GPS-Rand McNally or Garmin?

Until Tesla installs GPS nav systems in their eventual electric semi, then force the truck to follow it... mishaps are 110% driver preventable. I've been driving for almost 3 decades...and I have a GPS. I don't follow it. I simply use it so I know how far I am away from my destination...to the mile, not just guessing or estimating. When dispatch calls and ask, I look and have a definite answer (when I force it to route me the way I want to go when it comes up with odd routing that I wouldn't ever try). Plus I use one of it's odometers to track actual miles I drive in a calandet month.

I have almost always exclusively used Garmin (had a misguided period using a Magelin...that sucked). I have mostly positive experiences with them. The things I have had a gripe about with the last 2 (non-trucking units) is they came with lifetime map upgrades that required you to use a computer to update and they had traffic jam alerts, but were sold without the special cord needed to receive traffic alerts. You had to buy the other cord at an extra cost.

 

"Road not suitable for large trucks"

You can clearly see the sign, if a driver seen that sign and kept going that's a lack of common sense on their end.

 

I used both and both are fine by me.

The garmin will give you a larger screen and they are a bit cheaper. The layouts and functionality are a little different between the two.

 

Something I heard about GPS that I thought was funny and true at the same time. GPS stands for "getting people stuck".

 

The GPS is just part of my trip planning, I go through the route and verify with Google Maps. Even have Copilot on the Qualcomm which will show up to 3 different routes, all very helpful.

And yes the atlas to, especially when the gps wants to send me down some state hwy I'm not familiar with.

Google maps satellite view is great for seeing where the guard shack actually is and in planning that last mile.

Garmin has a phone app and once I've decided where I really need to be I'll find that spot on the garmin map on the phone and send those coordinance from the phone to the garmin on the dash.

There's lots of useful tools out there and I like to use them all when I've never been there before.

But yes, blindly following a gps is a stupid thing to do.

 

"Make a Uturn"

 

I hate it when it tries to get me to do something stupid.. on the randy mcnally it doesn't seem to matter whenever the u turns are turned off or on, it still suggests them.
I've seen it try to turn me around using gravel graveyard roads, I didn't think that they were even considered a road.

 

Gravel graveyard road, thats awesome.

I had it try to tell me to cut through a nursery before. It was one of those yards where trees and plants are sold. It was gravel and narrow. No way I'd make it. Lol.

Usually it tries to tell me to get turned around using a residential road... Another disaster waiting to happen.

 

that nursery road sounds like the graveyard road I was talking about.
Also, the Uturns are ussually into the bear lane.. the little roads in between directions that cops ussually sit at.

 

A couple of times I have turned left down a resi road, then backed up across the street to the resi road on the other side, then turned left from there. And got turned around that way.

But thats only because there no other good options. Not something I normally do. And I had a partner back there signaling me when traffic was clear.