Garmin RV 760LMT

I'm probably done with standalone GPS devices forever. There is a wealth of choices and information on an iPad or iPhone that one single company could not equal. In fact you can get Garmin on them as one of the choices. As for an RV specific unit, I don't think you need all the special RV routing considerations they offer for a B.
 
I think the two most useful RV route specific features on the RV GP's are 1) propane restrictions and 2) height restrictions. Obviously you still have to pay attention to signs but I like that the GPS knows those two details about my RV for routing. Length, weight and width are also inputted but are maybe not as critical with a Class B van. Weight could be.

The other handy feature is the amount campground detail included in the Woodall's listings. Park opening dates, phone numbers, rating, whether pets are allowed, pricing, amenities etc. are all handy to have in the GPS when you don't have WiFi. I don't what the Garmin includes but the Rand McNally has Woodall's, State Parks, National Parks, National Forests, Bureau of land Management, Military Campgrounds, County Parks and Corp of Engineers campgrounds all included. Under RV Services it even lists RV Dump sites. Free Walmart type parking is also included and all of the above is of course linked to your proximity because it is in the GPS.

Do any GPS apps allow you to input how much propane you carry and height etc.? You could probably cover most of what I listed above with two apps or so.
 
Of course, after praising RV specific GPS, now, after a search, I can't find a particular well known NB Provincial Park in the listings. Seems like most parks on the planet are listed but I can't find the particular one I want to visit :x Maybe I can find the coordinates to enter.
 
markopolo said:
Of course, after praising RV specific GPS, now, after a search, I can't find a particular well known NB Provincial Park in the listings. Seems like most parks on the planet are listed but I can't find the particular one I want to visit :x Maybe I can find the coordinates to enter.
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That's my point. One standalone device is going to prove deficient. We've covered the many apps for tablets and smartphones. No single app has it all either but you can find what you want with knowledge and familiarity in where to look, use or search through many apps or Internet search. You don't need wifi, you just need cellular and that is getting to be pretty much universal. I mean I had no problem in West Texas. That is about as remote as you can get in the USA.

As for needing to know RV things like height, etc., and where you can drive, the whole idea of a B is it can go where other RV's can't. Parking garages are probably the only limiting height restriction and that won't be in any GPS device or app for that matter. Standalone GPS maps are basic and limited compared to the richness of Google Maps and Apple Maps.

What I am saying is a standalone GPS is getting wiped out by smartphones and tablets the way the iPod made the Sony Walkman obsolete. If you pay more than $49 for a GPS device and own a smartphone then it is too much because that is what the Garmin app costs. They are coming out with specialty GPSes for RVs and such because it is a last gasp grab for share.
 
After entering coordinates .......... the park shows up nearby :crazy: under the campground name first not the Provincial Park name.

We'll probably soon see GPS apps with the RV specific features. I'd pay a bit more for that than a regular GPS app. I'm hoping to make many trips down the US East Coast and definitely want device assistance for propane restrictions and lane guidance. It is unfamiliar territory for me so some help from the device is welcomed at least for the first few trips.
 
The iPhone and iPad apps I use all have lane assist. The Tom Tom app that I paid $30 and now use on my iPad and two iPhones has a popup window with detailed lane assist while still showing the map (which I prefer over the 3D view option). It also has a turn direction constantly on the screen so you know if the next turn will be ramp right, ramp left or sharp turn right or left well in advance of any lane assist direction. When you get in cities where Garmin's and Tom Tom's maps are not all that great, I often switch over to Google Maps or Apple Maps which show turn by turn directions on top of much greater detailed maps.

