As retired folks my wife and I travel around the US with our trailer. We try to avoid interstate highways as much as possible.
I'm thinking of getting a GPS, possibly a Garmin NUVI 750 or a Tomtom Go 720 or 920.
This will be my first GPS, thus I am not very familiar with their operation.
A couple of questions come to mind:
1. In planning a route is one brand (Garmin or Tomtom) better than the other for avoiding interstate highways? I suppose I mean if I select "avoid highways" does that mean "avoid interstate highways" or does it also mean "avoid US highways and state highways" as well?
2. Is one brand better than the other for including RV parks/campgrounds in their POI base?
Thanks for any information.
Glenn
Just a heads up: I own a Magellan Roadmate. It works great - HOWEVER, when I call for tech support I end up talking with someone in India. How stupid is that?? They hardly understand English. I will never purchase another Magellan again. When this one turns belly-up it will be a Garmin for the new one. I would not want to travel without a GPS. What a stress reliever!!!
Fred Cory
Mineral Bluff, GA
2008 20' Cruiser RV Toy Hauler
Dodge Durango 5.9L
Harley 06 VRod
I can only speak to the Garmin products I've owned, a Street Pilot 2610 (no longer produced) and c-550. Both allow me to adjust settings to avoid Interstates. US Hwys and State Roads are unaffected.
Campgrounds are poorly represented in the POI data base from the factory. I've downloaded considerable campground specific and related POIs from the web and loaded them into the c-550. The older 2610 model didn't permit that.
I'm a Garmin fan. But, I'm sure there are happy Tom Tom customers as well.
In a lot of the reviews and tests I've read, Garmin has probably the best routing software. But I never heard any one say that a Tom Tom was bad either. So I think you would be very happy with either choice. To Fred's point, I wanted to get a Magellan Crossover, but in my research I found that they had the worst customer service. Last year, they had a huge fiasco with failed map updates due to a change in how they use registration numbers, but few of their reps knew how to handle it. Garmin is noted for their excellent C/S.
Chuck D.
'03 Jayco Kiwi 17a, '03 Chevy Trailblazer EXT, Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS
Photography is my obsession: http://coldwater.smugmug.com/
“Adventure is just bad planning.” - Roald Amundsen
RET Army , DW Donna , Summer (Furkid) . Class A, 2000 Gulf Stream, DIRECTV, YAMAHA 2400 GEN , TOW 97 Wrangler. Garmin GPS 2720 . "Living Our Dream". NASCAR FAN (20,18,11,29,31) Love CO & NM
Personally you'll be fine with either product. There are only two mapping sources so its really a non-factor but some like to make more of it than it is. Neither source is 100%..
I settled for the TT720 as at that time, the Nuvi800 series were not out and it wasn't until that version that they used same chip set as 720/920 which is faster. What also sold me was the Tom Tom community forums. Much like RV.Net, lots of helpful people that you'll never pick up a phone and call for help.
ALL the GPSs are more a like than they are different. Just fluff makes them different, not the routing as again only two sources and if you don't like either, your out of luck. GPS is not made to follow blindly. Its to AID you.. Otherwise you'll be like this trucker..
I was a first time buyer and like you spent some time reviewing all the pro and cons.
I finally decided on a TT 720 and recently returned from a 7000 mile trip, very happy with it. Steller support, hardly any wait time to acquire tech support, plus could understand each one. Plus they have a very friendly program to update (does so each time you connect) your unit. Main reason I stayed away from the other mfg., per all the feedback I read on various sites. I not a electronics guru and before I started changing anything I call support.
1. I on the other hand wanted to remain on interstates so I never tested my unit in this setting (it does have that provision). So I had to select cities in my route to keep me strictly on interstates, other wise it would direct me on state highways etc.
2. I have appox 6 POI similiar to the garmin, has many campsites but not sure how complete. Most GPS will allow additional POI/campsites to be added.
I would have probably acquired a Garmin 650, however they are limited as to how many way points you can program on a trip. I though this would be very important aspect. Find this is not as important as I initially assumed..
Other than download a complete trip with all your stop/visits from a computer etc. Its just so easy to program a city/POI/address along your route. You can pre-program cities/towns as favorites and then pull them up as you travel. Chances are, if its a long distance, you will probably make corrections to your route anyway.
I would not rely totally on a GPS for long distance travel, a paper map is still a necessity IMO.
Although not all that important, I would recommend the larger screen(like the garmin 650/TT720) and have street names spoken.
Its the best investment I made. Biggest plus,is when you have emerging freeway/highways intersecting, it informs you which lane to remain in. LOL, Even with a GPS I will NEVER travel through Los Angeles Ca again.(period)
* This post was
edited 04/10/08 04:43pm by Comshaw *
Jim, software udpates are free and with Tom Tom is automatically advises you of any updates and allows you to download and update their software.
Don't confuse software updates with Map updates. After so many years people might update their maps, this is NOT free! All charge. With Tom Tom they have a feature called map sharing which is suppose to allow people to update maps manually and updates others once change is verified. To replace maps though again not free, update with shared info from users is.
Glen I almost forgot in 1st post, there are websites dedicated to POI's which you can download and install. What camp ground thats not in your existing POI, with Tom Tom you can google it so to speak using their search. Example type KOA and list populates with all KOA's closest one listed 1st. I use the search feature for everything as I find it better and quicker to use. Example if I'm approaching say Fresno and I want chinese, I can search, start typing CHIN and it populates with list of chinese restaurants from nearest to furthest in that order. Again some websites allow you to add as many POI's as you can store, and Tom Tom forums, users will custom make them for you for anything and everything.
I have had a Garmi 2610 for several years and had been very satisfied with it. The nice thing about it is that you can custom program routes on the computer and download the route to the unit. When I first got it I had a major problem and in talking to Garmin tech support (located in Kansas and speaking English) they got me "squared away " wit it. It seems that I had different versions of the mapping program on mapsource program on the computer and it was confusing the GPS. The Garmin rep had the newest version of the program sent to me at no cost to me. I just recently upgraded to the new Garmin Nuvi 5000 and will use it on my upcoming trip to Florida in the motorhome. The unit will except pre programmed routes downloaded from the computer and has a fantastic large screen. There is a learning curve to use all the features as the system is very different from my 2610.
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, DW Donna 
, Summer (Furkid) 
. Class A, 2000 Gulf Stream, DIRECTV, YAMAHA 2400 GEN 
, TOW 97 Wrangler. Garmin GPS 2720 
