Camper van GPS - What would you recommend?

Baked.noodle

Hey,

My folks have a campervan and travel to Europe now and again. They have a basic Sat nav from Garmin but have experienced narrow roads and low bridges. My dad asked me to try to look into this and perhaps find a good price for the TomTom GO Live Camping and Caravan GPS but it's very expensive. I have looked into alternatives and have found the TomTom PRO 5150 Truck Live (which seems to be similer in price and function to the C&C) and the cheaper Garmin dezl 560LMT. Anyway, do you use a GPS in your Camper van, and is it any good?

moodrater

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Hey,

My folks have a campervan and travel to Europe now and again. They have a basic Sat nav from Garmin but have experienced narrow roads and low bridges. My dad asked me to try to look into this and perhaps find a good price for the TomTom GO Live Camping and Caravan GPS but it's very expensive. I have looked into alternatives and have found the TomTom PRO 5150 Truck Live (which seems to be similer in price and function to the C&C) and the cheaper Garmin dezl 560LMT. Anyway, do you use a GPS in your Camper van, and is it any good?

You can buy the map for £79.95 and load it into GO 1000 series*, GO LIVE 800 series, Via series*, Start 20 series, Start 60. Once they have 4gb memory.
Very easy to pick up a used one cheap. Refurb start 20 on there at the moment for £69: http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/shop/tomtom-outlet-store/start-20-regional-refurbished/index.jsp

spaceHopper

Check the set up of their GPS it could be set up as a car hence narrow roads and bridges, change it to a truck

pastense

I have always used a basic TomTom and after being directed onto narrow roads and even farm tracks a few times, I became very wary of turns that dont Look right. Since then I havent had any problems, I just refuse the turn and it re-routes, I keep refusing and it keeps re-routing until I'm happy with what I see.
I find the Sat nav very good when I get within a few miles of where I'm trying to get to and in getting to the correct exits in big city 'peripheriques' and the like and the ordinary Sat nav does that ok. In France the road signs are quite good but without the Sat Nav it means you have to be very alert.
Overall I think Sat Nav is great but the big money for the 'Large Vehicle' ones are a rip off, in my opinion of course.

ibebanging

If they have an iphone the Navigon app is excellent. It's about €70 but is great value, as updates are free, and when you get a new phone it transfers across to the new phone.
Does not use any data once downloaded, has a truck and caravan setting.
I've used it all over Europe without any issues.

moodrater

pastense wrote: »

I have always used a basic TomTom and after being directed onto narrow roads and even farm tracks a few times, I became very wary of turns that dont Look right. Since then I havent had any problems, I just refuse the turn and it re-routes, I keep refusing and it keeps re-routing until I'm happy with what I see.
I find the Sat nav very good when I get within a few miles of where I'm trying to get to and in getting to the correct exits in big city 'peripheriques' and the like and the ordinary Sat nav does that ok. In France the road signs are quite good but without the Sat Nav it means you have to be very alert.
Overall I think Sat Nav is great but the big money for the 'Large Vehicle' ones are a rip off, in my opinion of course.

You wouldn't be long spending the price of the map in diesel.

Baked.noodle

moodrater wrote: »

You can buy the map for £79.95 and load it into GO 1000 series*, GO LIVE 800 series, Via series*, Start 20 series, Start 60. Once they have 4gb memory.
Very easy to pick up a used one cheap. Refurb start 20 on there at the moment for £69: http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/shop/tomtom-outlet-store/start-20-regional-refurbished/index.jsp

Thanks for this. Do you know if the camper maps can be updated for free after their bought, or do you need to keep buying it?

EDIT: I also just noticed that the refurbished Start 20 has 2Gb of internal memory. Would an SD card work?

moodrater

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Thanks for this. Do you know if the camper maps can be updated for free after their bought, or do you need to keep buying it?

EDIT: I also just noticed that the refurbished Start 20 has 2Gb of internal memory. Would an SD card work?

No lifetime updates, sorry I didn't spot the 2gb limit might not store the navcore required you could ask on livechat although the agents mightn't know their ass from their elbow. I'm sure most of the truck drivers are probably using bootleg maps on older devices.

As already mentioned navigon / copilot etc on a phone might be sufficient for their needs, you can download thousand of camping pois for free:
http://www.archiescampings.eu/eng1/ not sure about navigon but copilot has a height restriction mode.

I just checked on copilot on my android phone and the rv mode routes well except theres no height restriction option while there is on my sisters phone in san francisco. Turn out for us lucky europeans they want you to pay £149 for the truck version.

Still i'd rather spend £300 on a super useful nexus 7 and copilot than £350 on a dedicated gps. Plus if your nexus is lost, stolen or you can just install copilot on another tablet or phone.

moodrater

I just checked on copilot on my android phone and the rv mode routes well except theres no height restriction option while there is on my sisters phone in san francisco. Turn out for us lucky europeans they want you to pay £149 for the truck version.

Still i'd rather spend £300 on a super useful nexus 7 and copilot than £350 on a dedicated gps. Plus if your nexus is lost, stolen or you can just install copilot on another tablet or phone. The live traffic seems to be only 9.99 per year at the moment.

[edit]seems the truck maps aren't being updated regularly[/edit]

Doesn't seem to be any easy way out if you need height an length.

piuswal

Have a look at http://www.snooper.co.uk/

They have systems specifically designed for Motorhomes; they are expensive but good.

pastense

moodrater wrote: »

You wouldn't be long spending the price of the map in diesel.

I suppose but I only use it on holiday , want to see as much as I can of the countryside without hurrying from place to place. They have their uses though.