As for propane you can pretty much guess it will be tunnels or ferries and some bridges (but rarely). It is not too difficult to figure out and you will see signs. Mostly it means you will have to turn off your propane. You rarely would not be restricted access. At least I have never been diverted in excess of 100,000 miles driving. Even tunnels and ferries are hit and miss on restrictions. I went through the 2-1/2 mile tunnel to Whittier, Alaska without needing to do anything. Not all ferries require you to even turn off your propane and I have been on a lot of ferries. Even the state of Texas with its highway department ferry system is not consistent. At Galveston I had to turn off the propane and they insisted on watching you do so. Going across to Mustang Island north of Corpus Christi they had no requirements other than turn off your engine and set the parking brake when on the ferry.
 
markopolo said:
After entering coordinates .......... the park shows up nearby :crazy: under the campground name first not the Provincial Park name.

We'll probably soon see GPS apps with the RV specific features. I'd pay a bit more for that than a regular GPS app. I'm hoping to make many trips down the US East Coast and definitely want device assistance for propane restrictions and lane guidance. It is unfamiliar territory for me so some help from the device is welcomed at least for the first few trips.
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That's usually the issue I have with my Garmin, figuring out what the Navteq base map knows something as. You sometimes have to guess or use the "spell name" option to find it. It automatically uses whatever you enter as a wild card and finds everything with that character string in it nearby.
My Garmin also has the "next turn" indicator on it, top left corner, which tells me in advance what direction the next maneuver will be. I've only ever lost satellite acquisition in a tunnel, or occasionally in a city with lots of tall buildings. I lose cell tower access a lot more when we're on the road. That could just be the US carriers that Rogers uses Stateside for roaming. Or, it could be my crappy old Blackberry. :D Looking to upgrade soon.
I think when it comes to GPS versus smartphone/tablet it's personal taste that determines your choice. What works for you, may not be what works for others.
 
Has anyone tried the Basecamp trip planning software from Garmin? Apparently, it replaces the Mapsource that they have had for a long time, often charging a whole bunch for it IIRC. They claim you can program your specific route on the computer and transfer it to the GPS, which is not anything new, but maybe they do it better. The other setups like this I have seen just move whatever waypoints, or vias, you have used to generate the route on the computer, and then the GPS calculates the routes between them. The problem always has been the computer program and the GPS program calculated the routes differently, so you wouldn't necessarily go the way the computer had shown, due to the GPS routing. The other issue we had was that with all the waypoints it took to force a route, you would sometimes miss one due to a little side trip, construction, or a map error. The GPS would incessantly tell you to turn around, even if you were back on route, and it was nearly impossible to mark the waypoint as visited, or delete it, while driving (lots of screens and keystrokes). How do the current Garmins handle missed waypoints?

We have been using Microsoft Streets and Trips for quite a while, and it does solve all the problems we had with the stand alone units, but the support for it has been getting worse with each rendition, so the maps are out of date, no lane instructions, the spoken directions often pile up so you can't understand them well, and even making the route on the computer is somewhat messed up on the 2014 version sometimes if you just pick waypoints instead of dragging to them. Getting help out of Microsoft has also gotten basically impossible.

With the apps for the tablets and phones, where do the maps live? I didn't think these devices had enough memory to hold the maps, and if they don't, you are limited to areas where you have internet access to keep them working, I would think.
 
I have a GPS I bought a few years back. Compared to my Android phone, iPad, or iPhone, it is pointless compared to the multiple navigation/map programs I have, be it Apple's, Google's, or even AT&T's.

If a GPS is built into the car's audio head, it might be useful, provided maps can be updated. Otherwise, no point to me.
 
booster said:
Has anyone tried the Basecamp trip planning software from Garmin? Apparently, it replaces the Mapsource that they have had for a long time, often charging a whole bunch for it IIRC. They claim you can program your specific route on the computer and transfer it to the GPS, which is not anything new, but maybe they do it better. The other setups like this I have seen just move whatever waypoints, or vias, you have used to generate the route on the computer, and then the GPS calculates the routes between them. The problem always has been the computer program and the GPS program calculated the routes differently, so you wouldn't necessarily go the way the computer had shown, due to the GPS routing. The other issue we had was that with all the waypoints it took to force a route, you would sometimes miss one due to a little side trip, construction, or a map error. The GPS would incessantly tell you to turn around, even if you were back on route, and it was nearly impossible to mark the waypoint as visited, or delete it, while driving (lots of screens and keystrokes). How do the current Garmins handle missed waypoints?

