Thinking about getting a sat nav but thought I would ask what everyone else is using ? tomtom 5150 looks pretty decent but bloody expensive
Prior to me starting artic driving last weekend I purchased a Nozatec Truck Nav, cost me £36 off ebay and it is awesome, there is not a mega recent update out for it at the minute but it got me to where I needed to be without any dramas what so ever and I went from Kent, to Sheffield, to buxton, to bardon etc etc then back to Kent and it was awesome. I would say it is just as good as a snooper / tom tom in that it gets you from A - B - C - D etc back to A with no problems. Once I put the vehicle data in it didn’t send me down any weight restrictions, low bridges, etc etc so all good. It also has all the various speed traps programmed in, a lot of them are not there anymore but always good as a warning!!
Whats the point in spending £100 - £150 upwards when you can get something for £36 and does the same job!! I would always play safe though and view the map as these things should never be relied upon 100% but I find it good to give me an idea of where I am going and also very good for working out your times / driving hours!! Ie, right I have got 3.5 hours driving left but going to take 4 hours to get to destination, right I will take my break at such and such place!!
The choice is yours though mate.
Claretmac:
Prior to me starting artic driving last weekend I purchased a Nozatec Truck Nav, cost me £36 off ebay and it is awesome, there is not a mega recent update out for it at the minute but it got me to where I needed to be without any dramas what so ever and I went from Kent, to Sheffield, to buxton, to bardon etc etc then back to Kent and it was awesome. I would say it is just as good as a snooper / tom tom in that it gets you from A - B - C - D etc back to A with no problems. Once I put the vehicle data in it didn’t send me down any weight restrictions, low bridges, etc etc so all good. It also has all the various speed traps programmed in, a lot of them are not there anymore but always good as a warning!!Whats the point in spending £100 - £150 upwards when you can get something for £36 and does the same job!! I would always play safe though and view the map as these things should never be relied upon 100% but I find it good to give me an idea of where I am going and also very good for working out your times / driving hours!! Ie, right I have got 3.5 hours driving left but going to take 4 hours to get to destination, right I will take my break at such and such place!!
The choice is yours though mate.
I got myself one of these for my van and to test it for Hgv I put it on lorry and did a couple of routes I know have weight restrictions and low bridges. Initially I wasn’t too impressed as I had it on easy routing and on my first go it would have sent my down a weight restricted road…not a good start…on my second go it wanted me to go through a new housing estate and when I ignored that it worked out a re route which was a 19 mile trip to get the road I wanted which was 1/2 a mile in front of me 
I was about to chuck it when I changed the routing from easy to fast. Now for some reason the routes make far more sense for a Hgv driver.
Garmin have got new models coming out later this month, one with a 5in screen and another with a 7in. Wait to see the reviews before buying at the moment. I’ve got a Garmin (Dezl 560) and it’s fairly reliable, but has a few niggling features although I’m not sure if these new ones have the same problems. I’ve used TomTom truck sat-navs and they’re horribly slow - you press a key and there’s a two-second wait before anything happens (a sure sign of bugs in the underlying software).
Not that impressed by my TomTom 5150. Sends me down 7.5t roads a fair bit and also tried to send me under a 10ft bridge where I’m 12’10"…Will try another brand next time 
I splashed out on a Snooper db8500. I only chose this one as the other half had one and his had never led him wrong. It’s easy to use, got tv built in and DAB (although I rarely use those) you can program in your usual truck dims. You still need to apply some common sense but it’s great. I love it.
Snooper S8000. Not cheap think they are around £400 but worth every penny. Its made my trucking life alot easier.It has freeview built in. Good poi database. You can input truck dims and it works out your journey time in truck time not car time if you see what i mean. Like others have said you cant rely on any sat nav 100%. Just remember to put a space between your post code otherwise it doesnt accept it for some wierd reason.
Yeah I have the snooper s8000 can’t fault it apart from being a bit quiet when reading out directions
Yeh thats the only small problem with it. But ive got used to that, and you can plug a small rechargeable speaker into the headphone socket.
Yeh mines a little bit quiet. But its still perfectly loud enough to hear even if the radios on. I dont know why they didnt put a louder speaker in though.
Claretmac:
Prior to me starting artic driving last weekend I purchased a Nozatec Truck Nav, cost me £36 off ebay and it is awesome, there is not a mega recent update out for it at the minute but it got me to where I needed to be without any dramas what so ever and I went from Kent, to Sheffield, to buxton, to bardon etc etc then back to Kent and it was awesome. I would say it is just as good as a snooper / tom tom in that it gets you from A - B - C - D etc back to A with no problems. Once I put the vehicle data in it didn’t send me down any weight restrictions, low bridges, etc etc so all good. It also has all the various speed traps programmed in, a lot of them are not there anymore but always good as a warning!!
I have one of these in 7".
I gets me to where I’m going but it has taken me to roads that have signs at the end saying not suitable for wide vehicles.
I have the update for it when the speed limit get increased for 40mph to 50mph on single carriageways.
It even tells me that I have 6 minutes until the break is finished and when the break is finished.
You can even put the turn instruction on your radio if you can’t hear it from the sat nav speakers, and lots more things that I haven’t tried yet.