I bought a magellan 7200 gps for the RV. I have not even used it yet but I am wondering about campgrounds being identified on the maps. Next year DW and I are going from Mid atl across canada to alaska and wc. We hope to stop at campgrounds along the way but wonder if there is enough data in the built in maps to beable to rely on using the "points of interest POI" from the gps along the way. Can anyone recommend a maping software that is best on identifying campgrounds.
Thanks
1999 Newmar Dutch Star
Cat 300 Allison 6 spd
1992 Suzuki Samurai
I haven't examined maps loaded onto GPS units, but the online mapping/campground services I've looked at leave a great deal to be desired in my area: Misplaced campgrounds, missing campgrounds, ghost campgrounds. If asked to rate their accuracy, I'd probably put it at about 60% (i.e., 40% errors). It'll be a while before this kind of service is up to par, IMHO.
Lynn
I don't have the set yet, but I think it's an interesting product. OK I'm using a notebook with a GPS antenna connected. But even without having the NB/GPS setup, I think it would help preparing the trip.
Your best bet is a laptop and the Trailer Life Campground CD. You can get the coordinates from there and enter them into the gps. Or, it will work with your gps .
I don't have experience with Magellan but on the Garmin GPSs I've owned the POIs don't have much in the way of CGs. I've found it best to use something like TrailerLife or Woodalls to locate the CG then create a route to the CG in the GPS using the address of the campground.
You could also check somewhere like poi-factory.com to see if the CG POI downloads they have there will give you better coverage.
eubank wrote: I haven't examined maps loaded onto GPS units, but the online mapping/campground services I've looked at leave a great deal to be desired in my area: Misplaced campgrounds, missing campgrounds, ghost campgrounds. If asked to rate their accuracy, I'd probably put it at about 60% (i.e., 40% errors). It'll be a while before this kind of service is up to par, IMHO.
Lynn
That's been pretty much my experience with POIs in general, whether in the GPS or published on-line or elsewhere. Many points can be several miles off (in a random direction often) if indeed the entity of concern still exists at all, or indeed, ever existed. When I am preplanning (at home, or on the road when I have WIFI Internet), I use Streets and Trips, Woodalls, Trailer Life and various web sources to find campgrounds (and other points) I am interested in and then I locate the facility etc (campgrounds are usually easy to spot, some other points are not so easy) in Google Earth to get co-ordinates that will take me right to the entranceway. This bumps up my accuracy to near 100% for these points (but no guarantee the entity is still in business). You're back down to the 60% level if you do it on the fly and rely on the POIs stored in the GPS. If one is willing to live with a 1/2 mile degree of accuracy (but hopefully it will show a facility of concern located on the proper street/highway), maybe the POI accuracy goes up to 70% or so (????). But this will improve in time I'm sure.
Lorne Ross
2003 Pleasure-Way Ford Excel TD Camped the lower 48 states and 9 provinces
Most multiple times and now on the repeat!
If I have any question I enter the coordinates into Google Earth and zoom in. You can not only see if there is a campground there, but also a lot of other features about it's layout. It varies with the satellite image of the area. I've even put the view up on the screen when I call ahead for a reservation. The person taking the reservation is really puzzled when I talk about "the site next to the water tank".
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