We have been using Microsoft Streets and Trips for quite a while, and it does solve all the problems we had with the stand alone units, but the support for it has been getting worse with each rendition, so the maps are out of date, no lane instructions, the spoken directions often pile up so you can't understand them well, and even making the route on the computer is somewhat messed up on the 2014 version sometimes if you just pick waypoints instead of dragging to them. Getting help out of Microsoft has also gotten basically impossible.

With the apps for the tablets and phones, where do the maps live? I didn't think these devices had enough memory to hold the maps, and if they don't, you are limited to areas where you have internet access to keep them working, I would think.
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I have an older 855 and it has all the shortcomings you've mentioned. I tried loading a route I made using Google Maps. It worked pretty well and took us on the route I had planned, but it does calculate it's own route variations between the waypoints. Current Garmins probably handle missed waypoints the same as older ones, and that's not very well. I was wondering if hitting the "detour" button when you've missed one would skip it, but I have yet to try that.
I generally figure out the main places I want to visit in my preferred order, and then select the farthest or last waypoint as my first destination, then add extra waypoints to it as "via points" but I've found that the Garmin tends to crash and reboot more often when using this method of navigation. Probably not enough memory to handle the program complexity as extra waypoints are added. It doesn't work too badly with one or two extra stops along the way.
I think the best way to get from point A to Z via the ones in between is to scratch out a rough itinerary on paper or in your head, and then just do them in whatever order works best for you, but only one at a time with the nuvi.
Sorry, not much help.
 
I figured I would bring this one back up, as we just got a Garmin 2797LMT. Received it Friday from GPS City. I had sent them a question about whether or not you could skip waypoints, without turning around, and they said no, but gave a procedure to stop the route, and restart it at the next waypoint. After dealing with Streets and Trips horrible mapping, slow enough response to miss turns, and unintelligable text to voice on our last trip, we decided that it might be easier to have to do the missed waypoint restart than put up with the quickly becoming obsolete Streets and Trips, which will skip waypoints.

The beginning of the process was a total fiasco. Got it running, updated the operating software and tried to do the map update. Had to download a couple of special Garmin programs to do it, and then it ran for 9 hours of downloading and locked up and bounced out of the update. Tried again, same problem and time. Even worse, it deleted the original map, so the unit was now useless. Read up on the web and tried again, with everything Garmin shut off and a full battery. This time it got all downloaded, prepared, and halfway through the install before it stopped with an error after 10.5 hours. Read up on it some more and moved the USB cord to a powered USB on the computer, downloaded another, older, Garmin install program, and this time found the box that puts the map on the device and on Basecamp (the computer program that lets you preprogram like Google maps. It ran all night, downloaded OK, prepared fine, and then locked and errored at the install beginning, all after 12+ hours. Since the old program had a box that said "save install data on computer", that I had checked, I tried to restart the install portion, unsuccessfully. On a whim and prayer, I went back to original install program and said go get the update. It skipped the download and went right to prepare, actually finishing in about 30 minutes. Checked the Garmin, and the map was there. Checked the Basecamp software on the computer and no map. Tried again with same result. Back on the web forums and found out Garmin had decided to change how the download worked. If there is enough room on the GPS, it puts the map there, and will not put it on the computer. Many pi$$ed people as now you had to hook up the GPS to the computer to preplan a route, and deal with slow response of going through the USB. On another whim, I went back to the older install program, started it from scratch with "computer only" checked for the install. It went to the download step, but quickly switched to getting if from the computer, taking 20 minutes instead of 12 hours. It then blew right through the prepare and install, actually putting it on the computer. Finally ready to go after way too many hours of work.

