Best Truck GPS to Buy?

i was very happy with sprint. never had a problem phone. i could do whatever i wanted with my phone. i wasn't controlled. and i never paid more then $80 per month. and services were always more then what you got with the big 2.

only reason i switched to verizon was becuase coverage is very spotty in the northwest. but i haven't had much better luck with verizon. and virtually non existent in most of colorado. and parts of texas.

i must be missing something but i'm not seeing the value of a buck with verizon. certainly not with the biggest POS phone i've ever owned. and certainly not for $50 more per month with less services.

far as i can tell. verizon coverage isn't better then sprint. it's just in different places.

 

Garmin has announced a 7" version of the dezl, the 760LMT!!

I think it starts shipping 31 Dec 2012!

So, I'm sold!

I'll limp along with my Rand McNally 710 until then!

 

I am very surprised at all the positive reviews of the Garmin units. I have a Garmin Nuvi 465 and it is absolutely retarded compared to my Rand McNally 710. The Garmin has told me I'm overweight on truck routes and tries to have me turn on 8 ton gravel roads. It has told me I'm over length on truck routes. A number of trips it has wanted me to go on roads and parkways that are restricted to trucks. Just today I was goin to Target DC in Dekalb, IL and it wanted me to take the highways instead of taking the much easier and faster interstate route. It was so determined for me to take the highways that when I got to peace road exit on I-88 that it wanted me to get back on the interstate and go back to the highway it wanted me to take instead of just simply turning right go down half mile, then left on Macon and I was at Target.
The features on it are also stupid. It won't list all rest and truck parking areas and very rarely shows me an independent truck stop. It only wants to show the pilots, flying J's, ta's, and loves and still doesn't show all of them.
Besides having to send in my Rand McNally after only a month and getting a refurb (which is why I bought the Garmin) I love my Rand McNally. Every now and then the Garmin will give me a better route, but it is rare.

 

I've gone for a cheaper option. I recently added 2013 MS Streets and Trips w/gps. So far it's been very accurate. Since I carry a laptop anyway, the $69 program seemed like a good option. The only down side has been it attempts to route me through on truck approved roads occasionally. I just take the company directions and put them into the program. It also allows me to put in points of interest like good rest areas, etc. When in crowded areas that I'm not familiar with, I run an aux cord to the stereo for better sound.

Do I NEED it? Nope. It's like a ratchet instead of a box end wrench. Each tool has it's use.

 

there are ratcheting wrenches you know.

but if you wanted the cheapest thing. your phone cojmes with standard navigation that works just as good and can also plug into the stereo.

there are also standalone apps that have full maps downloaded onto your phones memory card.

i have copilot trucker softwaqre. but i wouldn't download the north american version. seems to contain bugs. just download the united states version.

 

I have an older phone... desperate for an upgrade... lol

 

I'm not talking about the "Nuvi", I'm talking about the "dezl".

 

You may want to wait for a few months, till the holiday sales start.

Most companies are releasing a "Phablet" device. Samsung and LG for sure

It is a cross of a phone and tablet. Do a google search on phablet

 

Since I haven't seen much about the Cobra units and I own one, I thought I'd throw my $.02 in here

I bought the 7750 plt last march on sale from an online retailer. It has a few nice features, glitches and the usual. Some of the Pros: full listing of truck stops and amenities, as well as many scales, toll booths, service etc etc. It will let you search those by your current location, along your route or near your destination as well as in another city or from another starting point. It has an hour log feature which is a little finicky to use but kind of helps at the end of the day making sure you've got your hours right, it helps me anyway.

It has low bridge, weight restrictions and hazmat routing options built in. You can put your truck and trailer combo in to the inch and pound. It tracks mileage by state and month. It allows you to build a multi stop route. It has other features but I'm sure you get the idea. "premium truckers gps" I think was the ad slogan.

Well, here is my opinion, for what it's worth as a relatively new driver who has a garmin ( car) unit also. Is this unit useful? Yes. But it does have issues and limits, so keep your atlas with you. It froze 3 times in the first 2 weeks. I got the factory update ( free because it was so soon after purchase). That made it a little better. It still insists that there is a 23 ton weight limit on a non existent bridge on i95 in delaware and doesn't log miles for the part of the trip that you aren't going where it wants you to go until it recalculates. It likes to take you off a highway an exit early and will route you through a town if you are there for the first time,(and this doesn't matter as far as shorter distance or shorter time option... I've set it for both with the same result) instead of just putting you on the most direct and quick route.

It doesn't seem to learn routes very well, 7 months in and it still insists trying to send me on a part of a route that I know is 15 minutes slower as well as several miles longer... Not to mention lights and traffic vs highway. It will route you up to 30 minutes out of a more direct route (truck ok) on longer trips. I've run it side by side with an older garmin Nuvi I have and the garmin is more consistent on eta and direct routing.

If you detour out of the planned route without telling it you're doing that, it sometimes forgets that you've programmed it to avoid toll roads or to go via a location. If you are say, in a parking lot that it is well off the road and try to set your next destination with 75k all totaled, it will just say "route calculate failure", "check road restrictions" and won't do the route until you change the start point or move the truck to the road. On 2 occasions it has put me on single lane roads and then directed a u turn. Hmm, I'm really rambling here so I'll cut it short- it's useful and has some decent features when it works right.

Some of these are nit pics, I guess. It's not worth the $399 they wanted for it when I started looking for them. I was a little disappointed but still use it to help stay out of spots I shouldn't or don't want to get in to, but I still check it. The eta doesn't seem to be linked to your average speed. The upcoming turn notices are nice, they're usually by route number or street name.

Overall I think it's a lot closer to a toy than a high quality tool, which is what I had hoped I was buying. For what they were asking for it, I didn't expect to have to go through so much BS to use it.I paid around 250 all said and done brand new and have seen more out there around that price or less. I wouldn't pay more. There are just too many bugs and pain in the #### issues with it to pay any more. All that said- I use it and will continue to, for now...it's helped me more than it has messed me up. For what I paid I'm ok with it but not thrilled. Hope this helps.

 

Wow... it would make it easier reading if a paragraph or two or three was used... Just saying