Trucking GPS systems?

ALK website http://alk.com/copilot/


Works on many platforms and lets driver pick and choose route and type of roads. allows for practical,shortest and hazmat designated roads.

cost 399.00 USD at T/A truck stop in 2007 for Laptop Version

Driver friendy and easy to use. has voice reconition and speech

 

New to trucking and want to find out what is the best truck gps before I buy.

 

Rand McNalley's is pretty good from what I've read.

Dont get dependent on a GPS though.
Get a nice trucker atlas and study it when planning your trips.
Trucker Atlases have weight limits, low overpass warnings, etc. There is no excuse if your GPS takes you down the wrong road.

 

Thanks a bunch! Planning on having both. Just worried about getting lost, know it will happen at some point!

 

Hi
I'm trying to find the best GPS for intercity driving and delivery.I will be going to ST Louis - Chicago - Indy - Madison - Milwaukee and the entire Kansas City area and The entire Louisville area and a couple more citys that I can't remember.I will be using a sleeper truck and a 53 ft dry box 90% of the time.

Joe

 

Check out the GPS forum, the TND500 isnt nearly as great as Rand thinks it is. Save your money and buy a Tom Tom. Make sure to check your route against the paper atlas for any restrictions. Phone numbers at both ends are invaluable. We made it a long time without these things, dont rely on it not to get you lost. I had one trying to tell me to take a right off a drilling platform, problem was there was no road, just a field and cows. I would never ever ever trust one to route me around anykind of restrictions. Getting lost isnt a problem, it will happen. Well, you wont ever really be lost, just off route lol. The propblem in getting off route is getting back on it safely. Good luck. When you get one, name it after your broker or dispatcher, how well do you trust them?

 

If your company supplies you with a legal truck route at the time you are dispatched, just use Streets & Trips and plug in your company supplied truck routes. Walla...you are good to go.

Several months ago I decide to join the 21st century and so I bought the TND 500. I thought that it was wonderful that there was a GPS for truckers from a reputable company like Rand McNally. Nevertheless, after using it for about a month I returned it to get my money back, because contrary to what it advertises it kept routing me to low clearances, restricted routes, through residential areas, down narrow back roads instead of on the main roads, etc. Plus you couldn't customize your routes and were forced to accept its routes or nothing, which never followed my company supplied routes and final directions. It also would reroute me every time I pulled into a rest area, weigh station, truck stop, whatever, or it would tell me I was on a weight restricted road and try to make me do a U-turn when I wasn't. Indeed, it was a nightmare and one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.

Anyway, after another driver buddy of mine showed me the way he plugs in the company supplied truck routes and final directions into Streets & Trips and after I found out it cost like $60 relative to the $500 I paid for the TND 500, it was a no brainer. Plus with a laptop display as opposed to a tiny fricking GPS I can easily make the maps show as much detail as I need and I couldn't do that with the TND 500. In addition, Streets & Trips doesn't have all the bugs that came with the TND 500 either. Not to mention that on top of it all you don't have to spend all of your free time updating it as well.

 

Save your money and don’t subject yourself to the brain damage of buying one of those most frustrating truck specific GPS units. Get Streets & Trips and simply plug in your company supplied truck routes and final directions and you are good to go. Additionally, it cost about $60 relative to $500 for a truck specific GPS. Add the Truck Stops Plus add-on to it, and then you can search and route to truck stops, walmarts, rest areas etc. It’s the best solution I found and it is far less frustrating than using one of those truck specific GPSs that don’t nearly work as advertised or as you envisioned

 

I have both the Streets and Trips and PC Miler and I almost always use the S&T,it is just so much easier to use(for me anyway).I don't have the truck plug in for it yet.One of the main things I like about S&T is I have had the same version for over 5 years but it updates both it's version and the road construction every time either one changes,free of charge.With PC Miler you have to pay for new versions at a ridiculous price. Oh yeah you don't need the truck plug in to find truck stops,walmarts,rest areas,etc.the version I have does that too.

 

There is no "Silver bullet" for GPS but I recently bought the Cobra 7700 and am very pleased with it, (once I get the updated maps) It alerts me to Red light camera intersections or sections of road that have red light camera, Speeding camera, and high accident intersections. Also if I'm driving it shows me I'm on a 2t, 4t, 6t, and 10t road I'm assuming that means tonnage allowed.

I recently had a delivery in Salt Lake City, downtown. It alerted me that the road I was on was losing a lane by telling me 45" ahead, which was pretty impressive since I did lose a lane but not in my direction. Also has a 18" warning when I enter into side streets. I can also configure the truck for different types of hazmat I might be carrying, also very helpful in California is knig pin to axle setting, ALOT of places in Northern California have such restrictions, very useful.

I'm hoping in the near future you can route on google maps and download the data to the 7700 like you can with the Garmin, similar to S&T but free. Just need the browser plug in, it compatible with most big name GPS units.

It does however do really dumb stuff, it is a computer and while it might make mathematical sense to route me through town as the shortest route it makes absolutely no practical sense but I have found that to be true with all of them.

If you pull the same trailer all the time, your options are pretty open to whichever. If you haul specialized, flat bed, lowboy, RGN etc the 7700 would be your only choice as I see it but then again if its allot of special permitted loads then your route has already been determined, S&T or Google maps would work nicely in that situation.

my two cents,
Bosco