Who do you BELIEVE?

[Trailer Trash 2]

Sorry but I have to bring this topic to the table about GPS and Maping Programs.
I have purchased these three programs and I dont know which one is accurate. MS Streets and Trips 2009, De Lorme Earth Mate 2009, and Garmin, City Navigator North America 2009. for my Garmin c-340 portable. each one of these programs have conflicting information about Points Of Interest or(P.O.I.), Gas stations, rest stops ID names, and RV Parks along with there proper address,
Example: a gas station I Fillmore Utah off the I-15 one program shows a Conoco Phillips at one street location and a call on the phone number provided conferms that Phillips is in that area but not where the program shows the station at, but a Chevron Station is where the other program shows and the third program dosen't shoe either. What a mess, I have received several updates already from each of the programs but still no change in that area. the amount of money spent for each of these programs and updates to 2009 were a lot for inaccurate information,
So who should I trust

TT2

[OntMont]

I would not trust any of them for anything that is important without verifying other ways. I suspect that there is just too much of a time lag between the data gathering and the publication of that data.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

I still don't trust them. To often friends in Florida have gotten entirely different driving routes. One using a Garmin and the other using TomTom. Both started at point A and both wanted the fastest route to point B. They each tried a 3 different locations and each time the routes were different. AND the best part is we all knew the exact route from point A to point B and in most cases neither GPS gave the fastest route. In one case, TomTom had us a good 15 miles out of the way and the Garmin missed point B by a mile.

Now if I could afford one that the military uses I'd probably note hesitate. Me thinks I'll wait a bit longer until they can get them more accurate and the price comes down.

[adelmoll]

We have both Garmin and Tom Tom. We use them as a guide but we drive by our map. We do not like to take the Tana across rivers that do not have bridges or fields that do not have roads. Grrrr. As for POI, they are pretty useless with the way things are being built and torn down.

Helen

[OntMont]

I would not say I trust it any more, but I use S&T because at least you can sit down with the laptop some time before a trip and work through the route and check it for mistakes, (both its and yours). You can easily re-route it if you don't care for the route it has selected for some reason. Setting the options for "fastest" vs "shortest" makes a difference. Shortest will tend to take you through side streets and back roads. Also setting road type preferences to favour major roads will help keep you out of the boonies. When all is said and done, they are just dumb computers, and "garbage in = garbage out" still rules. In spite of that, we still like to have it with us to show us where we are, and there have been several times when it has saved out bacon when we made a wrong turn somewhere or had a sudden change of travel plans.

[capn chris]

When we're towing I keep my Garmin set to "Truck" to avoid small streets. This summer the Garmin found each of the friends' houses that we were to visit. DW still likes to use the map to keep "Lulu" honest!!! Garmin sometimes helps to find a post office for mailing cards, but not always. Garmin does have a web link for sending faulty info reports. It is a navigation AID and needs to used as such. I, too, have had experiences like those mentioned above. Oh well.

[H. John Kohl]

I use Delorme Street Atlas on the laptop and my GPS. I plan the trip on the laptop and make changes as desired. Also have low bridges POI on Street Atlas. Then I check the track the GPS plots, adjust as needed and make the trip. I use it to warn me ahead of time when a turn is coming. I have missed a couple turns at complicated exits as documented earlier. It is a driving guide and my map and compass on the dash. I remember they are only as good as the information inputted and as accurate as the current update can make it.

[Waynem]

I use MS S&T for trip planning, then the TomTom for general guidance. They all have their good side and bad side and I have used both to the good and bad side advantage/disadvantage. I will use MS S&T to look at the route I want to take. I'll have a general idea of what highways I need to be on. If TomTom tells me to make a turn and I recognize it as not being the route that I looked at, I'll ignore it. TomTom will then catch up and pick up the new route. On occasion I have not looked before hand at the route and was on some roads I wouldn't take a bicycle on, let along a 40' trailer. However, going to Roamer's Retreat in Lancaster TomTom took me on some roads that I would not have planned that turned out to be beautiful, although twisty and slow MPH, but worth the ride.

As posted in another thread, you cannot trust the GPS for fastest/shortest, however you want to describe it. In most cases it works, but when you get into areas where interstates circumnavigate destinations, the fastest and shortes will be back roads that you may not necessarily want to travel on.

Although these tools are designed to make it easier, I still think you have to do prior trip plannong using maps and tools at your convenience, then follow your instinct. Remember the WAG and SWAG principle.

[adelmoll]

Our new Garmin does not have the option for truck route or any listing for campgrounds. Does anyone know where we can get this? Thanks
Helen

[Bill-N-Donna]

The GPS we have doesn't have a truck route either. I usually set it for the quickest route rather than the shortest; it seems to choose the better routing this way. Every once in a while it will try and lead us astray but with a little common sense we usually make out ok. For the most part we depend on it. We do keep a road atlas handy if needed. I haven’t used any programs for the PC for a long time but have planned out something using one of the mapping programs online.

I know when we were in Gettysburg this past June the GPS was really nice to use. I found all the Wal-Marts and restaurants we wanted to go to. When we would be out somewhere on day trips and were ready to return to the camper we would just set it to find the campground and it always found the way back. Of course after a few trips out we sort of learned our way around anyway.