Today I have been going through and learning the mapping and the Basecamp, which is a bit cryptic, but seems to do the job. One of the things I looked for was a text listing of the turns and distances that could be printed, as DW likes to follow along that way. When I printed it out, none of the drag and drop waypoints I had created showed up on it, where they always did on Streets and Trips. That worried me, because if you miss one, you would have to be able to find it, to be able to go to the next waypoint. I did another route putting in the waypoints manually, and they did show up on the list. I went to edit one of the waypoints, and it gave the option to change it to a "via" point. In all my reading, I had run across via points a few times, mostly in regard to the older models like Street Pilot. Folks said those units would ignore missed via points, but insist on going through waypoints.

All that got my interest, so I laid out a route using the drag and drop method, assuming they were vias because they didn't show up on the turn list. I intentionally made a spot where I could miss a couple of the via points, going off route for a little ways , and then back on route. It told me to turn to the via points, and when I didn't it tried to route me to them until I was back on route, and it then ignored them. Life was suddenly getting a whole lot better, and Garmin moved up a little out of the cellar. Either everyone who has tried this is a total putz, or this is a brand new upgrade that Garmin hasn't told anybody about. It is not all the hard to do, so I think the latter, as I am also a putz at this stuff.

So---as we sit right now, the 2797LMT looks like it will do just about exactly what we want, allow preprograming custom routes without getting messed up if a point is missed. It SHOULD also do a very good job of following the route between via and waypoints the same as they show on the computer as the Basecamp and GPS are alleged to use the same maps and calculation methods, so no freelancing, we hope.

What we gain over Streets and Trips is not running the laptop, hopefully much more up to date maps, lane assistance, voice commands you can actually understand, much faster calculations, and more other information if wanted. We lose the nice big screen (the GPS is 7" though) and one place program and navigate. We didn't go for the much more expensive RV model, as most we read said it was cumbersome to use and not very up to date. We will use the Verizon internet on the laptop for that kind of information.

Lots still to learn, and I still have to do the horrendous Basecamp and map downloads to the laptop, but things are looking a lot better than they did yesterday when we were about 10 minutes away from sending it back.

Need to get some test runs in before winter.
 
OMG. You are persistent, that's a given.
So, using Basecamp, to create routes on your laptop, then transferring them to your 2797LMT works?
For many of the reasons you mentioned, I have only tried it once. I think I created a State Capitol Tour route on Google Maps, and then transferred it (somehow) to my 855. It worked, but I honestly don't recall how or what problems I had in doing it. I think I had to pre-determine the best sequence of waypoints myself before I loaded it. It then used the sequence of waypoints I set for the route.
So, if you define your destinations as via points, instead of waypoints, you can miss them, and get back on course, and it skips them? Interesting. I'm not sure my 855 does that.

This is what I do if I want to create a semi-complex route with multiple waypoints.
Let's say I wanted to go to San Francisco from Minnesota, stopping at half a dozen places in between. On my 855, I would start a route (using the nuvi 855) to San Francisco, and reply "GO" to initiate the route. Then, to add the in between stops, I would just go back to the "Where To" screen and keep adding my waypoints, replying "GO", and when it asks me to choose to make it a "New Destination" or a "Via Point", I keep choosing Via Point. The nuvi will recalculate the total route each time I add another stop in between until I have a route to San Francisco with my waypoints added. It will use whatever route parameters I have set in my "Tools/Navigation" settings (faster time/shorter distance etc.) to optimize the places I wnat to visit.
Does this make sense? Would your 2797LMT be able to do this "on the fly" route build?
Unfortunately, my 855 is older, has less memory, and can only handle a limited number of "Via Points" in between where we are and our intended final destination, but I've used it before to add 3-4 Via Points to a route. On the fly. No Basecamp or laptop required.

btw, I have had similar issues loading map updates. I used Garmin Express last map update to 2014.20. Successfully. It should be the most current Garmin based application to update your device. However, like you, I've read critiques about every piece of software they've ever produced, mostly negative. One thing I'm pretty sure about is the checkpointing of the overall update process. If it gets the entire map panels loaded to either your computer or nuvi, it should realize that upon restarting after a failure. Then pick up where it left off, either verifying, building, or installing.
 
