what satnav do people recommend I want a “lorry” one after my experiences today trying to use a phone. I realise that they don’t replace common sense but as a new pass its just a friendly hand when trying to negotiate south west London on the first days driving.
coop
I think you will get a range of answers on this one. A TomTom or Garmin is going to set you back a good few notes. If you want to make your life easier and don’t mind paying out, then fair enough. I would be inclined to think that you are a driver doing a job for a company and they are not providing you with such an aid.
The conclusion that many come to is either a cheapo truck satnav off Ebay or use a car satnav, but keep your eyes pealed. It really depends what kind of work you are doing. Often drivers are retracing their steps and after a few weeks you may find it is just weight in your bag.
Plenty use google maps or one of the newer truck apps that you can pay for quite reasonably and the maps are offline so you are not using data. But that would be using your phone of course.
London can be fun.
I use a Garmin Dezl 770 and wouldn’t be without it for Central, SE and SW London and all the restrictions, cameras and weight limits etc. I’ve found the signal to be flawless, even in built up areas with tall buildings. - It lets me take on agency work in areas I haven’t a clue about and still keep up with scheduled arrival times - Obviously best to check the route on a map to have an idea to make sure you don’t end up on the wrong side of the river etc.
Apparently the newer Garmin 785 isn’t so good…But I don’t have first hand experience of that - Something to do with the traffic receiver or something
I don’t have first hand experience of TomTom in London but I’ve heard signal can sometimes be a bit patchy - Make of that what you will though.
Thanks for the replies. Broadly im making home deliveries in a 7.5 tonner all over the south east as far as Salisbury oxford and Norwich. so although I will probably end up going to the same area I wont go to the same house/ streets.
I found myself in a situation yesterday that a proper sat nav would of solved. I was stuck in a traffic jam and the sat nav decided to take me a different route. Ended up with a width restriction that was hidden behind trees at the time in rush hour traffic trying to turn round. As said I realise that satnav’s aren’t the boss but navigating/driving a new to me truck in an unknown area with the entire collection of idiots around on the first day is a little busy to be worrying about where I have to go.
im sure with time I will get used to it but in the mean time its an extra aid.
Do a to z’s list enough to be used by a trucker? I used to get round on van multidrop using mine
Otherwise I’ve been told the snooper Garmin or Tom Tom each are strong in different areas. They’re about £300. Find someone who works for NHS and get from Halfords for 10% off
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Best I have found is Mapfactor Navigator for the phone. It runs on OSM maps or one can buy TomTom maps for about £35-40. I have found no problems so far having driven around lovely places like Sheffield which have lots of bridges and road restrictions.
Co-Pilot (others like Aponia are expensive) and now I think have stopped the truck app.
Trouble is with phones they can crash… mine has a couple of times. But then Garmin and TomTom tend to give up after 3 yrs - screen goes blank and one can have it removed for £80-£100. I have another smartphone as a backup… Mapfactor don’t charge extra for the Truck maps on a backup device which is decent of them.
You can use a car satnav and then check the route in the Trucker’s atlas - entering waypoints for any restrictions. But the truckers atlas isn’t perfect - it didn’t list Queen’s Road, Skegness as a 7.5T… mapfcator was ok finding a route round.
With an artic a trucker’s satnav is a must I feel and so far Mapfactor has been fine. Last couple of months doing nights I have had a lot of roadworks to cope with and she has been great with alternative routes.
Moving this topic to the PDF as you may get more replies in that forum
Do you have a second man?
On the positive side you won’t be the tallest of vehicles and getting turned is easier in a 7.5 tonne.
On the negative, getting the atlas out at very opportunity isn’t really realistic on this kind of multi-drop. In days gone by your second man would have been the navigator, but your chances of getting someone cooperative are somewhere between slim and none I would guess.
It is a personal choice, but I would content myself with occasionally taking the scenic route happy in the knowledge that I am getting paid for it. I wouldn’t worry about occasionally holding people up, they will probably be ordering furniture or whatever at some point in the future. Your second man will probably huff and puff too, but that will just be when he is actually awake.
We really need a sticky with the main options listed to answer this quick and easy.
Personally I’d say Tomtom Pro 6250 (not the 620) with lifetime maps, decent traffic and cameras. Works well in central London. Not cheap but for multidrop you’ll find the maps don’t include many small roads.
