I have the TomTom 5150 which is great. But for short multi runs I just whack on Google maps on my phone and sometimes use Street view to see what I’m getting myself into before I’m there.
I’ve been told the cheaper Chinese ones can be a bit funny with the height that you input so you need to be careful. It’s something to do with metric and imperial and where it sees the decimal point at and it can think you are a fair few inches lower than you are. I just keep mine set to 15’10 (our highest trailer) regardless of whether I’ve got lower or not though so I know I’m safe.
Whichever you get, and however much you spend never trust it though! I’ve got tomtom trucker and it’s very good. But I have learned to ALWAYS check another map for the route before setting off. It’s never tried to take me to a low bridge I can’t get under or down a restricted weight limit or anything like that, but some of the turnings it’s tried to take me round you would barely want to get a long wheel base transit van round, no chance in an artic. It’s tried to take me down back alleys, and last week it nearly took me through a parked up residential area rather than keep me and A road for a few more miles. If I’d trusted it I would have got to my drop on the other side and would have had to blind side off the road through a set of gates with parked cars about. As it happened the alarm bells rung and I pulled up, check my other map, spun round back to the A road for the extra few miles which meant I did not go through any residential area that I didn’t have to go through and it meant I could easily reverse off the road on my good side.
Truck sat nav or not, expensive one or not, they are great but only to a point. Take everything it tells you to do with a pinch of salt!
i’v got a trucktables one and it’s 99% accurate.
Whichever one you get, I’d agree with a couple of people on over estimating your height.
I always add at about 1.5ft to my actual height on the satnav. Mainly so it doesn’t take me to a bridge that’s an inch higher than the truck. All it takes is for the road underneath to have been resurfaced and the height not checked and it’s game over!
I have to say, I’ve been really impressed with my tomtom trucker6000. Given me sensible routes since I’ve had it, really accurate arrival time, really accurate traffic and roadworks. A worthwhile investment I think.
Only thing that lets it down is how slow it can be to recalculate a route if you go off the one it wants to do. Or, as I found the other day, because I have to set to not use toll roads, ferrys etc when I was going from the Isle of Wight to Mansfield, every time I changed route on the IOW it took FOREVER to come up with a new route because it was trying to do it without using the ferry. Don’t think I’d be able to just jump it!
peirre:
Buy a cheap one, and spend the money you saved on Whiskey and whores
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There speaks the voice of experience 