Mike said:
OMG. You are persistent, that's a given.
So, using Basecamp, to create routes on your laptop, then transferring them to your 2797LMT works?
For many of the reasons you mentioned, I have only tried it once. I think I created a State Capitol Tour route on Google Maps, and then transferred it (somehow) to my 855. It worked, but I honestly don't recall how or what problems I had in doing it. I think I had to pre-determine the best sequence of waypoints myself before I loaded it. It then used the sequence of waypoints I set for the route.
So, if you define your destinations as via points, instead of waypoints, you can miss them, and get back on course, and it skips them? Interesting. I'm not sure my 855 does that.

This is what I do if I want to create a semi-complex route with multiple waypoints.
Let's say I wanted to go to San Francisco from Minnesota, stopping at half a dozen places in between. On my 855, I would start a route (using the nuvi 855) to San Francisco, and reply "GO" to initiate the route. Then, to add the in between stops, I would just go back to the "Where To" screen and keep adding my waypoints, replying "GO", and when it asks me to choose to make it a "New Destination" or a "Via Point", I keep choosing Via Point. The nuvi will recalculate the total route each time I add another stop in between until I have a route to San Francisco with my waypoints added. It will use whatever route parameters I have set in my "Tools/Navigation" settings (faster time/shorter distance etc.) to optimize the places I wnat to visit.
Does this make sense? Would your 2797LMT be able to do this "on the fly" route build?
Unfortunately, my 855 is older, has less memory, and can only handle a limited number of "Via Points" in between where we are and our intended final destination, but I've used it before to add 3-4 Via Points to a route. On the fly. No Basecamp or laptop required.
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I am still very new to this, but I will try to answer. Yes, you can do the route completely on the laptop and then transfer it to the GPS. Only takes a minute to do. You can also store the file on the computer for later. I think you can also move it to the GPS with an SD card, so you don't have to be plugged in. The part that is better than Google maps is that the route you get on the GPS should be the same as the one you laid out on the computer. With Google, they will often calculate differently so the route between the waypoints or vias may be different. That is because it only transfers the waypoints and vias, not the entire actual turn by turn route.

The biggie bonus for us was that it would ignore missed points once you were back on route. They told us it would not do this. Until this one, the only GPS we found that did it was the Streets and Trips. We do a lot of custom routing to the "scenic" areas and back roads that the GPS would never choose. It is not unusual for us to have a dozen or more waypoints or vias to force the route where we want it to go, so the odds of a map error, constructions, potty stop, etc making us miss a point by a little bit are pretty high.

I didn't do much with programming the GPS itself, but I do know that if you are actually navigating a route, you can do the Where To and add more stops, and that they are stops that you will have to go to, not vias that would be ignored if you missed them. On the 2797 we got, you can also build a route the way you want by just going to the map and picking a point to start, and then adding points until you get to the finish. You can also do first and finish, show the route, and then add waypoints to force the route where you want it. I don't know if you can make them ignoreable vias on the unit itself, as I didn't try it. You might try it on your 855 and see what it does. If the points don't show on the turn by turn directions list, they probably will be ignored. Ours do show in the list of start, finish, waypoints and vias, but are greyed out and say something like "won't announce".

I wanted the Basecamp, as we had used S&T for years and I really got to like making the route on the big screen with drag and drop available. Makes routes so much easier to do. From what I have learned so far on Basecamp, just doing a couple of test routes, is that you can just click start new route, and then you can click a start point on the map, and drag to the finish point. You then have a route that Basecamp chose between the points. You use a clickable icon to activate the drag and drop, and then drag the route to the roads you want to use. At each drag, it updates the route and puts in a via point, so you can see what you are getting. Just keep adding dragged "vias" until you get a route the follows how you want to go, and you are done. I did a 250 mile, 6 via drag, route, in literally 2 minutes, and in another minute had it on the GPS and ready to go. If there were somewhere on the route that we did want to stop at, I would add a waypoint on Basecamp, and it would be announced, show on the turn list, and not be ignored if we missed it.

