New Garmin Dezl 760

I've had it for three days and I love it. I especially like the bluetooth feature that connects to your phone for weather and traffic.

 

I got one of these just recently. I really like it. I've found that it seems to route better than my TND 720, which died when I tried to update it last time. Waiting on a replacement from Rand.

Here's what I like about the Garmin that my Rand didn't do:

1. Voice command. I haven't had to touch the screen to enter an address since I've gotten it. Instead of typing on the screen, I just say the address and it is very accurate, except when I have one of those street names that can be pronounced 20 different ways. But it works great for both US and Canada addresses, and I can use voice command to find the address while I'm writing down my other trip info from the Qualcomm.

2. Customizable screen. I love that I can add my own buttons and data cards on the screen. I have it laid out exactly how I want it and its simple to change when needed.

3. Smart link. Like has been said before, this is awesome. I have it connected to my Verizon iPad and it's great for sending google maps locations directly to the device, and the weather info is great.

4. Routing. As I said before, the unit seems to be a bit better at routing than my TND 720. The Rand sometimes like to route me down state highways and such just to save 10 or 15 miles when the interstate was the much better choice. Also, it tends to be a bit better on routing in the city. The Rand had a bad habit of trying to send me down no-truck routes in the city just to save short distances, while the Garmin seems to be good at picking the truck legal route, even if it takes a few minutes longer.

5. Multiple routes. The Garmin gives me a choice of routing, in the same way that Google Maps does on a PC. I can scroll through the routes on a map overview and pick the one that looks best, something that always frustrated the heck out of me with the Rand.

6. Via Info. On the Garmin, I can choose to display the ETA, time to destination, and miles to destination for BOTH my final stop and the next stop on my trip. So if I have a load that has multiple stops, I can always see how long until I reach my next stop, and I can see how long until I reach my final stop, all at the same time. The Rand only showed this info for whatever your next stop is. Works really well for trip planning all the way through, rather than stop by stop.

7. No-truck areas marked. The Garmin will actually show me roads that are marked off limits for trucks BEFORE I get to them. The Rand would only warn me about this after I had already turned onto the street.


Now, here are the things that my Rand did do that the Garmin doesn't:

1. All info on main screen. On my Rand, it was laid out in such a way that I could get all of my needed info right on the main screen. ETA, time to destination, mile marker, speed limit, the current town or city I was in, everything. While the Garmin is capable of displaying almost all of these, there is not enough room on the main screen to display everything all the time - theres only space for a small number of data cards. But this is only a mild annoyance.

2. No current town info. The Garmin doesn't seem to be capable of showing me what town I'm in or closest to. Even the "Where Am I" screen doesn't show city and state, but only GPS coordinates and the nearest address (but minus the city and state most of the time). This isn't a big deal either, since I can look on my ipad if I need to know what city I'm closest to.

3. POI database. The database in the Garmin is severely lacking in several areas, particularly truck stops. Major travel centers that I know are there don't show up on the list when I search for them. One example is the infamous Little America truck center - its not anywhere to be found on the Garmin. But a quick visit to POI Factory solved this for me.

4. No weigh station or time zone warnings. My unit won't ever show me when I'm approaching a weigh station, and doesn't alert me when I'm changing time zones like the Rand did. The clocks will change on the unit properly, but I wish it would alert me when it does. And I have never gotten any notification of a weigh station, and about 90% of them don't even show on the map when I'm approaching them.

5. Speed Limit database. The speed limit database doesn't seem to be as extensive as on the Rand. I don't see the limits on state and back highways nearly as often, and that's when I use that feature the most. But hopefully Garmin is working to fix this in future updates.


Overall, I really like the Garmin. When I get my replacement Rand in, I think I'm going to mount it in a separate location in the truck, kind of out of the way. I've seen several drivers with two GPS units, and I think I'm going to do the same. I can get weigh station, time zone, and current location info from the Rand and use the Garmin for actual navigation. Might as well use both since I paid for both lol.

 

@Captain X3

Make sure you have done all your updates. I have no issues with weight station alerts nor with state border alerts. As far as I know, there are no time zone alerts. Understand a few weigh stations have been recently built and are not in the database- this can take up to year though Garmin had told me they are trying to get changes like this updated quicker. These kind of changes are usually on the quarterly map updates.

Regarding your comparison of the map page with the compititon's- I always felt that the compition had a cluttered, over burdened feel to it- like they were trying to get all information on a single page which I feel also lended to it's slower refresh and recaluculation rates. Let the end user decide what information is most important and give the user the tools to display that information in a clear consice manner- as Garmin has done. Versatility with functionality has always been a hall-mark of Garmin's and is definatly part of what makes the 760 nice to work with.

 

How does one update since I get lifetime updates?

 

You have to plug it into a computer with Internet. The dock software is in memory, just install it, register, and it should check for the updates

 

Tim,

I have the Dezl 760 and it gives out a 5mi warning on weigh stations. You may need to check some of your option settings.

Good luck.

 

Mine also gives 5 mile warning on weigh stations and state line borders. Though it's got quite a few permately closed weigh stations and it doesn't know which direction.
I downloaded the traffic app. but concerned about trouble staying connected to my ipone bluetooth. Well have to see about that.

 

Looking at getting a new gps. Replace the Garmin nuvi I have right now. Looking at the Garmin 760 since I am use to the menu and such..

 

Did all of the updates on my hometime. Still no weigh station warnings. And I searched through that thing for 40 minutes looking for an option to turn on the warnings and there isn't one. Oh well, I can live with it.

 

How do you use the voice command feature?