SatNav suitable for M/H or Towing
OH is hinting at getting a new SatNav, he has a few already
which apparently are rubbish, his words not mine.
So if we are going to play the game again could I ask my fellow CTer's what they would recommend. He has looked at a Garmin one which is supposed to be good for what we want but when he read the reviews he didn't think they were good. We want to use it in Europe so must have full Europe mapping or the ability to add them.
We currently have TomTom but the Camper maps are a 1 off to add at £70 approx but then you cannot update them again, they might have even stopped doing them altogether. The Garmin I think is even older and he doesn't want to spend anymore on it, although its great for the UK. He does have a Truckers SatNav which originally was fine but lately its started to play up doing daft things that just winds him up.
Please help save my sanity and our marriage 
Comments
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Tammygirl
For some years now I have had a TomTom Start 60 which I can't remember a time when it has let us down. We have Archies POI's loaded onto it and we also purchased the Camper Maps. Whilst the Camper Maps might not update the general maps do so I don't think you need to worry about that. It has the facility of being about to view your destination which is handy. The Start 60 is not a current model but if you look here they are available at a good price.
David
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Tammygirl
I don't remember doing that and I am not sure it's a function. What it tends to do is to stick to the nearest major road. The only example I can give which probably is a bit useless as its near to us, it will, in car mode, send us through Buckingham but in Camper mode it will use the bypass. Personally I would use the bypass anyway regardless of vehicle but then I am familiar with that area!!! I have never been totally convinced how useful it would be putting dimensions in. You are always going to be warned of an approaching low bridge and also a narrow road before entering and as yet it has never tried to take us down such roads.
David
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Any sat-nav needs to be used with a dose of common sense ..... if it wants to send you down a road that looks iffy ..... then don't go down it - as you wouldn't have done without a sat-nav. Not that I've ever been mis-led by one .....
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Any sat-nav needs to be used with a dose of common sense ..... if it wants to send you down a road that looks iffy ..... then don't go down it - as you wouldn't have done without a sat-nav. Not that I've ever been mis-led by one .....
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The dedicated sat nav for campers originally sold by Tom Tom under the name "GO LIVE Camper and Caravan" is no longer produced.
Whilst you can currently update a limited number of Tom Toms with the Europe Camper maps, these do cost between £80 and £100 and surely the chance of these updates continuing to be available is slim. IMO any money spent would be better used in purchasing an up to date system.
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id stick with the tomtom and your undoubted map reading skills
..you know, to keep an eye on the old man....
that's generally how we operate....at a big junction that TT is indicating, ill just wake up OH and check that this looks a goodish option.....
however, i usually check the TT planned route against the map prior to departure so dont have too many surprises, and i can always force the route in a particular direction if i dont agree with TT.
one option might be to get a proper TT refurbished unit with a large memory (on the TT we site, and a good deal cheaper) and then go with the camper maps, lowering the overall cost....
none of these things are perfect, just keep an eye on the map and an eye on the driver
i have two TTs one very old, use it in the car in the uk and is my MH back up as it has all the same POIs as its larger brother.....
the larger XXL for the MH agin has all POIs and a more recent map.
both are set for 'fastest route' which tends to steer us towards larger (faster) roads, which is good....
keep well away from 'shortest route' it will have you heading into some interesting places....
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There have been a lot of discussion on these in recent months so it may help you if you do a search to see if the treads survived the forum "improvement".
I use a CoPilot Caravan app running on an iPad mini and find it works very well indeed. I particularly like the ability fine tune the parameters like rig size and average speed for various types of road. Check it out.
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Thanks everyone for your comments.
The OH is still interested in a new TT as we both like the one we have. Just last year it started to be a bit daft and kept sending us home rather than where we had put in, this only happened after he had done an up date.
The Garmin is about 6 years old, has lifetime maps update but he can't set it to the size of the van (which he would like to do, especially when towing the trailer) neither can he add it on.
The truck one can be fine at times but it does have a bad habit of shutting off at the most inconvenient moment, ( it doesn't like Belgium very much ) the other problem with it is that because its for a truck it will always route you around anywhere that is prohibited for over 3.5 tons, which at times can be annoying.
BB what can I say, my map reading skills are top notch
I tend not to fall asleep (pretty difficult when he's cursing the SatNav at every opportunity) dmiller555, I have gone back over all the recent posts that come up in a search but they don't have many replies to them. I was trying to find a thread that I knew had lots of info but is seems to have gone in the upgrade.
We are hopefully going to the Manchester show next week so will have a look at what is on offer there (won't buy there though unless a bargain)
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We have the Garmin 660 lmt-d (same as the one in cc mag but without clubsite app and £135 from Aldi) and when towing it normally works ok,it has taken us to roads that we think this a bit "stupid" but has not caused a problem,, a lot have turned out to be rural bus routes,
We had a Tom Tom that got worse with each "lifetime update"but since having the Garmin we have not had as many "silly routes"
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David, just to say we called TomTom to make sure that the Start 60 was still compatible for the Camper maps, YES they are we were told.
