Truck gps

I never used the app, but copilot trucker seems to work pretty good for me. It's built into our omnitracs but apparently the same thing is available for a few bucks as an app you download. It's never routed me bad and seems to always follow where the company route takes me, with one exception. At the Atlanta airport, it keeps taking me off of 85 at exit 72, and that's not right. I just keep going and it picks up 285 north and I'm outta there.

Combine it with google maps to get me to the exact location and it's pretty good.

 

No such warning..

 

Perhaps he didn't have a route programmed in or was simply ignoring the routing? I know my Garmin starts throwing all sorts of warnings out there when I'm taking a short cut.

 

Im sorry,. It will FAIL YOU.

You have a eyes, and a brain to use the eyes properly. And the Knowledge that is supposed to elevate us from mere animal.

No GPS on earth will save us from low bridges as a example. No one is going to sit down and type in or code in the ten thousand low bridges below 13.5 It's not happening. And NY with their bad Maft calling for 12.6 bridges that wont fit a 13.6 truck... /sarcastic.

When you come onto a bridge that might be a little low, the first thing you want to examine is your own antennas, they should be at 13.5 if you measured them exactly. The next clue would be small stencils somewhere on the structure denoting it's true high.

If it is too low and your tennas sing... back off and call the police.

They will BE MORE THAN HAPPY to come to you, TEASE you a little bit, smile a bit, laugh and snicker but THEY WILL block off traffic and corral them until you get turned around without tearing stuff up. THEY ARE MORE THAN HAPPY TO DO IT.

I have called the law so many times versus a surprised bridge. My first was actually Boston Street in Baltimore which is infamous. They teased me they laughed and smiled. But ultimately I managed to turn around and have a route which is good for the truck from them under their protection.

 

I don't know about other GPS units but I've used an RM 530 for a few years and it's saved my butt when in Chicago and NYC.

No GPS is perfect though. So, you always want to have a paper road atlas in your cab. You can actually pre-plan a trip without a GPS, if you use a motor carrier atlas. I pre-plan 100 mile trips at home.

A CB and google help in real time. My $50 CB has paid for itself 1000 times over. And google can knock miles off a gps trip.

But... when driving, you have to look for truck restriction signs.

The roads are dynamic/ constantly changing with infrastructure upgrades and local detours.

Part of being paid to drive a truck entails looking for signs for trucks. Those signs may come and go in days and GPS is not able to keep up with them all.

Keep your eyes peeled

 

I had a Rand Overdryve 8, seemed nice fancy. But, It Shook it's self to death.
Replaced the Rand with Garmin 770. Seems more like a blue collar unit.
The Rand was easier to update Walmart wifi could do it in a few minutes. Garmin takes longer to update and need another computer.

 

I used copilot on my tablet, as there was a free trial period and then it cost $10 a month. I knew I only needed a truck gps for a few months, so it was a low cost way for me to go. I liked it, as my tablet had a big screen. It could reroute very quickly if I missed a turn.

 

If you have a 720 handy then go drive your car while in truck mode under a major highway bridge that is less than 13'6 and you will see.

 

They will code the low bridges if they ever want trucks to drive themselves.

 

From the map screen look for the white search box, mine is upper left of screen. Type in the street address. If you try to find an address through the homescreen, picking destinations, then new address, you have to type the address in the format it is expecting. Much easier to just type the street address and town, state in the white search box at the map screen.

To the OP look at the Garmin 570 or 770, depending on whether you need 5 inch or 7 inch screen. For Rand look at RM 540 or 740 (5 inch or 7 inch). It's safe to pick a 5 inch screen as the key info is big enough on the screen to see it whether you buy the 5 inch or 7 inch units. The 5 inch units are about $100 less than 7 inch and probably easier to mount in a crowded truck cab.