Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

I think i see his point. The unit kinda already does this if you ignore the route given and go "your own" routing it will still show roads you are on but at bottom gives you a warning in red like "clearance violation" or "road not recommended for trucks" or etc.., i don't think it tells you where the low clearances are but usually once you "force" the unit to go the way you want then it will recalculate your trip based on the way you are now going. I have done that several times if I wanted to go a different way myself. I think he just would like the unit to send you on these roads regardless if no other truck routing and let you make the choice am i right?

 

What town on US 59 was the weight restriction showing?

Thanks,
Mark

 

This is what I call the "you can't get there from here" syndrome. Garmin 465T, Cobra 7700, and the TND all have a "version" of this.

On the Garmin and the Cobra, it'll say something like "Be aware that some of the roads on your route are not in the national network - please obey all posted signs..." or a similar type of wording, but they let you go ahead and do the route. On the TND, it basically stops forward progress toward doing that particular route until you manipulate it manually or calculate it from a different location than where you currently are.

So just to round out what several of you have replied, we (DB test dept) feel that a truck GPS should never say "no truck route, try again" type of messages. If there is no other way, then at least let you proceed with a warning like the Garmin and Cobra units do. Now, none of the tested brands will tell you WHAT the restriction is while doing this trip plan, however (at least not that I have found.)

I agree that it would be really helpful that if your route MUST contain roads that do not comply with your current defined truck profile - being able to see WHAT and WHERE those restrictions exist on the "turn-by-turn" list AND by clicking on that restriction to have it zoom in on that spot on the map with a little icon would be a HUGE advantage feature. (related note: The PC Miler brand does do the second part by displaying a little icon on the map where there is a restriction, but only when zoomed way in there, and not of the turns list either.)

Implementing this "defining restrictions" scheme would take programming resources and pull a further toll on the processing engine of that unit. So those would have to be business and technical challenges to be determined by each brand. But it has been an interesting new point brought up in these couple of pages.

 

I'm wanting to say it popped a weight restriction around Odem or Sinton TX. It did it as US 77 goes through town. It went off after leaving the city limits. Not really a big deal just a note.

On the routing whether restricted or not, about 30 to 40% of what I do requires driving roads where it would never route you. These are not truck routes but trucks do have to go there. They put oil rigs in some of the most truck hostile territory you could think of. If the TND would route you regardless of the restrictions but let you know what they are, it would be much easier to go to places like this. I'm not alone on this by any means.

Any flat bedder who has hauled decking to farms for barns knows what its like. Anybody who has delivered to a far out construction site knows. You cannot rely on the farmer or contractor to tell you what to expect because they dont know its going to be a problem for the truck. Almost every driver can tell you about directions they got that led them to a 10' over pass or a 5 ton wooden bridge, myself included. Its to late when you pull up to a 5 ton bridge on a 12' wide road in the middle of nowhere. Time to practice backing! If the TND would route you and then tell you about the restrictions on any given stretch of road, one could avoid these pitfalls. Currently I plug the directions I get into the Tom Tom and go for it. I will tell it to avoid a part of the route I know might be a problem and so far...knocks on wood...I have not ran into anything that couldnt be negotiated.

 

I've been running my old Garmin c330 for a couple weeks now.

In a few cases if I followed what she says I'd have gotten there EARLIER...

She has yet to put me on a cow trail, and I'm not gonna blindly follow her ANYWHERE...

 

Wondering when the IntelliRoute TND 700 will be available and where can I purchase it on the east coast?

 

It is out now... have seen it in several truck stops.

 

Directly from Rand's web site:
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The Rand McNally IntelliRoute® TND™ 500 and 700 can be purchased at these fine Truck Dealers and Travel Centers:



Truck Dealers:

• Mack
• Volvo
• Freightliner
• Sterling
• Western Star

Travel Centers:

• Flying J
• Love's
• Pilot
• TravelCenters of America
• Wilco

Retail Outlets:

• Amazon.com
• Dieselboss.com
• Gotruckstop.com
• truckGPSstore.com
• RoadTrucker.com
• GreatEagleTech.com
• MightyGPS.com
• GPSCheap.com
• thenavigationdepot.com

 

It has been requested that a legend be provided. Rand is aware of this request and is working on it.

In the meantime, on the screen you can touch on any icon and it will tell you the information about that Icon.

Thanks,
Mark

 

If you can hit it.