has discovered to his cost!!!!David
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We use the free NAVMII app running on a Hudl2. Set to RV/Lorry mode it always comes up with a sensible route.
Unusual junctions are the one thing that occaisonaly seem to fool it....just pay attention to the usual road signs!
Interface is a little 'clunky' but you soon get used to it. The mapping (open source) goes down to footpath level which is important to me.
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Like most things if you had the words Caravan/Motorhome to any accessory you can add at least £200 to the norm. We have a Tom Tom Europe XL which cost £49 last Black Friday usually £79 from Halfords.With this GPS you can add your own POI and they are all
free, i have added a height and width poi for my Motorhome and all stop off's and campsites throuhout Europe for free. Some of the more expensive GPS's you can only buy their own POI's which are of course are expensive by nature.0 -
I like my Garmin Camper. Not least because it has a 7 inch screen which made it the same price as other 7 inch screen sat navs with liftime map up dates and traffic updates too.
£200 from Aldi when it was on specials one Thursday last summer.
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Best advice is to read road signs, if a road is narrow or there is a low bridge, there is usually a sign to tell you
Well not quite sure your post counts as the 'best' advice. An alternative opinion certainly, the 'best' so far is debatable TBH.
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Over the years since the introduction of the first sat navs, I have had three types but I have only ever purchased the software. I have never owned an off the shelf dedicated sat nav. I assume this software is the same as that sold complete with the hardware. I started off with TomTom software running on a PDA of which I had three versions and this was fine until TT stopped marketing this product and also removed some functionality which I liked so I changed to Navigator from Map Factor. It took some getting used to but it also worked fine on my PDA and I had three versions the last being suitable for a truck which I did find better at routing than the car versions. However the PDA was fast being overtaken by the introduction of tablets and when its battery failed I switched to a 7 inch Samsung tablet hosting Co-Pilot truck which I have been using the past 18 months without any problems. The advantage of all these systems has been flexibility and low cost to keep up to date rather than having to keep changing hardware as well as software. I have always been able to supplement the in built POIs by adding third party ones and my own. This latter point to me is a big advantage in being able to keep information up to date. My advice is, whatever you decide to buy, make sure map updates are available and you can easily load and update POIs.
If you have a smart phone or a table with a GPS it is worth investigating the App market. There are a number of free versions you can try most of which can be upgraded for a small charge to provide full facilities. The disadvatge of running a sat nav on a smart phone is you have all your eggs in one basket. I infact run two different Apps, OsMand+ on my smart phone and Co-Pilot on a Samsung tablet as my chief navigator but I still carry back up maps.
peedee
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I check what route my sat nav is recommending before I go. Most of the time it's going to be motorway or main roads for the majority of the trip. Then I use Google Streetview to visually check out the last bit of the journey.
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I'm going to buy a sat nav that I particularly want to use when touring with the caravan. Each issue of the Club magazine advertises the Avtex Camper Premium Caravan Club Edition sat nav @£299.00. Is this the best to go for? I'd appreciate any feedback
on this and/or what other sat navs caravanners use. Thank you, IanThere is a similar discussion on another forum going on
>here< which you might like to read.peedee
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Standard tomtom for me checked with a map ( in theory). Don't attempt to reduce the maximum speed settings because this makes them more likely to choose minor roads. And do be carefull if you miss a turning this is when it can navigate you through some interesting
scenery to get you back on track.0 -
I got a Tom-tom all singing all dancing caravan version with my outfit length programmed into it should find the best route and all that. Cost me every year to have latest maps, in fact just updating as I type this mail.
Honestly a waste of cash, no better than the 50 quid Tom-tom Halfords special offer my wife has and that has free European updates for life (read the small print life doesn’t mean our life just how long Tom-tom support that Sat Nav)
Rarely if ever picks the way I would chose with a map I will go 20 miles or more if travelling far enough to stay on good roads the sat nav won’t do that for me.
Most Phone sat nav programs use GPRS and update the map as you drive along hit a poor signal and it will just freeze up leaving you stranded if you haven’t planed sensibly.
I still use the expensive sat nav but I am old enough to remember how to use a £5 map to perfect use. I always plan my own route now; take full notice of the instructions from the club directions. I program this into the sat nav so I know I will have the
best route there for me.I find this works 100% than relying on the sat nav alone I find this by far the best way of travelling and if there is an unexpected diversion on way I have the map to help me get there if you just have a sat nave you could be well stuck.
I am not against Sat nav at all I use Tec all the time in caravanning, I use a motor mover, I use a cordless drill to lower and raise the steadies, I have a tyre inflator with combined inverter for checking tyres and can always keep the smart TV working
but the Sat nav is something I just no longer trust.Just my thoughts
Roy
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emsure you jave it set to 'fastest route' not 'shortest route' in the route planning options.
fastest will keep you on A-roads as much as possible, whereas shortest will take you onto the tiniest road just to save a few yards even if the road is unsuitable and it takes much longer...
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how did we manage before sat navs
Well we used road maps. And in particular if you were driving alone or with somebody who wasn't very good at reading maps driving in a very unfamiliar area you had to keep stopping to check directions.
Using one is called 'progress'. It's quite simple really.
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then you are one of a few. what about when your gps signal goes and the sat nav doesnt work has progress made you stop carrying a map
I rarely if ever lose my GPS signal, it normally drops in a tunnel but a good sat nav can still track you using your last known position and will then reaquire quickly when you re emerge.
i carry a paper map as a backup as anything technical can break unexpectantly, much in the same way as I once had to cook Sunday roast on a BBQ when the oven went belly up. Not something I would choose to do every Sunday though as an oven is generally much
better for the task.0
