New Garmin Dezl 760

Mine randomly lost the satellite the other day and now loses them at very random and infuriating times. Two weeks old. I hope this firmware fixed it or I will sell it to some other sap soon.

 

Where have you been traveling and does the device have unobstructed view of the sky. Also, some of these dash cams are capable of causing severe interference to gps units and apparently Garmin in particular as brought up in another GPS brand thread. Something to consider. These things are line of sight receivers and sometimes, it doesn't take much to block reception.

Mark

 

I doubt this is a 760 issue (I hope) but I'm driving east on I-40 today and the GPS tries to send me 25 miles north on I-540 and then turn right around and come back south on 71 to continue east on I-40. WTH?

I had come down to I-40 a different way than it was trying to direct me. Does it just get a point stuck in its system and it still wants to make you cross it?

 

Sounds like a settings issue. Check your vehicle profile settings. I run that way a lot and recently as of last week and don't have that issue on that particular route. Generally, if you're a run of the mill trucker ie, van or reefer van and tractor your width shouldn't be more then 102" and length around 65' and height 13'6". Weight should be no more than 80k lbs and axles at 34k lbs. If you deviate from these you are going to see a lot of strange routing and restrictions where you normally wouldn't see any. Having said that, here on this thread we are seeing restrictions where there should be none. So far these are on 80 in Nebraska and the Pennsylvania turnpike. One last thing to do is update the device if you haven't done so already. Also, before I forget, check your avoids and routing preferences.

To your second question. It routes as it is programmed to based on the settings and preferences in the unit. Today, my unit tried very hard to get of the Pennsylvania toll road west Breezewood because there is map error in regard to a couple bridge height restrictions. It isn't stuck, it is just calculating a route based on it's algorithms for route type and your settings. For instance again today it is fast to 76 up to 376 to US22. However that runs right through downtown Pittsburgh (ugghh) and who wants to do that. So I ran 76 to 70 to 79 to 376. The whole time until I pulled onto 79 it attempted to run back on to the originally calculated route. No matter the brand, all PNDs do this. It's a fact of life. And it's the reason many of us keep hammering on this issue of back checking what ever route it throws up. There are preprogrammed bias so be aware and again, it crosses the spectrum of all brands not just limited to Garmin.




Mark

 

Thanks, Mark. My settings are correct and your second paragraph describes what I assumed was happening.

In defense of the unit, the route I chose was OK based on my atlas but there were 2 bridges that I would have felt bad about if I hadn't been empty. The 760 didn't say anything about the first one but did try to route me around the second one. Since I have already had several instances where the unit has tried to take me down some really truck unfriendly streets/roads to try to get me to avoid what it perceives as a weight issue on the road I am supposed to be on, I have started ignoring it which does somewhat defeat the purpose.

For instance, today, in trying to avoid the bridge, it tried to turn me on a residential road which wasn't even wide enough for 2 cars, much less a truck. I may have avoided the bridge but I am quite sure I would've ended up somewhere that would've been truck inaccessible.

 

@Zen Trucker

That is why it is absolutely imperative to check what ever route it throws up before running. We cannot afford to blindly trust anything and unfortunately, a lot of us are blindly trusting these devices. Hell, I can show you errors in the Rand McNally Extra Large laminated map that I buy every year. And guess what, the same map datum used to make that map is the same map datum used in these Garmin products and others. The truck overlays are Garmin but the data comes from Navtech. The big problems happen when the device calculates based on these errors. It doesn't know the restriction is in error just that a restriction exists so it calculates accordingly. There is nothing wrong with the device but there are issues with it's assumptions based on the data. An old computer quote applys here- garbage in and garbage out. That is one reason to communicate with Garmin, to get these errors resolved- fixed or removed, whatever it takes.

Mark

 

Your point is good but I definitely do not blindly trust the GPS. In fact, as I said, I have gone the other way and now assume it is wrong.

But if you choose a route that is different than what the GPS picks you won't know that you may be choosing something that will not work until you get too close to it to have many (if any, as in my example above) options.

I thought the atlas was what I could depend on but now know that isn't always right either. I guess in the future I will stay off state roads in NW AR.

 

Kind of need to use all the tools available to you then take your best shot. And even then, no gurentee anything will go right. After all, don't forget about the demon Murphy. But then that's not just trucking, that's life isn't it.

Mark

 

Just thought I'd point this one out. I understood the instructions to say "axle weight." As-in one axle. I entered 8.5T (17,000 lbs) on my truck profile (regular 5-axle setup). Weight restriction warnings have seemed appropriate.

Did you happen to get different direction from Garmin?

 

I really hate Murphy!

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