# Dodgy Satnav?



## maingate (Mar 13, 2013)

I have copied this from another forum because it might be targetted at Motorhome owners.

I have no personal knowledge of this model, I am only passing this on.

Falcon Navigator - Warning | Motorhome Matters | Motorhomes Forum | Out and About Live


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## Beemer (Mar 13, 2013)

It will be interesting if the poster gets any joy getting his money back.
Surely, the Sat nav is purely a guide, and should be used as such.
Reminds me of the woman in the USA who activated the cruise control on her RV and left the drivers seat to put the kettle on!!!! :lol-053:


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## maingate (Mar 13, 2013)

So you did not notice the bit about a £99 Satnav being sold at Motorhome shows for £299. 

You cannot be a proper Yorkshireman then. :scared:


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## Beemer (Mar 13, 2013)

maingate said:


> So you did not notice the bit about a £99 Satnav being sold at Motorhome shows for £299.
> 
> You cannot be a proper Yorkshireman then. :scared:



I must admit to NOT being a 'proper Yorkshireman'... I was born in Kent, a Man of Kent...However, in my defense, I am learning the language, and with the help of my Yorky wife would like to think that Yorkshire may yet adopt me as one of their own! :bow:


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## graham (Mar 13, 2013)

maingate said:


> I have copied this from another forum because it might be targetted at Motorhome owners.
> 
> I have no personal knowledge of this model, I am only passing this on.
> 
> Falcon Navigator - Warning | Motorhome Matters | Motorhomes Forum | Out and About Live



Yes i bought one last year went wrong that evening was given a new one went wrong within 8 months phoned company e mailed loads no answar at all. what a con dont waste your money


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## frontslide (Mar 14, 2013)

Purchased this SatNav at the Motorhome and Caravan Show at the NEC recently. Fresh out of the box I tested it with my motorhome dimensions in my home town with a known height restriction. BANG!!!!
He drove into the bridge with a known height restriction, in his home town, where he lives????


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## sparrks (Mar 14, 2013)

frontslide said:


> Purchased this SatNav at the Motorhome and Caravan Show at the NEC recently. Fresh out of the box I tested it with my motorhome dimensions in my home town with a known height restriction. BANG!!!!
> He drove into the bridge with a known height restriction, in his home town, where he lives????



A satnav is a driver aid not a replacement for a brain. *If* he really did drive into a local bridge and damage his motorhome I think he should retake his driving test. Just like the muppets who drive through deep fords cos their satnav directed them to.


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## Wooie1958 (Mar 14, 2013)

sparrks said:


> A satnav is a driver aid not a replacement for a brain. *If* he really did drive into a local bridge and damage his motorhome I think he should retake his driving test. Just like the muppets who drive through deep fords cos their satnav directed them to.






Shame the Father-in-Law didn`t read threads like this before getting his Sat-Nav.................................LOL

It`s got him in that many " Pickles " you wouldn`t believe it. 

Best one was over 100 Miles out of his way before he realised, and then he had to be " Recovered " on the North Yorkshire Moors after 
the road turned into a track and then nothing, tried to turn round then got stuck right down to the axle.........................LOL

I said to him once " If TomTom told you to drive off a Cliff, would you " ?

Reckons he should have saved his money and stuck to Old Fashioned Maps at least they don`t tell you to go the wrong way !

He`s still never forgiven me for being " Sarcastic " and blames me for recommending that model.........................LOL.


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## sasquatch (Mar 14, 2013)

When they were first put into cars BMW were one of the first companies to do so.There is a tale that one was driven out of the showroom and into a canal! The satnav told the driver to turn right and he did into the drink-he was just obeying orders,not being aware of the 50 metre differential built in by the satellite.


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## Kontiki (Mar 14, 2013)

As well as my Tomtom I have a Chinese Truck sat nav off ebay, the mapping software is Pnavi & has some nice features when you get used to it. The maps in Spain were sometimes a little bit out of date but UK & France seem ok. Some of the nice features are automatically recording the track log of where you have been, gives details of max. speed, time, av. speed & also a height profile of the trip. Need to contact them about a problem with it crashing if I try to use the 3D view but I prefer the 2D view as I think you can see more. With Tomtom it shows lane guidance but it is all you can see on the screen, can be a problem if there is some instruction close to the junction, on the Pnavi one the lane guidance is at the top of the screen & the view of the route is still available. If you enter waypoints it gives the distances to them & lets yu know when you are arriving. The quality of the hardware isn't great but it works ok.


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## fairytooth (Mar 14, 2013)

I couldn't open the article but I think I can guess what it says ...

I remember an American saying 'When you take your tomtom out of the box, don't leave your brain behind in its place'.  Good advice I thought.

Ah well ............:juggle:


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## maingate (Mar 14, 2013)

fairytooth said:


> I couldn't open the article but I think I can guess what it says ...
> 
> I remember an American saying 'When you take your tomtom out of the box, don't leave your brain behind in its place'.  Good advice I thought.
> 
> Ah well ............:juggle:



The thread has been removed from the forum for some reason. You are therefore excused from my next statement.

Apart from one previous owner, all the other comments have been off topic. I brought this to your attention because firstly they seemed to be ripping off motorhome owners at Shows by charging £299 for the same Satnav badged differently and sold at £99 elsewhere. Secondly, they just don't seem to work and ignore customers when they have a problem.

It is obviously best to just keep shtum in future, so beware.


