Need some Info on GPS

[Montana_738]

Does anyone use a GPS unit with Trailer Life 2004?
If you do what kind or brand do you use?
I have Delorme and had a lot of trouble with it on our trip out west to the coast.
I actually gave up on the Delorme and just used Trailer Life with out the GPS.
Can I use Trailer life with the Delorme GPS?

I hope someone can help.

Thanks,

Bill Rita

[HamRad]

accuprep,
Hello Bill and Rita..... When I'm using my laptop for mapping I use the DeLorme Earthmate GPS. It works great with the laptop. It is a couple of years old. They've come out with much smaller and more efficient models. But I find this one does what I need it to do.

On my Ham Radio setup ----- the APRS system ----- I use a stand alone system. It is a Garmin GPS III Plus system. But it runs my automatic tracking system. Click on the "Where are we?" link in my signature and you'll see what I'm talking about.

For actual traveling we use the older Earthmate with the laptop and mapping program called "MapnGo 7.0". The two work well together.

I checked my Trailer Life 2003 and it says it supports NMEA compliant devices. So if your GPS is NMEA compliant I'd think the '04 version should run it ok.

Do you have plenty of memory on the laptop?

I have given up on the Trailer Life program. I thought it would be really good but I found it to be not very user friendly. I never did try the GPS with it. I've only used it on the Map n Go program. The problem with the Map n Go program is that it is getting old and they don't make it any more!

Well I've run on long enough here. Good luck.

HamRad

[Ken Wiseman]

Yes connecting the earthmate with Trailer Life 2004 is a bit of a problem in Windows XP. This software is actually made by Rand McNally. After contacting them about the problem, they refered me to Delorme - affter several emails to both, I could get the software to recognize the GPS unit, but only for about 60 seconds. I would have to reboot inorder get another 60 seconds of operaton. Robooting every 60 seconds is not going to happen.

Of course the Street Atlas that comes with the Delorme Earthmate worked perfected from day one on the same laptop - go figure.

The bottom line is that the Delorme Street Atlas is much better software than Trailer Life sofware anyway. so I am sticking with it instead of finding a solution to the problem.

The Street Atlas software has complete detailed maps for the entire US - Trailer Life does not. The feature alone makes it usefullness questonable. If the software cannot find where your are going - who cares if it works or not?
Although I still use some of the features of the Trailer Life, our main gps software will remain StreetAtlas 2004.

[Montana_738]

Thanks everyone for the advice.
I thought it was me but I tried several times to get the Delorme to work and never had much luck. I have plenty of memmory on my lap top.
What I couldn't understand is the trailer life would work great. The Delorme with or without the GPS didn't work.
I contacted Delorme and come to find out I have a bad CD, they sent a new one (complete set minus the GPS unit) over night. I put the disc in and bingo it works great. I should mention Delorme bent over backward to make sure I was pleased with their service.
By the way for the nice people that gave me advice on our trip out west (5000 miles plus) thank you. I told them it was my first time pulling that big rig through the mountains and I was scared to death, I almost backed out. Well we traveled all through Yellowstone and several other mountain ranges, that 5er pulled like a dream. The thing I liked best about our Chevy 2500 diesel was going down steep grades I could put that Alison tranny in trailer mode and it would walk me right down without using the brakes very often. A couple friends we traveled with had to pull over several times and let their brakes cool down. They drove a Dodge diesel.

Thanks again,

Bill & Rita

[HamRad]

Bill and Rita,
Thanks for posting and letting us know you got it fixed. Glad it is working for you. Good luck and happy RVing!
HamRad

[chopstyx57]

I have an IPAC hand held and purchased a Co-Pilot live GPS jacket that the IPAC slides into. It has a vent mount, cig adapter. Plan your travels on your pc or laptop and it downloads to the handheld. It works flawlessly.

the GPS hardware and software can be found at: http://www.alk.com

[sreigle]

The newer earthmates are, I think, NMEA compliant and thus should work with a wide variety of mapping software. My earthmate is older and is not nmea compliant so it's restricted to working with just delorme provided software. But I'm happy with Street Atlas 2004 so it's not a problem. Someday I would like to get a newer earthmate, usb powered instead of serial port like mine is but until the old one dies I'll keep on using it.