Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

can anyone tell me how well the "junction view" works? is it available at every exit? or very few interchanges?

 

So far every junction that I've came to with 3 or more lanes the "junction view"
comes up. A sign pops up with an arrow for each lane on the road, the lanes or
lane that you need to be in are lit up.

Granted I've had GPS's that had better "junction views", more 3D, but I find the one
on the TND very helpful.

 

am waiting for the comparisons.... thanks for the information

 

On the city-to-city legal truck routes that I receive at the time of my dispatch, I have never found a single incidence when those legal truck routes were not legal for 18-wheelers in my entire driving career. Moreover, I rarely check those routes any longer because by this point in time in my career I have passed down all of the roads on more than one occasion and know off the top of my head whether they are legal or not.

Now with respect to my final directions to my shippers and consignees, I will always check any time I encounter a road that I haven't already driven on beforehand, as I never drive on any road I don't already know beforehand unless it is legal for 18-wheelers. Thus, I will verify and confirm beforehand that my final directions to the shippers and consignees are legal regardless of how I acquired my final directions, which may be through a variety of different means.

However, one of my specific questions to you was whether or not the legal truck routes that I am supplied at the time of my dispatch by my company could be configured in the TND 500 and your own personal response to me was to the effect: not at this time.

Actually, that is the entire justification for purchasing a truck specific GPS device as opposed to a car GPS device in the first place, so that you won't have to manually verify and confirm beforehand that the routes you plan to drive on are legal for 18-wheelers because the truck specific GPS device will be able to provide truck routing good enough to be relied upon.

However, exactly like you have to do when you use a car GPS device, when you use the TND you also have to manually verify and confirm that the routes you plan to drive on are legal for 18-wheelers, making the TND for all intents and purposes a car GPS device enhanced with truck specific features.

Not only that, but you also can't even follow the company or customer supplied final directions to your shippers and consignees because you can't configure those directions in the TND and override the TND's routing, and thus you will be forced to use ONLY the routes that the TND supplies and if you are forced to deviate from the TND supplied routes, then be prepare to hear and read TND warnings the entire way.

Let's get something straight here, either a truck specific GPS device can do truck routing good enough to be relied upon 100 percent of the time or otherwise it cannot, and if it cannot then it can't be relied upon and therefore must be used in the same exact manner that a car GPS device is used.

The fact that we don't live in a static environment but instead in an ever-changing environment means that creating a GPS device that can do truck routing good enough to be relied upon 100 percent of the time for all intents and purposes is beyond the reach of technology. Thus any GPS device that bills itself as "truck specific" and also claims to do truck routing is very misleading. Indeed, it is intentionally misleading no matter how many excuses you or anyone else makes.

Many years ago I purchased a Compaq computer that was a disaster right out of the box, but I didn't keep the computer and suffer permanent brain damage. I repacked it back in the box it came in and sent it back to Compaq and got my money back. I subsequently purchased another computer that did work out of the box as advertised.

Thus, if I made the mistake of buying a TND today, I would do the same exact thing I did with the Compaq. By the way, you don't see Compaq around any longer exactly because their products were crap. By the way, what does that portend for the TND once the public catches on?

In my driving career I have used a variety of GPS solutions over the years, both with the auto-rerouting feature and without the auto-rerouting feature, and exactly because of the problem with the routes getting recalculated every time you enter a rest area, truck stop, weigh station, etc. and because many of the times those recalculated routes ended up being changed depending upon where I was relative to my final destination, I was forced to stop using those GPS solutions altogether exactly because of the built in auto rerouting feature.

Now, if the TND did truck routing good enough to be relied upon and it doesn't as you have readily admitted when you weren't trying to be slippery, that auto-rerouting feature wouldn't be an issue. But because the TND is incapable of doing truck routing good enough to be relied upon, it is indeed a very big issue, as it makes the TND no better than a car GPS and a very over priced car GPS device on top of it.

No...because a car can go anywhere.

Actually Mark you shouldn't be so overly presumptuous of me. Indeed, I have been using GPS technology far longer than your entire driving career, so to the contrary I know exactly what I'm talking about from my own personal experience.

Furthermore, I have twisted exactly nothing whatsoever in this thread or any other thread for that matter and I still stand by everything I said. It has been you doing all the squirming, twisting, prevaricating, and contradicting as anyone halfway paying attention can easily ascertain. On the other hand, I will readily admit that I have been brutally forthright and honest. Nevertheless, I did try to bug out of this thread tactfully, because I didn't want to expose negative aspects about the TND in your own thread, but nonetheless you forced the issue on me.

Let me guess...uhm he must sell GPS devices? Right. Thus, are you actually asking me not to take into account the fact that he must have a personal stake and interest in promoting these products since he is in the business of selling them? Are you actually insinuating that none of us should take that into account when evaluating the TND and other products we might consider buying? Give me a break.

If that is the case, then it miserably failed! In any event, can the TND or can it not do truck specific routing good enough to be relied upon 100 percent of the time, because if it can, then you are contradicting what you have said and repeated in many of your own posts featured right here in this thread? And if it can't do truck specific routing good enough to be relied upon 100 percent of the time, then for all intents and purposes it is a car GPS device enhanced with truck specific features, since you must use it in the same exact manner that you would also use a car GPS device.

Been there...done that already.

Mark...I have been using GPS technology far longer than your entire driving career. You may be able to get away with that kind of deceitful garbage with naïve newbie drivers, but please don't assume I'm nearly so naive or gullible.

 

Mark do you know if Rand ever got to check out the routing on Hwy 1?

Also, coming from TX into LA the TND warned me that I was 5 miles from the state
line but failed to point out the weigh stations that are right inside the state line just
past the rest area..

 

I send them your information along with the jpg that I also send you. I have not heard back from them yet.

Which road were you on going from TX to LA?

Thanks,
Mark

 

It was on I-10..

I would also be nice if there were some way that you could actually see
the route that the TND calculates for you after it is done configuring the
route...this way if it wants to go a way that you do not want you could put
in a way point or use something like "travel via" and put in a city to make
it route that way.

And also if there was some way to be able to keep the speed, altitude (not
so much), and the current time on the screen without having to see the next few turns which takes up half the screen when you are en route.

 

Coon
ck ur PM's
rag

 

forgot to ask also....what do you have your warnings set to for the weigh station and the border?

truck tools\warnings.

Thanks,
Mark