Trucker gps?

Don’t buy a 500$ gps that is worth about as much as used toilet paper.
Bought a rand mcnally tnd750 and it lasted less than two weeks. It’s GARBAGE!
I downloaded co pilot gps app (it’s only slightly better)
The hammer gps and co pilot are my go two for on the fly checking my Apple Maps.

i.e crap wrong turn what’s up next I can pull over hit the flashers and swipe through the app screens comparing both to iOS maps and find my escape route.

90% of the time I use my iOS maps and the road atlas/the in route app for planning.
Final mile directions I get from the customer when in doubt or they’re as useful as a rock in a tennis shoe on a hike, I use google earth.
Find the exit off the interstate.
Find the main road close to location
Find the side road into facility
Looking close and scrolling slowly making sure there’s not gonna be any problems.

 

I know it seems like a lot of work for just planning but trust me. After I started doing this my life is so so much easier.

Also I’m slowly building resources that list state low weight bridges. Both website resources and notebooks.

 

spin it really fast and look for the closet truck stop. thats todays ELD 5 mintue warning alert

 

what about straight out of harlan

 

Yes they are worth it for basic guidance Once you know where you need to go Pretty good at low bridges. Not good for local roads that have truck restrictions in many places.

 

I had 3 truck gps; checked the atlas and it wasn’t restricted and I still ended up on a road with a sign stating it’s not recommended for tractor-trailers.

No #### Sherlock, they should’ve posted that sign when I got off the interstate not two roads deep into Vermont back country.

Can’t trust anything.

 

It's just another tool in your tool box. As others have said, they're great for trip planning and estimating arrival times. Using them for city driving can get a bit tricky. I've used a RM truck GPS since I started driving commercially and use them every day. But I generally drive the same routes and know where I'm going. If I was in a new place every week, I would need to be a lot more careful. Google is also a great tool for getting a bird's eye view of your stops to see if you have adequate room to get in and out of places. I've never owned or needed the atlas for anything. Everything is online, so no real need for paper maps or an atlas any longer.

 

The other day in Connecticut my GPS tried sending me down a road that turned out to have a 3 ton weight limit. Luckily I read the sign, and then stopped in the middle of the intersection. Made a funkadelic right turn after being halfway thru the intersection straight on, and then immediately pulled over in the travel lane of a 2 lane road with my hazards on. Switched over to my handy dandy 10 inch tablet mounted to my dash and pulled up google maps.

Turns out there's what looks like a nice wide alternate route a half mile ahead. So I wheel on up there, ignoring my GPS, and sure enough it's clearly marked truck route, but my GPS is sounding the alarm, trucks not allowed, turn around immediately!



So yeah, that was a thousand mile run with a half mile worth of error, which works out by my admittedly limited mathing skills to an error rate of 0.05%, which ain't overly shabby in my book.

 

Just remember. The police now have penalties agains truckers whom use the wrong GPS. So your better off to preplan your trip with out using a gps