so i got a new Cobra 8000 PRO HD.

After giving up on my Rand Mcnally 720 for the last time. (the last one died when leaving Moberly Missouri two weeks ago.) i called the wife and had her order me the Cobra 8000 PRO HD.

To say there is going to be a learning curve, well that's an understatement. Fortunately i pretty much run a dedicated route, and don't really need the directions of a gps, unless i get sent on a "favor" ie, Moberly Missouri, i use it mainly for mileage tracking, and fuel stop locations along the route that i'm running.

So, one of the things that the Rand was MUCH better at was the ability to add a stop into the route. a few clicks and i could find the nearest rest stop, hit add as a via and poof it would recalculate the trip including that stop. With the Cobra, if you do that, it changes the whole route to that rest area. After arrival there, your route is finished, and you have to re-enter your destination. ( you can go back to what they call multi-stop routes and restart from your current location, but it's not nearly as slick as the Rand.)

As for calculating mileage the Rand again wins this due to the fact that it will separate out toll road mileage for you. For example run I-69 N in Oklahoma to 44 East to Joplin Missouri. The Cobra will just show a total miles for the date of 251, instead of breaking down the miles on 69 of @ 206 then on 44 toll of @ 45.) again for me not a huge deal breaker seeing as I've run this route so many times have the miles pretty much in my head.

Like the Rand it will show mile marker, weigh stations, time zone changes, state borders etc. On the Cobra though to get the mile marker info you have to leave the info button selected which does take up some of the screen space. With that selected, it will also show current city and state, duty status, miles to nearest rest area, miles to nearest scale house and to the nearest truck stop.

Another area Rand is ahead for me is that it would alert you to speed zones. The Cobra does not. It will show your current speed, but that's about it. Now the Cobra does have a few bells and whistles here that the Rand doesn't like red light camera alerts, speed trap alerts and that may help some but to me, eh not so much.

Both do a good job of auto recalculating your route if you miss an exit or don't want to follow the route that has been selected.

One last area that the Rand also had an advantage is in documentation that comes with the unit. I don't think I ever read the manual for the Rand, but it was nice to use as a reference when needed. The Cobra comes with a Quick Start guide and that's it. So it's a kinda learn as you go type thing.

Overall, I do miss some of the features of the Rand, but I just could not put up with the fact that the units i had were totally unreliable. Here's to hoping that in 6 months the Cobra will still be working.

(disclaimer here: remember gps are a guide. not a must follow. i check all of my routes on paper before heading out, at the very least to insure that the gps has the right idea, and if i have questions regarding the shipper/receiver i make a phone call to them to get the strait scoop.)

 

yeah my Rand would do that at times, no gps is perfect i guess. lol it used to do the same when i would leave the ffe yard in lancaster tx.