I’m looking to get a decent sat nav but there seems to be so much variation on price, with the Becker at over £300 and a seemingly decent Tom Tom for under £100. I have been using a Becker borrowed from another driver and it has been very reliable, but the site (linked below) only gives it 2 out of 5, compared to a Garmin Dezi with 5 out of 5, so now I am totally confused! I would therefore like to hear of other drivers experiences with sat navs designed for HGV suitable routes.
Ive been using co-pilot truck on a cracked android phone for the last 2 years and its very reliable (and has cost me zero £) …very good for height restrictions, sometimes i try to trick it on routes i know and it always goes mental if i go under a bridge it thinks i cant make…i keep a tom tom car in bag for backup in case it goes down, and also an atlas!!!
I like to use a sat nav even on routes i do every day purely for the time and distance to go, and if i need to divert…
I just use a cheap Tom Tom car sat nav and have Nokia HERE maps on my phone as a backup. Nokia Here have free Euro maps that work without internet. (You can make google maps do this but it is fiddly and the offline maps expire). As a backup they are very handy indeed IMHO.
One day I will probably shell out for a truck one, but it hasn’t happened yet!
Jus a word of warning about these tomtom sat navs sold on eBay/Facebook ect,they are normally 510/910/520/920s ect,these are very old models with a sd card of truck maps inserted.
Without the truck sd cards they would be worth around £50ish,you’re paying £100 for a sd card effectively inside a very old tomtom unit that could well be on its last legs in terms of use before it fails.
I certainly wouldn’t etertain one for the price they seem to sell for.
there are the Chinese ones which are cheap and very good,the only drawback is no anti glare screen,if the sun or any bright light hits the screen you cannot see jack
truckman020:
there are the Chinese ones which are cheap and very good,the only drawback is no anti glare screen,if the sun or any bright light hits the screen you cannot see jack
ckm1981:
Jus a word of warning about these tomtom sat navs sold on eBay/Facebook ect,they are normally 510/910/520/920s ect,these are very old models with a sd card of truck maps inserted.
Without the truck sd cards they would be worth around £50ish,you’re paying £100 for a sd card effectively inside a very old tomtom unit that could well be on its last legs in terms of use before it fails.
I certainly wouldn’t etertain one for the price they seem to sell for.
truckman020:
there are the Chinese ones which are cheap and very good,the only drawback is no anti glare screen,if the sun or any bright light hits the screen you cannot see jack
The only other thing is that not all of them know about the new 50mph limit, so they flash all day at you that you are speeding. Not a show stopper, but probably annoying after a while.
Once this is fixed I’ll probably chance one of these.
ckm1981:
Jus a word of warning about these tomtom sat navs sold on eBay/Facebook ect,they are normally 510/910/520/920s ect,these are very old models with a sd card of truck maps inserted.
Without the truck sd cards they would be worth around £50ish,you’re paying £100 for a sd card effectively inside a very old tomtom unit that could well be on its last legs in terms of use before it fails.
I certainly wouldn’t etertain one for the price they seem to sell for.
The ones on truck bay are new boxed models 55 and 550 xxl and I don’t think they have an sd card plus they both sell the card separately for about 25
I’ve got a tomtom trucker 6000, it can be set between car up to truck along with custom heights gross and axel weights. Nice big screen and voice commands which is good. It seems to get me around ok but obviously never put my full trust in it. Very simple to use and had web interface so you can send POIs, planned routes etc from your PC/laptop.
I paid £280 for a snooper s2000 truckmate about 7 years ago and it’s still working great. I did a £45 map update about 3 months ago, long overdue I know but well worth it.
The current version, s2500 I think is cheaper now I believe so I’d definitely recommend that based on my experience of my snooper.
This is a great idea. Amazing its taken so long for someone to do it. But as others have said just use phone apps. The days of needing a dedicated satnav are over
If you are looking at something that’s cheapish and does the job this sat nav is for you, its not a brand named sat nav but it has done me good so far. Please see my post here which links the sat nav and a couple of reviews from the guys using it. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=128456
Only £70 also!
I use a TOMTOM 5250, and I have to say its very good. Cost about £300, but over a year its only a few quid a week, so IMO its worth it. I got 12 months live traffic free with it, which has saved me a [zb]load of time over the months I have used it.
Snooper S600 , 7 jnch screen tried the tom tom 5150 hated it sent it back after a week but i will say the screen graphics on tom tom are good as it the traffic updates
Yes i know i’ll get howled at for being a luddite, but just bare with me for a moment.
We didn’t need satnavs in the past because asking for directions was easy when most people in an area were natives and spoke the lingo.
Getting back to basics, lorry driving is our job, we decide which route to take not some machine…and not some pillock in a traffic office either.
The sat nav should be viewed as a very handy pocket sized local street map of the country, a useful ally during a journey and an invaluable aid to help guiding you in the last few miles to a destination, it should never be relied on to plan and execute a route for you nor be trusted, that is the essence of a lorry driver’s job.
My own take on this is thus, i have a sat nav its a Garmin normal car one but with a larger than normal screen, cos a little toy one with a 3" screen isn’t worth a light, if i get a new destination (which isn’t often these days after all these bloody years) i’ll enter it on the machine and have a look see which side of the town or city the place is…then i’ll get me trusty bridge height map out and plan my own route there, sometimes i won’t enter the destination on the sat nav at this point but merely turn it on as its useful for seeing ahead on an unknown road for unmarked turnings confirming the road at unsigned roundabouts and likely camera hidey holes, it can be invaluable as an ally during the journey especially if you’ve got ‘traffic’’ on it.
As the journey progresses and i get nearer to the destination so the machine will agree with my route i’ll press ‘‘go’’ on the coordinates, when you get within a few miles of the destination thats when you start to trust it more, but bear in mind at all times in the back of your mind the route you chose at the start of the journey, the satnav is merely confirming your chosen route and helping you at junctions, nothing more, it is not telling you where to go.
Depending on the journey i might have pressed ‘‘go’’ before starting out, but how we do our job is as individual as we are and that should never change.
They have their place now, of that i can’t argue, but relying on them for route planning isn’t in your best interests.
Car and van and occasional drivers, yes they do rely on such things or get hopelessly lost , but hopefully those who choose to be lorry drivers try to be a cut above the madding crowd.
