Best Sat Nav For Use When Towing A Caravan

[ery mania]

Anybody recommend a Sat Nav which has set up for towing a caravan.

Advise and experience most appreciated

[harry.m1byt]

Most have car, HGV options - just choose the HGV in the vehicle setup.

[PR1]

Ours is a garmin and is hopeless! Objects to you being on main roads!

We always prepare a route using Michellin route planner, then now use the satnav for the last five miles!

 

Will be looking for a new satnav soon so interested in the replies to the original post!

[poolebob]

Most have car, HGV options - just choose the HGV in the vehicle setup.

Not entirely true.

In some cases all the HGv option does is alter the speed of travel rather than give you routes suitable for an HGV.

If you want one which keeps you off unsuitable roads you need one which gives you lorry or caravan routing.

Rather than pay a lot more for one many people just use an ordinary GPS and follow the site directions for the last few miles.

poolebob

[RYCKO]

We use garmin and common sense.

[Guest Beagler]

I use a TomTom Go live for caravan. Gives live traffic updates and holdups and reroutes.

Nice biggish screen, very pleased

Edited May 19, 2013 by Beagler

[OWOMW]

So how long you been caravanning, and what's your current van ?

 

Edit: And welcome to the forum.

Edited May 19, 2013 by onewheelonmywagon

[sampvt]

I use a TomTom Go live for caravan. Gives live traffic updates and holdups and reroutes.

Nice biggish screen, very pleased

I have a tom tom and the only options it offers are quickest, shortest and economy routes. How do you get the caravan option.

[gumdrop]

I use AA route planner, then sites own map/directions .

I have tried most sat nav. courtesy of my son, none

are as good as a map and planned route.

twice we ended up in places where sensible maps

would not have sent us, trading estates, Isolated farms etc.

[PR1]

I use AA route planner, then sites own map/directions .

I have tried most sat nav. courtesy of my son, none

are as good as a map and planned route.

twice we ended up in places where sensible maps

would not have sent us, trading estates, Isolated farms etc.

That is why we like the Michellin route planner! You can put in 'caravan' as one of the options!

[peterjohn]

If you are feeling flush then definately the one the Caravan Club endorses, The Snooper has all the bells and whistles Around £350 not cheap but free lifetime updates. ....Peter

[Jay]

I really tempted to go for this, as my built in Sat Nav is about as much use as chocolate teapot. .

Snooper. ..

[Guest Beagler]

I have a tom tom and the only options it offers are quickest, shortest and economy routes. How do you get the caravan option.

Please see attached photo's, sorry there sideways

Edited May 19, 2013 by Beagler

[paulthomas]

Tom Tom Go Live. You have a solo or outfit option. For the outfit option you simply enter the outfit's dimensions once and then every time you choose the "car and caravan" option it plans the route accordingly. Lane change guidance is very clear. Extremely pleased with it,and it hasn't let us down yet.

Not cheap,and neither are the updates,but we find it invaluable,particularly when abroad.

[harry.m1byt]

Ours is a garmin and is hopeless! Objects to you being on main roads!

We always prepare a route using Michellin route planner, then now use the satnav for the last five miles!

 

Will be looking for a new satnav soon so interested in the replies to the original post!

 

My old Garmin and the software (?) I currently use, each have a setting for the types of road you prefer it to use. Usually it is pretty good at staying on the main roads, but - We regularly drive down to Pembrokeshire for breaks and my latest system seems to insist on cutting a certain corner off at a motoway by taking me via back roads. Other than that - absolutely brilliant.

[Guest jks]

Please see attached photo's, sorry there sideways

But does it work Beagler?

We have a Navigon which until the last map update was excellent but now it's hopeless.

[paulthomas]

Yep,JKS. It works. Judging by our previous Tom Tom,it will continue to do so,too.

[ericfield]

Having just taken the caravan through the backstreets of Liege ( the local press will no doubt report the incident) due to missing a motorway lane change and then ALLOWING the sat nav to recalculate the "best" route back. ..I can categorically state that this is the big flaw with all sat navs. Despite the cheers and applause from bewildered residents of the cobbled streets, not to mention a degree of pride in my towing skills at actually being able to get the rig through single width backstreets along with cars (using them as rat runs at rush 1hour) . ...I don't want to do it again!!!!!!!

 

The problem with ALL sat nav programmes is how they recalculate after an error. It doesn't matter if your sat nav can be set to lorry or caravan or motorhome. ..once you stray from the route they abandon all big vehicle logic and plot the quickest route back to where you should have been on your planned route.

