Caravan Specific GPS, GPS retailers

[Ham]

The Garmin GPS implementation on my built in Merc GPS is seriously and dangerously pants for caravan towing, so I'm thinking of a caravan specific one. Any experience of how effective they are at flagging/avoiding single track roads? Clearly you can't completely avoid, as many sites are only accessible on single track., but awareness of the quality of any given route would be worth paying for.

Also, is there a decent GPS seller these days? It seems that Handtec, who were my goto people for value and knowledge - decent prices and people who knew about the products - are no more.

[Russell]

I can't answer your question but there are such systems advertised in the Camping and Caravan Club magazine.  The SatNav in our Skoda is OK but I don't rely on it when driving and not certainly not when towing, it is used as a guide only.  I scope out where we are going beforehand on Google Maps and either have an idea in my head or a few pencil jottings and ignore the lady in the box.  A case in point is our upcoming trip to the Tandem Club Easter Rally.  I intend to go straight on at a junction rather than turn R to avoid a twisty road through a village - slightly longer but wider.  It helps to have my stoker sitting next to me I suppose.

[Ham]

The Caravan Club push the AVtex, which is Garmin based (actually, just re-badged with specific POI added).

I know that there are really only Garmin and Tomtom as options, but the Merc satnav is proof positive that the specific implementation counts for a lot, it is Garmin but truly shite (even without considering the caravan specifics).

I have heard tell that both the major implementations are based on LGV implementation at the core, which can apparently result in routing around towns that ban goods vehicles from transit. There are surprisingly few comparisons - understandably because most will only have one or the other - and little informed user comment, mostly just the typical forum froth.

[Mothy]

When we looked into this approx 3 years ago, the most frequent recommendation was Aguri . We have the 720 model with built-in dash cam, which looked  good value and does all that we need. It is better than a normal gps in that it won’t send you down lanes with weight, height or width restrictions, but we still find it makes some curious decisions and the passenger with road atlas is still ‘required’. It is also annoyingly slow and cumbersome to start up (it seems to be an Android tablet at heart, without a decent sleep facility) and not very user-friendly when entering an address.
On balance I can’t recommend it, and when we aren’t towing we now use Google maps on the phone and have a dedicated dash cam, both of which are ready to go after 10-15 seconds whereas the Aguri  probably takes a minute to boot.

[TPMB12]

My parents got a motorhome specific one.  I think it ignores u suitable roads and find safer and wider routes into campsites.

BTW one of my routes to busier civilisation from my village view down a very narrow road with passing points. Every campsite and lodge sites I the area have directions that specifically avoid this road but we still see idiots in large motorhomes or towing large caravans who think their car's satnav knows better than locals at their campsite. There's a road from Grasmere over red Bank to Elterwater that has signs at each end telling people in big vehicles to ignore their GPS. If they don't the road gets blocked until a crane is brought in to turn the vehicle or caravan around to unblock the road.

IMHO if you're towing something big or driving something big you should never rely on any gps unit alone.  There's enough computer based imagery of routes to do your research on the approaches TY sites.

[Ham]

IMHO if you're towing something big or driving something big you should never rely on any gps unit alone.  There's enough computer based imagery of routes to do your research on the approaches TY sites.

There's the thing. Four instances that gave rise to this question are (mostly) good examples of how pre-research doesn't always work.

(1) Going to a campsite near Stourport on Severn. Research on google maps, no issues at all that can be seen, brain absorbs instruction of "go to <town> and turn left", send location to car satnav via "share to the app", visually all ok. It is only after the event I discover that the shitenav in the car has decided that the closest road to the geolocation shared was the byroad on the OTHER side of the river. That in itself wasn't the real problem, the real problem was, how to get out of it. I turned left instead of continuing, roads looking similar at the start, but they weren't equivalent. Ho hum.

(2) Going to a campsite in Norfolk, on roads I know well. Poodling along the road between Swaffham and Fakenham, we come across a Mr Policeman standing in the road with his hand up "thou shalt not pass. Verily some silly bugger hath smashed himself and others up. The queens road is closed." Not something you want to hear in Norfolk, tugging a caravan.

(3) Going to a campsite in Suffolk. Approach instructions read carefully and noted, including single track approach. What we weren't alerted to, by the instructions or by the Satnav, was how easy it was to miss the turning. Again the question arose how to get out of the predicament, which turned into a mile of single track mostly without passing places but with good sight lines.

(4) Going to a campsite in East Sussex, again prepared with directions, the junction off the A-Road is confusing and signpost in instructions is not present. Getting out of the resultant wrong turn was amusing.

Arguably the first might have had a better outcome with more incisive preparation, but the other three are instance where no amount of pre-preparation would have helped.

I've now bought a camping road atlas, which likely has as much info as the satnavs, and it looks to me that will be sufficient.

[canny colin]

Satnavs For  Commercial Vehicles . Now know as large goods vehicles , often have a programable section where you can put the size of the vehicle you are driving in . Very handy & often a bit cheaper for the plug in models .     

[Ham]

Indeed, as far as I am aware, the "caravan" specific ones are simply LGV rebranded.

[TPMB12]

@ham
The atlas was a very good idea imho. I'm not a lddite but paper map and how to use it is very important. Imho every satnav sold should come with a good road atlas and instructions how to use it with the sauna instructions. First sauna instruction should be learn to use a road atlas and use it to confirm saunas is correct.

Your first example reminds me of a trip for work. 6 hours to get to South Wales from nw England despite leaving at 5am.b driver forgot directions. My galaxy s2 came out and Google maps showed us driving along the blue road right at the bottom of the valley! Hmm! Roads are not blue on maps but rivers are.

If you do get a motor home or lgv satnav they can still go wrong. There's a former rail bridge now used as footpath near work that a lot of trucks have taken the roof of their trailer off with. A standard curtain trailer gets it's GFRP roof ripped off too many times a year. Following lgv satnav too. Ever tried to explain to a driver that you're not putting your product into a trailer which has most of the roof concertina'd towards the back of its trailer? Seriously had that conversation before now.

I hope your atlas works out for you. A lot to be said for old school atlas and navigator.

[Ham]

Yes, I do have a good navigator - if at times a bit gobby.

I'm a tech geek, but I still love paper maps, in all their forms, I can sit looking at maps for ages . In the basic form they give you far more context than a screen of data zooming in and out, and allow your mind to meander in a way that just doesn't happen on a monitor. And then, there are the alternative paper interpretations, like the Atlas Des Cols Des Alps, a couple of volumes of which are always by my bedside, dreams for the purpose of.