Tomtom caravan sat nav
does anyone have any reviews of the tomtom caravan sat nav we have a standard sat nav and are getting fed up of being sent down short cuts unsuitable for the van is it worth updating to the caravan and motorhome version
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Gwyneth
Is your current sat nav a Tom Tom? I have a fairly standard TomTom Start 60 with Camper Maps added and I find that pretty reliable. There is always the caveat with sat navs in that you do have to review the route rather than blindly following what it says. I don't think TomTom do a dedicated caravan sat nav now? However they do a Truck sat nav which always several choices of vehicle, from car to HGV, and you can enter the outfit dimensions which looks useful.
David
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Why do you think that a SatNav knows how wide the road is?
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Our Sat Nav is a Garmin which is mostly reliable, especially getting into/out of towns, but the best Sat Nav is the one sat by my side with an AA road map open on her lap when we have the van and she throws in the occasional comment like "ignore that last comment and keep on the main road"
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I think the word c/van is more a marketing ploy as they are basically the HGV versions,as when our Garmin is in c/van mode it will "ping" to alert of aproaching sharper bends/hill up and down and numerous other "hazards" that for an HGV would be helpfull
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We have the tom tom caravan and camper great piece of kit when you first set it up it will asked for the width height and length of your out fit and yes it does know what roads have restrictions, it also comes with live updates and speed camera alert, not cheap but you can also add C&Mh club sites to the hundreds of sites already installed ,we have been using ours for 4 years now traveling 12000 miles a year visiting 10 or 12 sites a year never put a foot wrong.5 star rating
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You have hit the nail on the head so to speak.
The only restrictions a SatNav is programed with are the statutory signed ones such as low bridges, width and weight restrictions. Apart from those your inputted choice or preference of road types is taken into account.
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if its taking you down 'short cuts' then it sounds as if its looking for the 'shortest route' (not advised) rahter than 'fastest route' which prioritises major roads....
ensure you have the correct option.
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We have a tom tom caravan/motorhome sat nav its OK but still not 100% on a recent outing and for the second time of going to this site it tried to send us down a route the CC club tells us to avoid but strangley the built in sat nav on our new car sent us the correct route ?
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Some years ago I was using a very early sat nav, anyone remember the sort it was an early PDA thing that was more a micro PC and used a stylus to input data. I didn’t have van on back at the time but had spent the day loosing myself round the east coast and just put the sat nav on when time to return to site.
I came to a ford your know a crossing over a stream, after a few days of rain this looked a bit wide for me, you could see the road go into it and out of it the other side but I was not willing to trust it, the water was fast moving and it did not look crossable in an Astra estate to me.
I whipped out the trusty old map (for the youth here they are sheets of paper in a book with all the roads and stuff on it) and planned a way out of it without crossing the ford
Sometime later I saw a photo in a national paper with a glum looking couple with their camper stuck over the axils in water in the middle of the ford waiting for a recovery truck and blaming the sat nav (I was 99% sure same ford i reversed away from).
Whose fault was it the sat nav or the driver, it was of course the driver, a sat nav, a map, a set of directions of a friend or how ever you are getting to where you are going. As the driver it is your job to look at sigh posts, type of road, general conditions etc and decide if you want to go that way or not.
I have and do use to great effect a Tom Tom camper (I don’t think they make it anymore) which I find extremely good but I still work out my own route using the best roads for the job.
I then print the direction to the site from the sites web page and if it says ignore the sat nav from here and follow these directions I dam well follow them assuming someone local that is a bit in the know has taken time and trouble to write them.
I suspect (and I may be wrong) there is a generation coming that with Sat nav, ABS, Traction control, emergency brake force distribution, automatic lights and wipers, reversing sensors. Forward sensors, automatic parking, automatic breaking, adaptive cruse control, will expect the car to find its own way deal with dark, light, wet, snow, ice without them having to do anything.
I grew up in an era when the driver had to deal with it all by him or herself, I am not anti technology here, I like it and use it (my motor home reversing camera is fantastic as is my cars reversing sensors, and cruise control is a delight to have) but I always have a map, I make my own decisions. If I want to turn left at this junction or go straight on or not go this way or that way, I take the responsibility for stopping dealing with wet conditions, snow and ice, darkness etc and just use technology as an aid not to take my responsibility away from me.
A bit long winded post just to say no matter how good the reviews on your sat nav are don’t trust it 100% take some responsibility for yourself but then again no one has to read it if they don’t want to.
Just my thoughts and of course i might be wrong
R3 -
We have a fairly basic TomTom Start 25 with the Camping maps.
Ok, they are pricey, but they do work a treat! 10.5 weeks in europe last year and not a foot wrong! Even down into the heel of Italy!
Getting there was easy compared to getting on and off some of the sites, but that's another story!!
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@ Roy
It's not just youngsters that haven't the wit to manually turn their lights on. The number of cars you see in mist & fog with no lights on at all, just relying on their auto lights to turn them on for them ..... And as for bright led DRLs at night because the idiot behind the wheel hasn't turned his/her lights on ..... ARGHH!
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but they all turned out to be bus routes
,even had a bus back up for us on one journey