Only problem it has is those daft 16T limits that apply during random times. It sets each as a permanent limit but thats not an issue with 7.5T.
I am no way modern or technical, but I was told that they all offer lifetime updates, but the limiting factor is the size of the chip/memory. Once it’s filled up you can’t update anymore. Not know if this is true or myth.
Odd days:
I am no way modern or technical, but I was told that they all offer lifetime updates, but the limiting factor is the size of the chip/memory. Once it’s filled up you can’t update anymore. Not know if this is true or myth.
Tomtom will tell you that’s the reason, but it’s not really true. Yes, their Western Europe maps are now too big to fit in the memory on some of the older units, but UK only map (or indeed any other single country) would fit with plenty of space to spare. The reality is that Tomtom made a commercial decision to withdraw support for older devices, meaning that they have (by TomTom’s stated definition) reached the end of their “lifetime”, so no more maps.
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Roymondo:
Odd days:
I am no way modern or technical, but I was told that they all offer lifetime updates, but the limiting factor is the size of the chip/memory. Once it’s filled up you can’t update anymore. Not know if this is true or myth.Tomtom will tell you that’s the reason, but it’s not really true. Yes, their Western Europe maps are now too big to fit in the memory on some of the older units, but UK only map (or indeed any other single country) would fit with plenty of space to spare. The reality is that Tomtom made a commercial decision to withdraw support for older devices, meaning that they have (by TomTom’s stated definition) reached the end of their “lifetime”, so no more maps.
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Most i think should have a slot for a memory card mine does and i needed it after a few updates it’s a Garmin with the full Europe
iv an ebay chinkee XGODY ,it was pretty basic first couple of years but iv this year had updates and extras added onto it by a chap on the NOZATEC facebook support group. he did it by post and didnt want paying apart from postage but i was having non of that sent him wonga in with my satnav hes done mine up twice now
Noremac:
Do you have a second man?On the positive side you won’t be the tallest of vehicles and getting turned is easier in a 7.5 tonne.
On the negative, getting the atlas out at very opportunity isn’t really realistic on this kind of multi-drop. In days gone by your second man would have been the navigator, but your chances of getting someone cooperative are somewhere between slim and none I would guess.
It is a personal choice, but I would content myself with occasionally taking the scenic route happy in the knowledge that I am getting paid for it. I wouldn’t worry about occasionally holding people up, they will probably be ordering furniture or whatever at some point in the future. Your second man will probably huff and puff too, but that will just be when he is actually awake.
I think you were responding to my post?
I agree getting out the Trucker’s Atlas isn’t an option when driving. But I meant plotting a route before one sets off. Even then roadworks (temporary one’s that aren’t notified on traffic warnings are the real pain - I watched an artic driver once have to back up almost two mile… I was ok in an 18T and could reverse into a turning).
You are right about a navigator (porter) - I’ve had jobs for B&Q and Knowhow. They expect you to do all the driving while they snooze. “You’re the driver” will be the words uttered. What I found was a porter would be the back seat driver and then slag you off in the office. I stopped doing such work - not surprising such jobs are often agency and not worth the bother.
My other reason for using a phone app is that I am a linux user. Garmin and TomTom only allow may updates through their software which is windows based. Older Garmins could run 3rd party maps as I used to with OSM (OpenStreet map Data) which were updated every month and a 600mb file could just be copied to the SDcard which would be read first before the internal stored maps. Whenever I had tested maps I have found OSM to be by far the best.
Bigtruck3:
Roymondo:
Odd days:
I am no way modern or technical, but I was told that they all offer lifetime updates, but the limiting factor is the size of the chip/memory. Once it’s filled up you can’t update anymore. Not know if this is true or myth.Tomtom will tell you that’s the reason, but it’s not really true. Yes, their Western Europe maps are now too big to fit in the memory on some of the older units, but UK only map (or indeed any other single country) would fit with plenty of space to spare. The reality is that Tomtom made a commercial decision to withdraw support for older devices, meaning that they have (by TomTom’s stated definition) reached the end of their “lifetime”, so no more maps.
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Most i think should have a slot for a memory card mine does and i needed it after a few updates it’s a Garmin with the full Europe
Indeed - I have a motorbike specific TomTom which uses a memory card for its map data. No problems at all with memory capacity, but TomTom still decided to cease support for it and so no map updates. Their emails informing me of this cited “memory limitations” as the reason. They didn’t respond to my emails querying this.