Best GPS

Ok tried 3 PFJs today noone had them. Lady at one said as soon as the sale hit they were wiped out, said one guy bought, 3 in one shot. She said the model was being discontinued and there would be no more.

 

This is just me.......Price is advertised until 06/30.…...If you can be the squeaky wheel so to speak......you will get one. Just don't be the typical ####### truck driver. PFJ should honor the price. On HT.... Will hit the road on 06/30.... Will send an update then..... Be safe drivers..... Over and OUT.
...

 

I suppose it's easy for them to honor the price of a product they will no longer have in stock. Garmin has new models replacing the dezl same lady showed me them. The 7incher was $429 with no rebate.

 

In my experience RM 740 and older are pretty good units... But as others have said updates are few and far between. When my 740 dies I will get a Garmin.

 

Right now I'm trying to decide if the new Garmin OTR 700 is worth $89 more than the older DEZL 780 with rebate.

Plan on buying one or the other in the next day or so. My old RM 730 is becoming a hindrance now. Served me well over the years, can't complain, I more than got my money's worth out of it.

 

Since you will be switching to a Garmin I would be interested in what you think of it compaired to the RM once you have used it for a few weeks. Ive never used a Garmin, but have used a few different RM's

 

I'll be sure to update once I get it. I've used Garmin products in the past but they were car units but Garmin has been a leader in GPS technology for decades.

The only issue I have with the RM 730 now is the outdated info. It's not showing new truck stops, doesn't know about new intersections etc and it will no longer connect to my PC for updates. I thought I could live with it compared to the cost of a new unit, but it's just too frustrating.

I have the Hammer navigation app on my phone which is a good backup, but it has too many flaws for me to rely on it as primary navigation. As it is, I use the Hammer to verify what the RM is routing, and then I use Google maps to double check Hammer. Somewhere between the 3 is the right route.

What's that saying about the man with 2 clocks is never sure of the time.

 

I have always used the RM. I have the 540 now.
It tries to do strange things sometimes, but I have learned those quirks.
Updates are lacking in many key areas. New truck stops and roads, speed limits...

In the long run, it gets me where I need to be - most times - even if I have to use a little brain power in the meantime.

They all have shortcomings and should never be relied on 100% of the time.

 

Anything but a "TomTom" ,for fun I tried to find My House and it was taking me 3 rights "Back in A Circle". If you have one ...I'll give you 5 bones for it.."Just so ,I can throw it out the window". Total Garbage,Recommend a pawn store Garmin for $35, a map and plain ole common sense.

 

I got the DEZL OTR 700 on Tuesday, been playing with it for a while and did a couple trips with it. Overall, I like it. It's a new "system" to get used to after using the RM 730 for 4+ years.

The biggest plus was an expected one. Newer maps than the outdated RM. Newer screen technology means it's bright and clear and easy to see. Side by side makes the RM looked washed out and much harder to see in daylight.

The Garmin has some features that I'm not sure how much I will use such as live traffic and weather. It gets that info from a Bluetooth connection to your phone if you have the Garmin app loaded on it. It warms of upcoming construction and which lane is closed if any and how much of a delay. Neat trick,but time will tell how accurate or useful that is.

One feature I really like is with the turn by turn voice navigation. It tell you to make a left or right or whatever at the stop sign or traffic light rather than just make a turn at whatever distance. I know that has caught me out before using the RM as I turned too early or too late than where I was supposed to. I guess I am not that good at estimating the distance given in the instructions. The Garmin removes the guess work. "Make right turn at traffic light" leaves no room for interpretation.

Another thing I really like is that when you look for truck stops it shows you how many parking spaces each truck stop has. Before I would have to get on Trucker Path and click on each prospective truck stop to see how big it was and whether it was worth trying to find parking there, then go back to the RM and enter it as a stop. Big win for Garmin here.

Now for stuff I am not so impressed with. The windshield mount is on the tiny side. It puts the unit too close to the windshield and thus far away from the driver. Considering this model is sold as truck specific and the price premium over their car units(which probably cost the same to produce) they should have included a much longer, more robust mount. I will definitely have to get a third party mount to bring the unit closer for comfortable use.

Another biggish issue is that it doesn't give you audible alerts if upcoming weigh stations. It will show them as upcoming if you have the "upcoming" split screen activated, but that reduces have the map view and for me nothing beats an audible alert to bring your attention to the screen to see how far out the scale is. RM got the scale alerts right.

On a lesser note is stuff that would be nice to have maybe because I got used to it with the RM. I like knowing the distance to my destination and the estimated travel time there. With Garmin you can have those displayed, but only one or the other. RM will display both at the same time. Also the RM always shows current local time, with the Garmin you can display local time but it means giving up displaying distance to destination or ETA etc. Very simple thing, but I instantly missed it.

To be honest, if the new Rand McNally units didn't have such a poor reputation, I would be tempted to give one a try. Maybe the stuff I like about the Garmin is included in the new RMs, but I don't think it's worth the hassle of dealing with returning anything.

Any other questions,feel free to ask.