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## fairytooth (Mar 14, 2013)

Ah, that makes sense.

As far as I know, the tomtom with Truck mapping is the ONLY sat nav that has the correct mapping and software to route HGVs, motorhomes, etc. correctly according to their dimensions. A few other makes pretend to do so.

I know from my own experience of using one for many thousands of miles and because there are plenty of you on this site that use the tomtom TRUCK, that it works extremely well.  I hesitate to say 'perfect' but as close as I've ever seen.

I have never heard of FALCON before but I won't be going anywhere near one.  Thanks for the heads up.

PS. I notice Falcon have an free number 0800 622 474.  Interestingly my 0800 wizard tells me this is the number for Pierpoint Addiction Treatment Centres.   Hmm, could that be 'SatNavs Anonymous' I wonder.  Maybe I should give them a ring.


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## Kontiki (Mar 14, 2013)

I found in France that Tomtom truck would give me a route & my Chinese Pnavi truck software would give me a different route. On the whole the Pnavi seemed to get it right more times than Tomtom warning me about being over 3.5 ton in some towns. Annoying point about the Pnavi if I was stuck somewhere where I was over the limit it would flash a warning message giving mr the option to continue route or cancel. As I would have no option other than continue as it was the only way I could go, it would then immediately warn me again making it useless for navigating as it would just continually keep warning me. I could enter the vehicle dimensions but even with this it considered me to be a truck, sometimes there were restrictions for trucks which don't necessarily apply to motorhomes or even for local traffic access.

I found that at times the Tomtom would after trying to enter a route would say no route possible, especially if I was parked somewhere off the road. I would have to use advance planning & select a route starting from some point on the road. My Tomtom truck software eventually crashed & I couldn't get it to load & had to revert to the car software. Need to reload the truck software sometime.

Worked well having 2 sat navs at times, other times it got a bit confusing.


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## Wooie1958 (Mar 15, 2013)

Flip Flap said:


> A sort of hangmans anonymous??




Did you know *Albert* then ?


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## fairytooth (Mar 15, 2013)

Which tomtom map version do you have Kontiki? Never had that problem with mine.  Cant vouch for the chinese one though.


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## Beemer (Mar 15, 2013)

We had the Lorry program loaded onto our Tom Tom 730 (Fairytooth), and have been using it with the 'van dimensions, and it has worked very well in UK.
However, we decided to visit Rouen last year and having already been forwarned to look out for Rouen's low underpass, we were prepared, but sat nav insisted we take it.
We didn't of course, especially as there was a pre-warning of the low height in the form of a 'barrier' and signs before the underpass, with plenty of time to avoid it.
Not sure if the included picture of a 'cabrio' motorhome owner, did see the signs if they were available when the driver decided to 'have a go'....


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## fairytooth (Mar 15, 2013)

Have to agree with you Beemer, that underpass nearly caught me out too once.

Rouen isn't my favourite city to drive through.  The 'best' junction for me was going north on the bridge in the town centre, a sharp right from 2 lanes, back on yourself then getting across 3 lanes in rush hour to turn left along the river bank.  Crazy.  Did it once with a long caravan hooked up.  Erghh.

Great pic by the way!


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## Neckender (Mar 15, 2013)

Beemer said:


> We had the Lorry program loaded onto our Tom Tom 730 (Fairytooth), and have been using it with the 'van dimensions, and it has worked very well in UK.
> However, we decided to visit Rouen last year and having already been forwarned to look out for Rouen's low underpass, we were prepared, but sat nav insisted we take it.
> We didn't of course, especially as there was a pre-warning of the low height in the form of a 'barrier' and signs before the underpass, with plenty of time to avoid it.
> Not sure if the included picture of a 'cabrio' motorhome owner, did see the signs if they were available when the driver decided to 'have a go'....
> ...



 Like wise I swerved around the overhanging barrier and had to cross a concrete kerbing as I couldn't reverse out Phew!

John.


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## brian the man (Mar 15, 2013)

*yorkshire man*



Beemer said:


> I must admit to NOT being a 'proper Yorkshireman'... I was born in Kent, a Man of Kent...However, in my defense, I am learning the language, and with the help of my Yorky wife would like to think that Yorkshire may yet adopt me as one of their own! :bow:



go on then beemer i ham yorkshire throgh and throgh look i carn,t even spell but i will adopt you you are now a true yorkshire man  welcome.:king::king:


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## graham (Apr 8, 2013)

graham said:


> Yes i bought one last year went wrong that evening was given a new one went wrong within 8 months phoned company e mailed loads no answar at all. what a con dont waste your money


Following on from my last comment I finally got the sat nav sent back to be checked, well over a month later I phoned to find what was going on. the reply was oh well its been dropped and a new screen will be £90, I said I don't think so the only time it fell was when your supplied swanneck holder broke at the swivel joint.the reply to that was it would hard to prove that. you must have dropped it yourself, and as you wont exept our offer it will be sent back to you, and hung up.:mad1::mad2:


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## tweetyfalc (Dec 10, 2015)

*Falcon Sat Nav*

I am sorry to hear of any problems people may have experienced!
A lot of our complaints have not been with the product its self but the re seller and how they handled your issues.
We have taken this on board and as the manufacturer taken all the warranties of our product directly, as we pride ourselves on great customer services. should you wish to see other reviews of our product and services then please visit the following forum
Forums | Ask Grandad

And if you need any assistance please call us on
01928 759239


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