So Phil ordered the Start 60 and it was delivered today, he's been busy setting everything up this afternoon only to find that the Start 60 is NOT compatible and you cannot load the Camper maps.
He has once again phoned TomTom who have checked their call log system and verified that an agent did tell him they were compatible, however the case is that they are not and they can not do anything about it. Phil has escalated the complaint now to Supervisor level and awaits a response which I dare say won't be until tomorrow now. I will post again once we have an answer.
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USING CAMPER & CARAVAN FEATURES ON YOUR NAVIGATION DEVICE
Click here to see which products/categories this applies to.
Products
Car
TomTom GO
TomTom GO 1005 / GO 2050
TomTom GO LIVE 1000
TomTom GO LIVE 1005
TomTom GO 1000
TomTom GO LIVE 820
TomTom GO LIVE 825
TomTom Via
TomTom Via 130 / 135
TomTom Via LIVE 125
TomTom Via 125
TomTom Via LIVE 120
TomTom Via 120
TomTom Via 110
Camper & Caravan
TomTom GO LIVE 1005 / Camper & Caravan
Below is a list of devices that are compatible with Camper and Caravan maps.GO 820/825 devices with the serial prefixes: FA, FB, FT, FU, and FY
VIA devices with the serial prefixes: AR, AS, AU, AV, AW, AX, BM, BN, BO, BP, BS, BT, BQ, FL, and FN
START devices with the serial prefixes: AO, AY, BK, BL, WM, WN, and WO
GO devices with the serial prefixes: FQ, SJ, SM, SP, SR, ST, and SQ
The serial prefix is the first two digits of your serial number, which can usually be found on a barcode on the bottom or back of your device. The serial number always starts with a letter and consists of 12 digits in total.looks like its only certain models and with specific serial numbers that are compatible.....nothing is simple..
if you do manage to get the maps and a compatible device, will you be able to load your own POIs?
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Tammygirl
Sorry to hear that. It seems inconceivable that the same model would have two different ways of operating. I had to load my Camper maps on the the micro SD card as there was not enough room on the device hard drive, TT have always been a bit mean space wise. After reading BB's post I checked the serial number of my own device and its WN which obviously accepts the Camper maps. BTW the serial number can be found under the little flap on the top of the device where the SD card goes, assuming they have not changed that as well.
David
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The annoying thing is that after checking with TT and being told that it was compatible did Phil ordered one.
The serial number you don't know until you receive it, it is only when you are trying to install the camper maps does it ask for the serial number and then tells you its not compatible. Thankfully no payment is taken at this point.
We will have to wait until tomorrow now to find out what if anything, TT are going to do about giving wrong info and us now being stuck with another TT device that isn't going to beof any any use to us.
We bought it from eBuyer so not sure if they would be willing to take it back, TT have already said they wouldn't take it as a trade as we didn't buy it from them.
if you do manage to get the maps and a compatible device, will you be able to load your own POIs?
Who knows BB, but will certainly ask when we speak to them tomorrow, not willing to buy anything else until we get it in writing this time, at least they have admitted that their agent gave the wrong info out.
We are heading off on Thursday morning and wanted to try it out before going abroad with it, oh well back to the truck satnav for now.
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Not sure if they would as we didn't buy it from TT, the company we bought it from we will phone tomorrow and explain the problem.We do now have an email from TT saying that we have been misinformed so that might help. It might be that we can do an upgrade to another one from them.
However I'm not going to do anything until TT have been back in touch. Will do my best to get a good deal out of them to compensate
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Would have liked to go to the NEC Brian but we are due to fly out to Lanzarote a few days later, so it would be a bit of a rush to get back home and repacked. Glasgow we went to last year
so we thought Manchester would give a good day out and we want to give the van a run and test as we've had a few things done to it over the last few months.Hoping to get a few days at Chester and we have Bristol Wharf booked for a few days too ( I know I've said in the past that I'm not bothered about it but OH wants to give it a try) then its off to see the eldest son and his brood for a few days, after that who knows
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A bit mean with space! To the point of being unfit for purpose. After a short time upgrades no longer fit. I have bought my last one.
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Quick update on the satnav. TT have again apologized for giving wrong information, however nothing can be done about the Smart 60 not being compatible anymore.
TT said that they don't have any current models that will take the camper maps, only the older models but as BB posted they are serial number specific.
They offered us the camper maps for free for our TT Via 135 as way of an apology, we have accepted the offer, however I think OH really wanted a new and bigger one. Camper maps now loaded to device so will see how it performs tomorrow.
The Smart 60 has been returned to Ebuyer, they were very understanding about it once we had explained what happened.
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Tammygirl
Glad you have got it sorted and apologies for providing information that turned out to misleading. I have been thinking about buying that Start 60 myself as it was such a good price, as a backup. It seems that TomTom are now more interested in selling their systems to motor manufacturers to build into their cars rather than support their army of loyal fans which made them what they are today!!!
David
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Thanks David, no apologies required I asked for help and information and you helped, thank you for that. There was no way you could have known that they have changed the Start 60. We did mention to the operator today that we felt not having a current device compatible with camper maps was probably not the way to go.
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