Cobra Electronics 7700 PRO GPS

An explanation is in order.

The 7700 actually contains 2 POI databases. It has our "normal" database, plus a special Promiles / Truckdown database.

The premium database from ProMiles / Truckdown contains much higher quality data for use specifically by truckers. Truck stops in this premium data have been verified as suitable for trucks, and the GPS coordinates of these truck stops is right at the pumps, for higher accuracy.

Travel centers in the main database [...Auto/Truck | Travel Centers] include businesses that claim to be travel centers but may not always be suitable for large trucks. Some of these travel centers may be hard to get to by large trucks, and facilities may be very limited.

The two databases are provided separately because we want to give truckers the option of searching premium-only data or searching our larger, main database, which contains many more points. Normally, truckers will want to use the premium database as their primary tool, but can use the main database as a backup when searches from the premium database do not yield sufficient results.

We recommend first trying the Promiles database. When searching POI, tap on Promiles and then choose the appropriate category. If you are not happy with the search results, then back up and try searching the main database.

I know it may sound like a hassle, but really it's not. It gives you more choices. You get a special database of high-quality trucker-specific data, plus another huge database available which contains general POIs. As I previously said, we always recommend trying the Promiles database first.

Brian

 

I had our engineers investigate.

It turns out that Saratoga is not an official truck route in the city of Bismark. Most likely neither are the other nearby streets. Therefore this local regulation applies:

Any vehicle with an actual or registered gross vehicle weight of 10,000 lbs or more must use truck routes as provided in the city ordinance. NON-TRUCK ROUTE STREETS: Trucks may travel off of the truck routes only to reach or leave a destination with the shortest possible distance of travel on non-truck route streets.

Bottom-line: The 7700 is valid for giving a weight warning. This type of restriction is called a "soft-restriction", meaning that it is OK to use the street to make local pickups/deliveries. The 7700 does run a route to the destination, but then correctly shows the weight warning when you get near.

Brian

 

I don't think that you need to bounce back and forth between the two databases. Just stick to the Promiles database for anything truck-specific.

Best use:

• Use the Promiles database for anything specific to trucking
• Use the secondary database for non-trucking destinations (maybe you are looking for a Wal-Mart, etc.)

Brian

 

I checked a 7700 and there are two Wal-Marts listed for Pelham: a regular store and a super center. The super center is still valid but I am guessing that the other one was closed after the super center opened up.

I checked a later version of the POI database and only the super center is listed. This should be visible in the next mapping database that we release (within a month or two). The map update also includes a POI update.

Brian

 

I understand. We already had a regular POI database, to which we added the special Promiles database. Hence two databases. I don't know whether it is feasible to merge the two, or even allowable (depending on our agreement with Promiles). But it's nice having Promiles available.

Brian