Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

hmm on my unit I've just been using Choose Destination>Points of Interest>City to get my current location (city+state). The top box has your current location and the bottom box will have your last destination (whether you're currently being routed, moving or not).

If your routed and still in motion you can either use the cogwheel mentioned earlier or simply tap on the ID bar (forget what it's called) on the botton of the nav screen. It will cycle between Current Road>Next Intersection>Current City/State each time it's pressed.

 

could someone just summarize the last 30 pages about the Intelliroute TND please?

I'm not looking for perfection just functionality with basic truck routing.

I like the update feature and an open ear from RM also sounds good. I have had some issues with other GPS units around just these two alone.

The feature/map updates are forever or is this a subscription of some sort with a recurring fee?

 

kajidono:
Excellent points.
The "Where Am I" feature on the Intelliroute is very difficult and time-consuming to use.
The Garmin units have a very easy-to-deploy "Where Am I" feature.
Thank you for your insights.

 

Hmm, no dedicated button but it's pretty easy to get it....

 

Im a tester for RM and I drive for the Sygma Network as a delivery driver (I dont get paid by RM and dont work for them Ted). I used the TND 500 last night for a route in Mass and NH. I really like these features that RM included with the 500, the lane assist is excellent, it actually gives you a road level view of the highway with the actual exit sign. The 500 also gives you warnings when approaching a toll booth, or you about to cross a state border, a weigh station and speed limit alert (it actually will show the speed limit for the road your are on, and turn red if you exceed that limit).......which can be customized to 1m, 2m or whatever you feel is necessary. The state border warning is a great feature for me, because we have to mark our mileage when crossing state lines, and sometimes it hard to see where that Welcome to whatever state is when its dark, raining or snowing. The other feature I found extremely cool is the Hours of Duty, it keeps track of your Drive, On Duty and Off Duty time. Towards the end of my run the 500 warned me I had 2 hours of drive time left, very helpful especially if you our using paper logs, which I was. Another cool feature is the 500 will give you the page number and grid location of your destination in the RM MCRA, so they both work hand in hand. One more neat feature I noticed is that in truck tools of the 500 it give you important information regaring the state you are in, such as emergency and non-emergency phone numbers for the police, Overweight/Oversized phone number, Hazardous Spill Reporting phone number, Chemtrec/Chem-Tel/3E phone numbers, Hazardous Materials phone and fuel Tax Phone numbers. The 500 also has this information for Canada and Mexico.
There are plenty of other feature also that I noticed with the TND 500 that RM packed in here.
So is the unit perfect, of course not.......I did find that when I was outside of Boston on RT16 and also RT28 that the TND500 flagged it has a restricted or unadvised road ( I know of another GPS unit that does the same exact thing). I looked it up in the MCRA and saw this shouldn't be the case, gave Mark the information and it was sent up to RM for them to work on. Besides that it got me safely to all my stops on time, which is important to me.
So I actually have this unit, and I'm putting it to the test on multi-stop routes, in areas and roads where OTR drivers dont normally go.

As far as the "Where I am" feature, I never made use of it on any of my GPS's..........so not a big deal at all. I know the TND 500 does give you your current location and GPS coordinates while in route.

Any questions feel free to PM me or post here, I'm out on the road also and need my sleep like anybody else, but I will try to help when I can. Please also note Im under NDA also, I can answer question about the current unit.

 

good grief! a post thats not a pisxxg post. Thanks for the actual imput use of the unit. If brand X has one function that some people love, then by all means buy one. Ask your question, get your answer and then move on, quit plowing the same ground over and over

 

Can somebody actually tell if this unit is good or not? i.e. Truck routing works?

 

Read my post above, this was the 1st actually route I used it on and it worked fine. I will be using it tonight on my Rochester, NY shuttle route, and then Tuesday on a Boston run, and in NYC on Friday.
The coolest feature about the TND 500 is you have a direct source with Mark in helping with any questions you may have, and also actual truck drivers such as myself are in the field testing it, and what we find gets sent to RM.

 

It does not give accurate truck routing. As in the above post was routed on restricted roads even if data was wrong.

There is not one single function that works properly. First and formost is needs to do accurate truck routing and most importantly rerouting, It does not.

Sorry the calculator does work right.

Try checking a route or change a route, difficult at best. Detour function till it goes where you want or set up multi stop, then can only see first segment of trip.

Can't clear mileage, Where am I or current location, one of the most used functions of Atlas for OTR stops for logging, not easy.

Only 2 options for routing fastest, shortest, only allow or avoid for roads.

This unit is not ready for trucks at all. I expected some issues given I purchased the unit pre-release and received one of the first shipped. But, the number of issues in this unit is beyond belief, even has errors on the most basic of major roadway routing. Construction data??? when it has it does nothing about it.

Enough is enough, the list is long, the issues many. With the ability to update maybe it will eventually.

With Big Rig's routing and location is everything, it is why we buy these things. Any that don't do that are worse than worthless, they can cost us thousands of dollars.