Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

Has been a while since I checked the thread or posted anything.

A question for any one who posts here,

Are you using any other GPS along side the TND?


I have had use of a TND unit for about 4 months. The first one was exchanged under the warranty, Due to having to send the unit back first, the the replacement unit going to the house, and me on the road, it was a good 6 to 8 weeks to get a unit back in the truck.


The idea of purchasing a new GPS unit was to have a better tool for assisting in planning routes.
So far this has not been true with the TND product.

This unit seems to be working better than the original unit purchased. It is a “B” model, like the original unit purchased.

It is still slow to complete route calculations. Taking up to several hours to complete a long trip. This is not acceptable. The whole idea here is to help plan a trip, find fuel and rest stops along a given route.

On routing. The TND unit has given me some serious concerns.

One one trip, the unit was completely useless.

Milton, PA to Sparrow Point, MD. The TND would not route this trip at all. “no legal truck routing” warning. I tried to have it plan this in CAR mode, same warning, “no legal truck routing” So why did this warning come up in car mode?

We load out at the steel plants there all the time, this was the first time I tried to get there from Milton, PA and first time trying the TND on the route

The Garmin unit was spot on for this trip.

I have noticed that the TND also seems to favor right turns over left. Personally, I prefer to make left turns over right. A lot more room in an intersection turning left.

Efficient routes. It seems to me the TND does not use efficient routes.

Example of late Sparrow Point, MD to Montgomery AL. The TND planed a route to I-81 then to I-77 to Charlotte, NC to I-85 to Montgomery, AL. Not a very fuel or time efficient route.

Adding miles during a trip when the unit recalculates a route. Stop for fuel or something, the unit will start a route recalculation. I have seen as much as 80 miles added to the trip.

This brings up a question. If it takes so long to make the basic route calculation, how would it handle “via points” during a trip. How would you even add them when the basic route can take hours for the TND to complete?


So far I am not very impressed with this product. Not a product I can recommend.

 

Espressolane - The next time you find it taking longer that 3-5 minutes to calculate a route I would ask of you to connect your TND to your computer and look under the drive with the Navi folder, then under the Logs folder and send me the files please. Do this before you connect and do any TND Dock updates.

Do you have anything set to avoid in preferences\route settings? If so, please set to allow.

Rand Tech Support has been trying to get ahold of you. Have they been successful?

Thanks,
Mark

 

I'm running the 465t next to the TND and performance wise it's got the TND beat. I've never seen the TND take that long to calculate a route, though. It can be pretty slow, but it figures it out in a couple minutes, max. The 465t takes maybe 30 seconds for the longest route.

 

No avoids set. All are allowed.

No have not been contacted by any tech support person.


The log files, I looked at them, all are one line, like this.

IgciSUITEHost(2315) : [ERROR] (1/1/2003 12:00:13) : Version: 10.2.1472.1717

 

That is just a normal line...showing version number.

I contacted Rand Technical Support and someone should be contacting you Monday in regards to your TND.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Maybe I should clarify what slow to calculate a route is.

Once address is entered, and the begin route button is pressed, the calculating bar pops up and runs across. this takes about a two or three minutes. After this it goes to the driving screen. If you press the turn list, it will only have maybe 4 or 5 listed, then nothing after that. The turn list can take hours complete in some cases.

Go to the POI screen to look up fuel stops or other things along the route, a red dot is shown on all buttons but the "my truck" button. It can take hours for these red dots to clear and be able to use the buttons.

To me, If you can't look at the turn list past the first 4 or 5 and can't search for POIs along the route for an hour or more, this says that the route calculation has not completed.

This is supposed to be a tool to help plan trips. Not being able to use the turn list or POIs is not helping.

 

I also noticed my turns list can take a long time to populate. Sometimes it just won't. Other times what's in the turns list won't add up to the same mileage on the main screen.

One thing I have not been able to replicate is sometimes it will copy turns all the way down for some reason. For example if turn #1 is left on I-29, turn #2 is take exit 33, turn #3 is turn left at end of ramp, the unit will actually copy "left on I-29" all the way down. Every single turn will be the same for some reason, it's as if my unit is corrupt.

I've also noticed on the turn screen if you put the unit into sleep mode and bring it back, the screen will be corrupted. It will be half of the driving screen and half of the turns screen. It will show the turns plus the "+ -" for zooming in and out on top of the turns. Kinda weird. I can take a picture some time.

 

Still waiting on any news for the new upgrade. has anyone had success with the hazmat routing?just got on a 3m dedicated account and its all hazz.

 

As a route is calculated the Turn-by-turn list populates. You are right, it can take some time depending on the length of your trip. But, it should not take hours. If the route has not calculated within 5 minutes it has hung up somewhere. Rebooting should correct the issue.

As far as showing duplicates and the entire list showing the same thing, this has been corrected.

In 1472 the sleep mode does have some issues. The engineers have seen this and steps were done in the firmware and next version to correct this.

Rand does have Beta Testers that run strictly Haz-Mat and no major issues have been found. If you do find that the TND routes you incorrectly as in being on the outerloop versus going through the city, then by all means let Rand know. This is not a routing error, it is in the mapping database incorrect. Even when I ran Haz-Mat the Qualcomm would route you wrong. Trust your knowledge and the local signage. Again if local signage is different let Rand know.

Some things at Rand were changed internally and this affected to a degree the releasing of the next version. I agree it is long overdue and it has a high priority at Rand to get it through QA and out to you.

Communication goes daily back to Rand that the next version is sorely needed for you to do your job efficiently using the TND.

I do know the expected release date, but do not want to post it as Rand is trying to get it out earlier.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Well, I had to get in here with my thoughts on this thing. At this point I think its one of the worst purchases I have ever made. I had been using a Tom Tom intelliroute before this. Problem was of course it tends to take you the scenic route, yes even bicycle routes. Of course you can check the route with the paper map and tell it to avoid things like town squares and the local hay rides. That takes time and I wanted a truck specific GPS. I have been using rand McNally maps my entire career and wont leave home without one. I thought this would be a digital version of their great atlas. Not so...I am very disappointed with it. First off, it does not offer state specific routing like the Tom Tom. Second, it does not know where it is! I can be in my driveway or a customers in Houston, and it still cant get it right. I have to call dispatch so they can map quest an address. I then scroll around the map to find and intersection and tell it to go there. At that point I'm on my own. The Tom Tom is very accurate and finds even smaller towns that the TND500 cannot. Save yourself a couple hundred bucks and buy a Tom Tom. Just check your routes before you go because it will take you right through downtown lol. The Tom Tom rarely misses a driveway, the TND500 cannot get the loop around Houston figured out. Yes it was input correctly, I checked it several times. Map Quest found it right away too. Rand McNally never bothered to respond with a solution probably because they dont have one, but I have one for them. Talk to Tom Tom about integrating truck routes into the Intelliroute they offer and I think you would have a ringer. In its current format the TND 500 is a waste of time and money.