Just bought and tried the Nuvi 465T

Same here, hubby wants a truck route GPS but the reviews on the Garmin are mixed and the results I'm finding are not favorable enough to purchase. I was waiting for the price to drop to snap it up, and it has but now I'm thinking not such a good idea since it seems to have some serious problems that even after a hefty price drop to $300 I'm not up for buying.

 

I had the freezing/rebooting issue on my 465T the first week I had it. Per Garmin tech support, I registered it, downloaded the new firmware and reloaded the software. I have driven around in my personal vehicle, away from touted destinations, so far no reboots in truck or auto mode.
It still does some squirlley routing, but I'm looking to Garmin to get some fixes in the pipeline quickly.

 

It still reboots itself after the firmware update but not as often. The main issue I'm having with it now, as in the most annoying, is it's recalculating before I even stop at the stop sign at the intersection I'm supposed to turn at. Then the directions are totally wrong until it recalculates again, which sometimes it refuses to do so I have to force it to manually.

It also has a nice search feature. If you spell the name however, it searches the ENTIRE PLANET making it completely useless. At least I assume that's what it does since it never finishes searching most of the time.

 

With Streets & Trips you can download construction updates that then show up on the maps, and then route accordingly. Nevertheless, what I do for those times when I run into a detour because of construction, an accident, or whatever, since as a trucker you have to be prepared for any and all contingencies, is I keep several incidences of Streets & Trips without routes saved on them running in the background and minimized.

That way when I run into a situation where I need to quickly route a detour, I just quickly maximize one of the incidences of Streets & Trips I have already running in the background. Quickly route myself around whatever obstacle caused the detour and back to my original route again and also use this second incidence I created the detour route on to navigate. Once, I’m back on my original course, I then revert back to my original incidence of Streets & Trips that contained my first original saved route. I’ve done this a number of times when traffic was backed up and wasn’t moving.

That’s the deal. Garmin doesn’t do the digital maps. Like most of the GPS manufacturers and GPS software companies, they buy their digital maps from mapping vendors like Navteq and Tele-Atlas that specialize in creating digital maps.

With the current state of the art technology today, the best digital maps are at best 2 to 3 years behind if not more at the time they are released for sale. Not only that, but the mapping data will also always contain a ton of errors as you will often discover yourself as you are driving during the course of a year. I know that I have discovered a ton of map data errors during the years I have been using GPS technology.

Thus, the moral of the story is there will never be a product available that will do truck routing 100 percent of the time in a reliable way. Hence, an intelligent truck driver will always protect his career by confirming his routes are truck legal before driving them and will always be prepared to handle any and all contingencies that might unexpectedly arise.

With respect to the Garmin 465T, it doesn’t do true truck routing, it only does pseudo truck routing. In other words, Garmin’s routing algorithm tries to select only major roads, since most of the time major roads will be truck legal.

Hell, I set my routing controls in Streets & Trips to route via major roads also and most of the time my routes are also truck legal. However, my company also supplies my routes, thus if my Streets & Trips routes deviates from my company supplied routes, I can simply use the drag and drop feature to sync the route in Streets & Trips with my company supplied route and then save my trip to make any of the changes I made permanent. However, it is very seldom that my routes in Streets & Trips deviates from my company supplied routes.

Nevertheless, I don’t even trust my company supplied routes, as I will check any unfamiliar roads for restricted routes and low clearances as well.

Now, many people also desire truck specific GPS devices so that they can use it to search, find, and route to truck stops, super walmarts, rest areas, turnpike service plazas, parking areas, etc. and to see where the weigh stations are located.

Since Streets & Trips alone isn’t capable of doing the aforementioned, I have added the Truck Stops Plus 2009 add-on template for Streets & Trips, which then gives me the ability to use the Find Nearby Places feature to search, find, and route to all of those trucking specific POIs in seconds vs. several minutes doing it manually, as the Truck Stops Plus 2009 template contains the biggest and most accurate trucking specific POI database available today.

Plus also with that add-on template, I can quickly check for restricted routes and low clearances right from my laptop screen even without an Internet connection. Thus, I don’t need to buy expensive truck stop directories and big and bulky MCRAs anymore, which I hated to use anyway because I hate to use anything that makes me put on my reading glasses.

 

With Streets & Trips, once you are aware of any obstacles on you routes like low weight bridges, low clearances, restricted routes, or whatever, you can use avoid area rectangles to block them off and then permanently save them in your map template.

Plus if there is only one truck legal route to go to a certain stop, for instance, you can use those same avoid area rectangles to block off all the other routes, so that Streets & Trips will always only route via the one truck legal route.

In addition, you can use the GPS trail feature to mark the exact locations of all of your stops and even other driver’s stops with pushpins and then also save them permanently in your map template. Therefore, eventually you can have all of your company’s stops marked on the map with specific pushpin icons that you assign on your map. Of course, you will just add any new stops to your existing database of stops as you go.

Thus, at the beginning of your day or the end of your day if you plan for the next day ahead of time, you can just add all of your stops that you have to make, hit optimize routes, which will optimize your route by creating the quickest and shortest route, and then hit get directions and your route to all of your stops will be created and optimized. It will also be very easy and fast to add all of your stops too since you can easily see all your stops right on the map and can simply right click them and hit add as stop to add them.

Hence, if you were smart and previously utilized strategically placed avoid area rectangles as I described beforehand, you won’t have to worry because your optimized route to all your stops will also always be truck legal if you did it right.

I’m surprised that the company you work for hasn’t already did this yet, since it would save them a ton of time and especially fuel cost and would also ensure their drivers always only travel via truck legal routes. Indeed, they could also get new hires up to speed much faster.

