Rand mcnally tnd 700 or corbra 7700 pro gps???

If you follow the links to either the discussion or suppor for the TND 500\700 and have comments or issues I monitor the two threads daily. I am the Lead Beta Tester for Rand.

If you are off the beaten path for deliveries you might try setting the truck info to a 48' trl and 96" wide... this will let you route on a lot of non-STAA routes..

Thanks,
Mark

 

The Rand's 7" screen is high definition. The Cobra is not. You can see the multi-lane exits much better. Both of these units are good, but the Rand has many Trucker tools that can be very useful, including timers to warn you when you need to stop driving, or warnings that a scale is up ahead. Cobra is planning on a new model (7750 soon, that might be worth a look. I have used both and the routing seems to be ok on either.

 

after using both so far i have to say i favor the rand mcnally . especially when near a country border. Up near Champlain NY the cobra tries to route you through canada. In the rand McNally 7" you have an option to avoid u-turns and country borders. It will also route you over US Highways where the cobra only does if absolutely no other way possible staying on the interstates.

 

I have both the Cobra 7700 and RM TND500. The TND is on my windshield, the Cobra is under my bunk. When I was using the Cobra, it was very slightly ahead of RM on routing in Canada, and its POI search abilities puts RM to shame. However, the Cobra put me too many times onto restricted routes for no reason, and not until I turned onto the route did it say it was restricted. Most places, it was a non issue as the weight restrictions or no trucks was clearly visible before the turning, some places, well, it was not marked til 1/2 block or 1/2 mile down the road .

If RM can fix the POI search to be more user friendly, they would have a customer for life in me.

 

lol cobra did that to me too in Carthage, MO right outside the caves. had me go down a road and 1/2 block down there is a no truck sign and a narrow bridge where only 1 truck can cross due to width.

Search for truck wash would be useful in the RM.

 

Both the RM and Cobra units are poor units. Do an internet search on those models and see what people have to say. All seems to be happy up front, put it through the paces and you get rather unhappy.

An alternate to look at but the review by users seems still be out is: PC*Miller PCM740 (7" screen). Seems to go head to head with RM and Cobra and cheaper.

Also whats nice about the PC*Miller at the moment, you can get the manuals online and read them over. Cobra and RM seem to want to hide the manuals, so you can not review the setup and workings. Guess if they did, you would decide not to spend the money

Hope this helps.

 

Not having much experience with GPS units I had some bad feelings about my TND mostly with the driving past the location just to circle back, along with driving me thru towns instead of taking the intestate. Then the battery did not hold a charge and after talking to tech support I ended up with files missing.

So I bought a Garmin 465t and tried that for a while. While it sort of worked but kept telling me of 12'10 bridges on the PA turnpike trying to make me reroute...
Finding Truck specific locations where not as easy as the TND
Traffic info was nice but having restaurant options and special pop up on the screen was annoying
It had one nice feature a timer of how long you were moving and how long you were not
Easily cleared. Helped with making my paper logs accurate. I returned it after the Fiasco on the PA turnpike and not being able to update the unit on my laptop.

So I tried the Cobra 7700
AAAHHH!!! Very poor performance in California mostly thinks load limits of 40 tons is not allowed on many of the highways there. Speed trap warnings were a pain in the butt
I would prefer to show the speed limit on the road, then were the cameras are. Also did not save your location/destinations previously searched. Routing always seemed to be to take Interstates.

I use Google and an old version of Rand McNally trip maker
I like Google for giving you three route options for most trips that include time and distance for each one. Some of these showed that there were only a few minutes different between shortest and fastest routes and you could make the decision which to take


So Now I have a renewed love for my TND

I am curious about the pc miler and will more than likely try that one out for comparison as well

I have used a WorldNav 7100 and thought the TND was more user friendly
But I think that all gps units lie and you have to make your own decisions about the route you will take

I will say that the TND and garmin were quick in recalculation your route when you decide to not make a turn or missed a turn

 

I just bought the TND 700, was sorta bothered it was so expensive and had extra stuff like mp3s or pics, but alas it so far functions great for its intended gps use. And I love the log tracking feature.

 

When anyone posts it is always about the negitives.. People tend to complain more then they post that. If you are happy they tend not to post.

Doing a fast search on the PC Miller PCM740, it is close to the suggest retail price of the TND 700.

You can always go to the Web site for either of the navigation units.

But, you make a statement that they are poor units? Do you own any truck navigation device? You can go to Dieselboss's web site to read the reviews on truck navigation devices.

All navigation units have their pros\cons.

Thanks,
Mark

 

TND's do not have the MP3 or able to view pics... I think it was a typo..

Thanks,
Mark