Since we have the GPS I’ve noticed that we have a tendency to take trips off the route and spend more time on back roads since it re-routes you anyway. Overall I wouldn't want to be without it. It has saved us a lot of frustration trying to guess at locations, short cuts, etc... My wife calls it “Adventures with Bill.”

[foggyb]

Delorme has to be the best due to the fact that it found it's way out of the Maine woods with all those dangerous lobsters lurking everywhere. Dan

[Trailer Trash 2]

quote:Originally posted by adelmoll

Our new Garmin does not have the option for truck route or any listing for campgrounds. Does anyone know where we can get this? Thanks
Helen

Are you talking about the portable car unit or the lap top program?
For the protable on the first screen there is a tool area it looks like a wrench tag that, then tag Nagavation then im that sub Dir there is a place called vehiclethere is wher you will find that item.

For the computer program go to Preferances, then to routing, then pick vehicle.

As for filding a RV Park I havn't figured that out yet I go to Good Sam book or web site campground get the address and enter it into the Garmin then save it as a way point.

[Waynem]

You can find POI files HERE

Here are some MORE POI's for campgrounds.

POI EDIT allows you to create your own POI files.

[richfaa]

We have 3 different GPS units and they will all give different directions to get to the same place. Most of the time the difference is in the set up. Fast way,,, shortest way, senic route.... Car, truck, Bus, bike, walking. Constant up dates are a must as well as the proper set up. If the unit thinks you are in a car it will route you on roads you do not want to take a camper on. When purchasing a GPS we need to do some homework and make sure it has the options we need. We have traveled thousands of miles on our Garmin GPS-18 and true it was not able to find a address at times but we can enter the lat/long and it can always find that. You get what you pay for applies with the GPS unit. Remember that most folks DO NOT drive big trucks or campers so most lower end GPS units do not have the truck/bus function.

[sreigle]

I use them to get me close enough to eyeball the place I'm looking for. Frequently they're spot on but also sometimes they're off a bit. But usually it's close enough for my needs. Still....

[Exnavydiver]

Having used my Garmin Quest for going on 5 years now I have learned to do my own routing on the computer using Map Source, a Garmin product. I used to just put the cursor on the start point and the end point and hit plot. When I zoomed in and checked the route closely it routed us around our elbows to get to our butts. So I picked the main routes and zoomed in and plotted my routes step by step. It takes a bit of time but I already know where we are stopping for the night and only need routing from the exit to the CG. Most times I have no problem. The one glaring instance where that didn't work was in Fredricksburg, Va. it routed us 6 miles east of the campground into a subdivision ond into a cul-d-sac. The road we needed was visible through the woods but took a 10 mile trip to reach. The unit works best when I am not paying attention on where I am and it tells me that my exit is coming up soon. No, I don't trust them to do all the work. I will set the route and just use them as a tool to assist me... Dave

[sreigle]

My Garmin has campgrounds in it. It has some my S&T do not have and vice-versa.

On my Garmin, when we are towing I like the "Bus" setting better than the "truck" setting. The truck setting routes me onto truck routes through/around cities and those can be pretty rough. The bus routing will take me on better roads but keep me off those little residential streets I don't want to tow on. When not towing I set it to "car/motorcycle" or sometimes just leave it on the bus setting. I just wish they had a setting where I could enter my minimum height requirements and it would avoid low clearance areas automatically.

There also are settings for what to avoid. That obviously affects routing. S&T has similar settings. Although they function differently, the results are similar.

Sometimes I'll enter a waypoint or Find where I want to go and just tell it to take me there. But for our campground to campground trips and for some of our sightseeing trips I prefer to use Mapsource on my laptop, like Dave. I can then fine tune the route to take roads we've not yet been on, etc. It's easier on the laptop screen. And it's easy to quickly upload the route and/or waypoints to the garmin.

Occasionally I find an anomally in the map. Interestingly, when I've checked I've found the identical area in my copies of S&T, DeLorme's Street Atlas, both my Garmins and on the truck's builtin GPS. They must all be based off the same maps.

[Ozzie]

My Garmin Nuvi does a very good job for me. It does have different settings for vehicles, and it does affect the routes. I use it everyday navigating for work and have gotten accustomed to the fact that it has a very good track record of getting me there. It doesn't always take the best route, but it's only a minute or two, and is much less stressful to just do as she says...lol
Most of the issues I run into are a result of the mapping software not being up to date. I can see the changes because all of a sudden she gets lost on new roads. And businesses...well - who can even keep track of the changes...
I've taken it vacationing a number of times and it has always gotten me around. I know I have a mapbook around here somewhere...

[BB_TX]

On trips to unfamiliar places, I always print the trip from google maps. Then use my Garmin as I near my destination. The Garmin will sometimes try to take me ways that I know are not the best. But is great for homing in on the final destination.
As far as service stations, around here is not uncommon for stations to change brand names. Shell station this year may be an Exxon next year.

[garyka]

I use the garmin 650 and then I check it out on streets and trips for bridge clearances and construction updates and to see how the garmin is taking me.