 

Actually dude…I had the laptop already, so the laptop didn’t cost me anything extra. As a matter of fact, I will always have a laptop no matter what in any event since I cruise the Internet and communicate with friends far more than I watch TV or movies. Hell, it looks like you also have a laptop, which explains how you accessed this website.

Nevertheless, all I added was Streets & Trips with the GPS receiver when I first got started. Today, you can buy Streets & Trips 2009 with the GPS receiver on sale for a whopping $46.00. However, once you already have the GPS receiver you don’t have to buy the package with the GPS receiver again, and Streets & Trips 2009 without the GPS receiver is on sale today for $22.00. Hell, I one bought Streets & Trips from Wal-Mart in 2008 for a whopping $12.00 on sale.

With respect to my laptop mount, I bought my mount from mobilelaptopmount.com almost 5 years ago and it cost me a whopping $40.00 and since it is made out of half inch steel pipe, it will last forever. I think they still sell it for around $40.00 today and I highly recommend it!

Not only that but it isn’t big and bulky like those over priced high dollar laptop mounts that consume all of your available space in the truck. Thus, you can even easily use this one with another driver in the truck. In addition, it has a quick disconnect near the base of it that is bolted into the front seat bolt of the passenger seat.

Thus, to remove it for any reason, takes me about a second. I simply remove it via the quick disconnect and toss it up on my top bunk with one hand, and to hook it back up, takes about another second. Indeed, as for as I’m concerned, this particular laptop mount is not only the cheapest, it is also the simplest to use and the best designed by far as well.

With respect to shaking and abuse, since the laptop mount bolts into the floor, it hardly ever shakes. To see what I’m talking about, place an open container of coffee on your dashboard and place another one on your floor, go down a very rough road and see which container the coffee will leak out first. It won’t even be close, in less than a hundred yards all the coffee will have leaked out of the container on the dashboard, while none of the coffee would have leaked from the container on the floor.

With respect to a mouse, charger, wires, and more wires, I don’t use a mouse or a charger, I have one wire plugged into my power inverter mounted under the dash, so that wire for the most part is completely out of the way. I certainly don’t notice it. As for as my GPS receiver, I don’t use wires, I just plug it into one of my USB ports. It works beautifully.

Regarding un-mounting it, I already explained how I do that above. Indeed, it takes about a second to remove the laptop mount and about a second to hook it back up. To remove just the laptop from the laptop mount, takes about a half second, since I just have to lift up on the Velcro strap that secures it, and to hook it back up I just have to pull down on the Velcro strap. Total time involved about a half second to remove it and another half second to secure it.

Not to mention the laptop mount makes a great end table for me to set my food and drinks on while I’m also cruising the Internet with my laptop on my steering wheel. I love it, it’s the best designed laptop mount on the market and it only cost me a whopping $40.00.

As for as keeping the laptop and laptop mount out of sight, I have it mounted right on my right side and a little to the front almost touching the dashboard and just out of way of the shifter. I also don’t have it set so high that it blocks or obscures my view of my passenger window or my view of my passenger mirror in any way with the laptop screen in the upright position. That’s the beauty of this particular laptop mount; it is very easy to adjust anyway you need it.

Thus, unlike a lot of other truckers that I see going down the road and at truck stops with big and bulky laptop mounts blocking off their passenger side view, my setup doesn’t obscure my vision one iota in any way and if I want to be totally inconspicuous, I simply temporarily flip the laptop screen down, then it is totally invisible from the outside the truck, unlike a standalone GPS unit that is very conspicuously mounted on your dash or windshield. Hell, I always flip down the laptop screen by habit anytime I enter a truck stop or a customer making it invisible to anyone outside my truck.

Not to mention that I always lock my doors anytime I exit my truck regardless and would do so even without a laptop. Also, anytime I’m stopping for other than fuel, I close my cab curtains so the contents of my truck aren’t visible from the outside.

Thus, for a whopping $86.00 instead of $500 I’m in business, and less if you already own a GPS receiver. Not only that, but I can do far more with my GPS setup than you can, and I also use my laptop and logging software to keep the safety department and the DOT off my back too.

Hell, don’t waste that $500 on a standalone GPS device that doesn’t work worth a crap anyway. Buy yourself a DC refrigerator/freezer or something else you need and will appreciate more.

 

Hell, I drive a Volvo truck too, except mine is a 780, so it’s smooth, quiet, and roomy as hell.

Nevertheless, with a setup like my setup with the laptop mount bolted to the floor with quick disconnects, you’d be surprised how little a laptop would shake, rattle, and roll even in an old and beat up day cab like you are driving. Mount it any other way though, then yeah it wouldn’t last a month unless it was a Panasonic tough book or something.

 

Nevertheless, with a setup like my setup with the laptop mount bolted to the floor with quick disconnects, you’d be surprised how little a laptop would shake, rattle, and roll even in an old and beat up day cab like you are driving. Mount it any other way though, then yeah it wouldn’t last a month unless it was a Panasonic tough book or something.[/quote]

Got any pictures???

 

Go to mobilelaptopmount.com and they have a ton of pictures on their website.

 

####…I just went to that website and looked at the picture of the 18 wheeler setup and that particular setup looks to be pretty crummy since the laptop is set at such a severe angle.

I have my laptop mount set up so that my laptop keyboard is perfectly level. Normally, I have my digital camera with me, but I left it behind the last time I was home because my wife wanted to use it for a wedding she is going to attend. Thus, unfortunately I can’t post pictures.

Nevertheless, do a search as I remember a while back someone else posted pictures of their setup using the same laptop mount with a laptop sitting on it.