Best Truck GPS to Buy?

I think that's the way it used to be, but its certainly not how things are now IME. My GPS is truck specific and it does all of that and does it very well. Hazmat routes, bridge heights and weights, the whole bit.

There is only one thing that can do that. The driver. If a driver lets a GPS lead him or her under a low bridge, it ain't the GPS that's at fault.

 

Does anyone here own the

Garmin dēzl 760LMT?
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I see Crutchfield has it for $399. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_150DZ76LMT/Garmin-d-zl-760LMT.html?tp=145

I didn't realize it had hours of service and an IFTA option as well.



Just looking for some feedback before I buy

 

The 760 just cam out. I think 2 weeks ago so pretty hard to get any reports just yet. The Garmin does have Bluetooth which is nice.

 

Is someone already shipping them? JR says they start tomorrow, Amazon not until the 31st.

I had bought a PCMiler and had great hopes for it as it should show me the route I am getting paid for but it has too many software and hardware problems to mention.

I'm probably going to be 760 guinea pig but wondering if anyone has any experience with a Magellan? I always liked my car unit better than my wife's Garmin.

 

Got hold of a 7 inch Magellan truck unit. I was not very impressed by it. Has a great display. clean, bright in the day time.
It does actually have truck routing, but is lacking some "city" truck routes.

POI's are not that great. Look for fuel and you will get everything that sells fuel of any type.

 

Thanks.

The PCMiler gets sent back tomorrow. I ordered the Garmin from Crutchfield and they say it is in stock and I'll have it Friday.

Of course, by then I'll be in TX.

 

I know it isn't marketed as truck specific, which is a misnomer in any event because nothing is truly truck specific, but I use Streets & Trips and Google Earth. Google Earth is a free download. For the truck specific POIs I added the Truck Stops Plus add-on template to Streets & Trips, which is a very excellent and accurate database by the way.

Anyway, what I do is use Google Earth to locate my shippers and receivers. Next, I pushpin the driver entranceways and then copy the coordinates of those pushpins into Streets & Trips. (GPS coordinates are in pushpin properties.) Once copied into Streets & Trips they are saved as shippers and receivers along with their full address and phone numbers in the case I have to go back to them again in the future, which is proving to be quite often. In this way, Streets & Trips gives me turn-by-turn directions directly into the driver entranceways of my shippers and receivers. It doesn't get any easier or better than this.

For the routing, I plug in my start location, which could be a truck stop, terminal or drop lot, or a shipper or receiver, the shipper I'm picking up at, my fuel stops in between, and my receivers, then I hit get route. Once the route is generated, I then compare the routes generated by Streets & Trips to the truck routing and final directions provided by my company, and about 99 percent of the time they are identical, and in the event they are not identical, I then either drag and drop the route to the correct street or road or use an avoid area box to force the route to the correct street or road. Once everything matches 100 percent completely, I then save it using my trip numbers and cities involved, i.e., 1234567 Bridgeview to N Platte to Cheyenne.

Hence, 100 percent truck legal and I didn't spend $500 for a so-called truck specific GPS unit either. I also have a better truck specific POI database with the Truck Stops Plus template. Moreover, I can plan a trip in a small fraction of the time it takes most people and easily review my old trips in the future.

I learned how to do all of this from my trainer during training and I can't thank him enough. By the way, I also have all my company terminals and drop lots already saved as well. That's how I do it.

 

The new Garmin is at home and fortunately, I'll be passing through New Years Day.

I'm currently using my over 5 year old Magellan car GPS and sadly, it is far more accurate than the PC Miler was.

 

I always try to triple check. got GPS, atlas, and smartphone with google maps workin. I've been stuck in bad spots before and it's not fun. i used to run teams with a guy that had the rand mcnally. it always got us where we were going.

 

So far I give the new Garmin mixed reviews. The build quality is impressive and it will take some time using it to give it a more thorough analysis but it doesn't come with a manual so there be features I expected but haven't found yet.

I've already had two routing issues which I was surprised at, one ot had a Pilot on the wrong side of the Interstate and second was leaving a Peterbilt dealer (which wasn't in the database) it tried to route me to a different on ramp instead of.the one I was sitting in front of. Then it tried to get me to take the west bound ramp and then make a u turn instead of just getting on the east bound ramp.

For $400 I definitely expected better.

But, Crutchfield's service.was impressive. First time I've ordered from them in 35 years.