GPS

[Gerrit Klingenberg]

Whats the best trucker GPS

[David Watson]

I just purchased a Rand McNalley trucker GPS about a month ago.  So far I LOVE it!!

[Christopher]

garmin will ALWAYS be the best.. Garmin is what the military/aviators use. 

[Keith]

There are several on the market, specifically for trucking that show bridge heights and load limits, but never fully depend on them. No matter how good a GPS is, always refer to a good ole map in cities.

[Redefined Bad Boy]

Which one is best for truck drivers with the best markings of low bridges and truck routes?

[Ivan Paynter]

I have the Rand McNally for about two years not a bad unit.You can get free updates on line but You need to Buy the new maps around 90.00$. With all of them you still need to check your paper maps it sometimes takes you for a ride were there is a shorter route.When you are going from point A to point B and want to return to point A it will not revirce your route,takes you back a different way.When You are in Canada and want to go from Nova Scotia to Calgary it will take you through the USA.You need to step your way across Canada.Some GPS's have a Canada or USA routing.

[stevie kirkwood]

i have the sony nav-u and its never let me down so far , ok it has sometimes took me the long way but it always gets me there. but the good old maps still come in handy

[jer bird]

i use the cobra 7750..but i think with all gps out there you have to use your paper map sometimes for back up..

[Adeleeuw]

I have always liked the Garmin 5000. It's a bigger screen which gives you more notice of when your turn is coming up. The more you see the easier I find it. I also heard you can download maps that are for trucking. Apparently it's suppose to have the truck routes and it won't take your through a residential area where you can get into troube. Is it true? I don't know but I am definitely going to do some searching on the web when I have more time. Another trucker told me he downloaded an app for his GPS and it shows him where all the weigh scales are. So It might not really matter what kind of GPS you buy it may depend more on what you choose to download and how much money you want to spend on all these extra apps you can get.

 

 

[john mcdonald]

i tried the cobra 7 inch i sat in the truck stop in wythville and it could not navigate me back to the 77 south without going north on 81 and doubling back , the 77 souyth ramp was opposite the truck stop exit. i eturned it promptly. and tried the garmin dzl which was ok until i routed to a fuel stop, it took me off the interstate and backtracked 36 miles - no option for on route or end of route like tomtom {no truck version } rand mcnally would be my choice for sheer  user friendliness, and the fact that like my old tomtom it shows poi's on the map.

[Highway Knight]

I use the Rand McNally 500. As others have said, do not depend entirely on your GPS. I am very satisfied with this one, you can get road updates free. I connect it to my laptop every two weeks and back it up with new customers etc. My first one crashed after almost 3 years of service, RM sold me a refurbished one for $125 with an updated map, (not bad since the map updates are about $90), and I have had no problems with it. Took it out of the box, hooked it to the laptop and did a restore from my backup and had all my customers downloaded on the new one in minutes, with over 300 it saved me alot of time not having to do them all again one by one.

I run an eLog, and use the GPS to get as close to customers or truckstops as I can. I can set it to show my arrival time and then check the eLog and and see if I can make it with my time that is left, if not I look for the nearest place I can stop within that time. It has become a regular tool for me and I use it accordingly.

[Rhett Butler]

I've been using a Garmin the last 5 years and haven't had any issues. But then again I've been at this over 30 years and I don't let the GPS route me down roads I know I can't take (such as CA 84 in San Jose or on Parkways in NY/Long Island). I've used the Tom Tom and Rand McNally but find the Garmin the easiest to use.

I would strongly recommend that you get one with the truck route option installed to avoid any issues with getting routed on "car only" routes.

Remember that a GPS is a tool much like a road atlas or local road map, it's not the auto pilot that many people take as gospel to get from point "a" to point "b". If you get routed on a road or highway that is truck restricted you need to use common sense in finding another route to a destination. I knew a fellow driver that ignored the restriction sign on CA 84, followed his GPS and it cost him $750 in fines.

[Adeleeuw]

Avoiding certain roads is easy to do if you've been there before and you're familiar with the area. First of all I'm from Red Deer, Alberta. For 4 months I was doing deliveries all around Vancouver, British Columbia which I did not know very well at all. I went to several places that I could have gotten a fine because it was easy to get lost. I had to go thru residential areas to deliver propane to the service stores like 7 Eleven, The Mac's Store, Safeway, etc... Vancouver has become so anti-trucking that is almost impossible to deliver with a tractor-trailer unit which is what I had to drive. I never knew until I trained the new manager who lives in Surrey BC which is right by Vancouver. He knows all of Southern British Columbia in the back of his head. He told me that I was taking bridges and even tunnel bridges that I was never allowed to even drive on. I was never allowed in any tunnel bridges because of the fact I carried dangerous goods. It only makes sense now, but who would even think of that if you were never told. We opened another station in Surrey  and hired a new manager to take care of that area. So I had to train him how to do everything. He said Vancouver has cut out more truck routes every year and literately makes it impossible to deliver with a big truck. In residential area they have hundreds of circle shape cement curbs in the middle of all the intersections to keep big trucks out. Well how am I suppose to do my delivery to the retail stores in those areas? I got stuck in an area with these cement curbs that were about 4 feet tall and I had to get a police officer to assist me to get out of there. Even the peace officer, who was working in that area did not know the area enough to tell me where to go. He had to drive around first to see where I can safely get out of here!!!!!