Will caravan satnav avoid very minor roads abroad?
A slight offbeat subject. We have flown out to tenerife, spain and most recently Madeira. Having hired cars that invariably don't come with satnavs built in, I have taken and used my motorbike satnav in all these places. The problem is that the stupid thing will insist on taking short cuts (fastest route selected) which are often barely a small cars width, parked up and very steep, instead of taking the wider (and faster!!) main road.
Since we have at times considered buying a van satnav for when we are towing, would one of these also mean we could avoid silly narrow steep roads? Any experience of using van satnavs under these conditions, i.e. not towing?
We are off to Spain again in January for a few weeks (own car but no van), so would have time to buy and setup if people have found this works. Thanks
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My own experience of so-called dedicated caravan / large vehicle satnavs, is that they don't deliver what they promise. I bought one, attracted by a Club offer, some years ago and after trying a couple of test routes - in which it failed miserably - sent it back.
I believe I am right in saying that since there isn't a database of road widths - to pick out just one feature they're supposed to offer, there is no way they can keep you away from unsuitable narrow roads.
The method I use - which, admittedly, is a bit time consuming, works with complete reliability.
I use a Tomtom with Wifi enabled. I then go into the Tomtom "My Drive" app on my laptop and select the route I want - a bit like Google Maps. I then research any 'dodgy' bits on Google Maps Street View and when I am happy, alter the route on "My Drive" accordingly and save it as a 'route'. I then download the route to my Tomtom using wifi and it is saved there for when I need it.
When in use, it will take me down exactly the route I have selected, without any daft detours or shortcuts. If I have got it wrong, then there is no one to blame but myself!!
As I said, it takes a bit of time to set up but in my opinion, well worth it for the peace of mind.
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As far as I am aware, SATNAVs rely solely on mandatory width, height or length restrictions, so they will only avoid routes if there is a road sign restricting access.
Like richardandros, I also check my intended route using Google Maps but if I don't like the look of a road when I get there, I just drive on and rely on the SATNAV to re-route us.
I never go into small towns unless I have carefully checked access, as parked vehicles frequently cause obstructions, particularly in Spain and France.
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Our sat nav enables you to put in vehicle dimensions and in general does select sensible routes. However, like any technology it does depend on the height / width data set being input correctly, or even put in at all. As above I check the route the sat nav has selected on Google / street view and amend with waypoints if necessary. In France the colour coding of roads in the 1/200,000 map book also gives a good idea of width. Height is more difficult and really needs a street view check of any places you are unsure. In France that’s small towns where the high speed rail line has gone through. On side roads that you may be using to access municipal sites, they often use some very low underpasses.☹️ We now have a Motorhome and it’s a lot easier to sort out such issues than when we towed. I must admit I did much more checking in those days.
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I have generally found my Avtex/Garmin C&MC model fairly good, but not fool proof. The problem with "D" roads spring to mind for France. These can range from little better than a dirt track to near UK A class single carriageway in quality.
Colin
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Thanks for the responses.
I was just trying to save a bit a faffing about. It sounds as though I should save our money and just allow a little more time beforehand to plot the route on the PC and download to the bike satnav in that case. And just put up with last minute changes of destinations as happened this last week a couple of times.
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