Satnavs

AdriaTwin

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Anyone got the TomTom Go Camper satnav ? Opinions please. Just got a bigger motorhome and don't want to be directed down singletrack roads ( except in Scotland where plenty of passing places). Any experiences?
 
Bought a new Go Premium x in July. Very similar to Go Camper I think.
Most frustrating device I have ever used, the touch screen is just so slow. Could be mine is faulty but getting on with TomTom customer service is equally as frustrating as the device. This is my third TomTom, first one bought in 05 or 06 and have always been happy with their products, not this one.
I'd go visit a shop and try one first see how you like it.

The sat nav bit of it is fine, good clear screen, lots of info etc.
 
Thanks mark. Its the ability to enter the dimensions of the van I`m curious about. When youve done so, does it ignore narrow country lanes that a car would use ?
 
I don't think you will get a new satnav that doesn't send you down single-track roads, there is a lack of options these days and when you put your vehicle width in the settings and it knows your van is 2.3m wide it will send you down any road that is even fractionally wider so it doesn't ignore single track roads.
It is more useful for height restrictions to be honest.
You can of course plan your route on a laptop using tomtom mydrive and check the roads it picks for you then change individual roads if you don't like the look of them, then the route will be sent to your satnav, this useful for adding way points as well
 
Our van is over 3500kg so the sat nav was generally set up for a large vehicle and over 3m in height. Until it tried to take us on a 3 hour drive of over 70km when we were only 20km from home.
Now, we only set it at +3500kg if we aren’t in a rush.
It still tries to take us down narrow single track roads and a couple of times insisted we went through a 2.5m tunnel in France ( we didn’t! )
I think they all do it. Ours is a Garmin dezl 770, but I drove a large van fitted with a new TomTom Camper a few weeks ago and it still took me down single track roads and thought we were driving through a field whilst driving through an established industrial estate.
 
mfw said:
Got the tomtom truck satnav which is similar to the camper so size and weight can be put in - it will send you down narrow lanes though
Click to expand...
I had one that in truck mode it sent you under low bridges and narrow roads. I bet someone thought that was funny!
 
I believe that all these satnavs just use a database of road signs to warn you of height or width limits, so, if there is no official width restriction sign, for example, they will still send you down a single track road. I have just changed from a 2.3m coachbuilt to a 2.1m PVC so I updated the satnav. Next thing it wanted to send me over a bridge with a 6'10" limit (ie 2.1m). Fortunately I knew the area so didn't get caught. I've now added a safety factor - 2.2m.
 
FWIW, I replaced my Navigon dedicated unit with Co-Pilot Caravan Android app, which the software house then 'upgraded' to Co-Pilot GPS with motorhome/caravan options enabled. I've entered my motorhome length, width and height and (unlike the Navigon) it's not tried sending me under any height restriction so far. In general, it selects appropriate routes where a choice is available but will send me down narrow, single-track roads where there is a massive distance penalty to avoiding them or there is no other viable route. TBH, I thought that all half decent sat navs worked that way...
 
I think all sat navs just use the map data if available for road widths. Our Garmin 760 seems much better since the last two map updates, before updating we had some unwanted adventures even, like just 2" clearance to drystone walls on single track even though we had oversized the vehicle width. But all seems well now - well so far anyway.
 
Only advantage with a dedicated camper satnav is the camper parking/campsite info FWIW
 
Thank you for all the replies. The original question was anyone got a TomTom camper and experience of it. Seems not, so I'll have a look at other satnavs too. I'm a fan of tomtom's , had them without any problems for 12 years that's why I asked.
 
I would stick with TomTom.

I have a Garmin at present and although they were making GPS units for marine use long before TomTom came along, I don't find mine as user friendly as the TomTom.

I think the mapping is still evolving but still has a long way to go, so best used in conjunction with a road atlas which kind of defeats the object. I often stop though if being directed down a dodgy looking road and have a glance at the atlas and then make a decision.
 
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