 

In my case the sat nave failed to display a lane change on the motorway and I didn't use commonsense. I then compounded that by allowing what I assumed was a U turn (the logical route) back to the same junction whenit was making me go left and head through the city to the next junction!

 

 

The lady on the sat nav. ..renamed the Flanders Mare after her suggestion last year that towing through Bruges was a good idea. ..seems to prefer grass up the middle of the road. Only yesterday towing over the Reschen Pass she wanted to take the 'quickest, shortest' route around the other side of the lake to the SS40 which went through a forest. Most of the time I have my wits about me but after a long journey it's easy to be conned.

 

The only way I have found to counter this is to make a trip planner series of entries at key junctions so you force the sat nav to go to that actual point first, A. .B. ..C. ..D. .....Z, rather than extrapolate the best route A to Z.

Edited May 19, 2013 by ericfield

[sampvt]

Please see attached photo's, sorry there sideways

I am not familiar with any of those pictures. Are they in the tom toms set up or do I need to download them from the web site when I update.

[Surf01]

If you are feeling flush then definately the one the Caravan Club endorses, The Snooper has all the bells and whistles Around £350 not cheap but free lifetime updates. ....Peter

The biggest drawback is that you cannot add your own POI's unless that has changed within the past couple of months.

[John_b_45]

I am not familiar with any of those pictures. Are they in the tom toms set up or do I need to download them from the web site when I update.

 

Those settings are for a TomTom that has the caravan/truck map and you won't find them on the ordinary TomTom.

[xtrailman]

I use a TomTom Go live for caravan. Gives live traffic updates and holdups and reroutes.

Nice biggish screen, very pleased

What version is it, amazon shows lots of different numbers for a TT go live?

 

And does the system use a card in the TT to update?

Edited May 19, 2013 by xtrailman

[LongTimeCaravaner]

After years of having to be careful with a Garmin when the caravan was on the back we bought a Snooper at Christmas which can be programmed for having the caravan on the back and it seems to work well so far. It also has a lot of international caravan sites on it which we are going to put to the test on our forthcoming trip to Austria. It also has the CC and the C and CC sites programmed in.

 

Someone mentioned that Michelin route planner has the option for a caravan. Yes it does but that it only to work out fuel consumption it doesn't take it into account when planning the route.

[AWanderingLancastrian]

 

Anybody recommend a Sat Nav which has set up for towing a caravan.

Advise and experience most appreciated

 

 

Hi ery mania. Yes,and a resounding welcome to the Tribal Council of Caravanner's.

Sat Nav,I don't use them and wouldn't give one house room. I am Old Fashioned and can read maps and understand the 'Legend' at the front of Good Old Fashioned Paper Maps.

If I am ever unsure of the distance to a destination I will Google Earth it but for the mileage only purposes when crunching numbers for likely fuel costs.

My only question to the 'Sat Nav Avids' is : What will you do when there is a total failure of the systems that have become a 'must have,got to use' necessity of modern living and existing?

The most likely but never uttered answer is; Ask a person that has a Road Atlas for help.

[Guest Beagler]

I am not familiar with any of those pictures. Are they in the tom toms set up or do I need to download them from the web site when I update.

They are within "Settings" of this model

 

But does it work Beagler?

We have a Navigon which until the last map update was excellent but now it's hopeless.

I find it great. Works for me.

 

What version is it, amazon shows lots of different numbers for a TT go live?And does the system use a card in the TT to update?

Just type in Tom Tom go live caravan in Amazon. It can accept an SD card but thats just for external memory. It dowloads updates (maps, cameras, etc) from Tom Tom's website and I managed to get lifetime map updates free.

 

Hi ery mania. Yes,and a resounding welcome to the Tribal Council of Caravanner's.

Sat Nav,I don't use them and wouldn't give one house room. I am Old Fashioned and can read maps and understand the 'Legend' at the front of Good Old Fashioned Paper Maps.

If I am ever unsure of the distance to a destination I will Google Earth it but for the mileage only purposes when crunching numbers for likely fuel costs.

My only question to the 'Sat Nav Avids' is : What will you do when there is a total failure of the systems that have become a 'must have,got to use' necessity of modern living and existing?

The most likely but never uttered answer is; Ask a person that has a Road Atlas for help.

I heard that said about computers.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Beagler