Poll Only For Those Who Have Used Both : Rand McNally vs Garmin

Yeah don't forget the piss elm tree that hanging half way across the road your turning to turn on 20' down the road..lol

 

Backing 2 miles through 5 hairpin turns...

(My experience was only through 1 turn and 2 miles on a gravel (mud) road in ks, but the memory remains burned into my mind)

 

My guess is that RM signed an exclusive contract with CAT to boost the value of the RM product and put Garmin at a disadvantage. If that'snot true the managers at Garmin should be horsewhipped for not putting "scale" or "CAT scale" as a search priority. Adding unnecessary features is a disease among engineers and managers.

 

The RM 750 is the 7 inch GPS-only device. It costs about $400. You can connect it to your phone and use data via your phone's wifi hotspot. Having said that, you are better off not connecting your GPS to your phone for the traffic or the weather. The smartphone apps are much simpler, run faster/smoother and have far more useful detail than the clunky and basic weather and traffic info on the GPS. Trucker Patch will show you a moving map of the highway, truck stops, Google traffic info, and other things. Touch a truck stop and Trucker Path will show you what fast-food is at the truck stop, it will show details about the truck stop like number of parking spots, the last 3 reported parking spot estimates, and what services (shop, lube, # showers, etc). Trucker Path was always open if I was driving. I used the free version for 95% of the last 5 years. You can use a free trial of the paid and the ultra versions which give you a better prediction of available parking at truck stops. You just need to supply a different email address each time you try the free trial of 7 or 10 days. The lowest price paid version is enough for me. If you are using a paid version of Trucker Path you can get Google Maps turn-by-turn directions piped into your truck stereo by bluetooth. I think the paid versions of TP also is aware of truck restrictions. The free version is NOT aware of truck restrictions or routes. The free version will show you directions to your destination but no voice directions. In sketchy places I would run both my RM GPS and Trucker Path/Google Maps directions. If you do that be prepared and have a plan of what to do when one box is saying turn left and the other is saying turn right. It's really disturbing when that happens.

I found the RM database, which was never updated in the last 3 years I used it, to be very reliable except in fast growing areas like Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

 

I will sell my hardly used Dezl OTR700 for a lot less than the $400 + tax I paid for it. I'm serious. It has maybe a few weeks to 2 months use on it. It's sitting in a backpack doing nothing for me. Works just like new, with mount, power adapter.

 

45 mins in reverse. Only one bad corner but it was a blind side 90 around a very large rock outcropping... Not my fondest backing memory, but not my worst either... Lol

 

Have used Rand McNally, Tom Tom Trucker and Garmin.
They are all good.
Some do certain things better.
Borrowed friends Tomtom 620 and ran it beside Garmin OTR for couple trips...
Think Garmin OTR series and Tomtom Trucker are tied.

 

I'm clearing out my junk email and see one that brings this discussion to mind. That is, with regard to feature bloat.

Prepass is now teaming up with Garmin to offer a branded smart watch.

I don't know how I've survived without getting weigh station bypass notifications on my watch. I never realized the struggle using the transponder that's right in front of me. I guess you do it the hard way so long, it seems normal.

 

OMG! You could pair that with your super trucker headset and get turn-by-turn directions to the Twinkies when you're in Walmart!