Yesterday I was trying to find a little industrial estate in Gloucester. When I got close my sat nav tried to turn me down some back streets which had a 7.5T limit. The road I needed to turn down was an A road that said 7.5T except for loading. So of course I ignore my sat nav and go down the road and get to the drop. No problem.
The issue here is, whichever way I went, whether I followed my sat nav and went down a residential street or went on the A road, I had to go through the weight limit. Why the ■■■■ is the sat nav programmed in such a way that it would choose to take me down the back street option rather than the main road? What kind of a moron has programmed it to do that?!
It’s a Tom tom trucker and I’m find a lot of issues with it like this. Fortunately I have common sense to use a map as well and ignore it half the time. Are other makes as bad? When I do come to get another one in the future I will certainly look at all of them rather than go for another Tom Tom straight away!
Never rely on anything, other than your mk1 eyeball and applied common sense, when navigating a lorry.
The sat nav is only there as a guide, it is after all simply an electronic road atlas, no one’s actually driven an artic to that estate and entered best route in on the machine, the machine is picking what it thinks is the best route for you, plus a postcode might cover such an area that an entrance you need might be on a different approach entirely.
Oh yeah of course, I only see at as one of my tools in the box for navigation. Can’t beat the map!
That said, I guess I was just expecting that for £300 something called a truck sat nav would be better and wouldn’t try and turn me down roads that say unsuitable for hgvs on them, just to cut a small corner off between 2 A roads.
Rowley010:
Oh yeah of course, I only see at as one of my tools in the box for navigation. Can’t beat the map!
That said, I guess I was just expecting that for £300 something called a truck sat nav would be better and wouldn’t try and turn me down roads that say unsuitable for hgvs on them, just to cut a small corner off between 2 A roads.
A TT truck is programmed to navigate within the parameters you put into the machine yourself, ie the dimensions of the lorry.
It is just a little computer and if it can not get you to a place within your parameters it will normaly tell you that it has found no legal road and will ask if it should take you a road suited for another vehicle, mostly cars. A computer will not make mistakes, it is the one operating it…
I learned that, once it can not find a truck designated route, the non allowed part on your 2D map should be in purple with the TT, so it is better to open up your paper map and have a look for yourself. The Garmin gave me another non lorry route once, but is was as stupid as TT’s.