I absolutely hate trying to decide how and where to go on the fly, if we have the opportunity to plan it ahead of time. We learned with the S&T, if the map was right and we could understand her, that the drive got so much easier when you knew which roads you were going to be on, that you would miss busy cities, etc, and you wouldn't have to be trying to figure out what was happening.

I hope all of this turns out as well as it looks right now, but I am sure there are some gremlins in there someplace.
 
booster said:
I am still very new to this, but I will try to answer. Yes, you can do the route completely on the laptop and then transfer it to the GPS. Only takes a minute to do. You can also store the file on the computer for later. I think you can also move it to the GPS with an SD card, so you don't have to be plugged in. The part that is better than Google maps is that the route you get on the GPS should be the same as the one you laid out on the computer. With Google, they will often calculate differently so the route between the waypoints or vias may be different. That is because it only transfers the waypoints and vias, not the entire actual turn by turn route.

The biggie bonus for us was that it would ignore missed points once you were back on route. They told us it would not do this. Until this one, the only GPS we found that did it was the Streets and Trips. We do a lot of custom routing to the "scenic" areas and back roads that the GPS would never choose. It is not unusual for us to have a dozen or more waypoints or vias to force the route where we want it to go, so the odds of a map error, constructions, potty stop, etc making us miss a point by a little bit are pretty high.

I didn't do much with programming the GPS itself, but I do know that if you are actually navigating a route, you can do the Where To and add more stops, and that they are stops that you will have to go to, not vias that would be ignored if you missed them. On the 2797 we got, you can also build a route the way you want by just going to the map and picking a point to start, and then adding points until you get to the finish. You can also do first and finish, show the route, and then add waypoints to force the route where you want it. I don't know if you can make them ignoreable vias on the unit itself, as I didn't try it. You might try it on your 855 and see what it does. If the points don't show on the turn by turn directions list, they probably will be ignored. Ours do show in the list of start, finish, waypoints and vias, but are greyed out and say something like "won't announce".

I wanted the Basecamp, as we had used S&T for years and I really got to like making the route on the big screen with drag and drop available. Makes routes so much easier to do. From what I have learned so far on Basecamp, just doing a couple of test routes, is that you can just click start new route, and then you can click a start point on the map, and drag to the finish point. You then have a route that Basecamp chose between the points. You use a clickable icon to activate the drag and drop, and then drag the route to the roads you want to use. At each drag, it updates the route and puts in a via point, so you can see what you are getting. Just keep adding dragged "vias" until you get a route the follows how you want to go, and you are done. I did a 250 mile, 6 via drag, route, in literally 2 minutes, and in another minute had it on the GPS and ready to go. If there were somewhere on the route that we did want to stop at, I would add a waypoint on Basecamp, and it would be announced, show on the turn list, and not be ignored if we missed it.

I absolutely hate trying to decide how and where to go on the fly, if we have the opportunity to plan it ahead of time. We learned with the S&T, if the map was right and we could understand her, that the drive got so much easier when you knew which roads you were going to be on, that you would miss busy cities, etc, and you wouldn't have to be trying to figure out what was happening.

I hope all of this turns out as well as it looks right now, but I am sure there are some gremlins in there someplace.
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That sentence said it all. Now I understand. We're just the opposite. We do a rough trip plan and always have an idea of where we want to wind up, and what we might want to see along the way, but we tend to prefer ad hoc routes to a more structured route. We'll usually let the Garmin do it's thing and see where we wind up, within reason. Just a personal preference, like yours.
Having said that, I may see if I can get Basecamp to cooperate on my laptop, and may take a crack at mapping a western trip, north to south sequencing the Rocky Mountains NPS parks. Would love to try it sometime in October, but they've had snow in Wyoming near Yellowstone already, so we'd probably have to start farther south, maybe RMNP, or Bryce.
 
I have been getting a little deeper into how well, or poorly, the 2797 works under real world trip usage. Using the gps to enter the trip is pretty tedious, as expected, with the smallish screen and no mouse or keyboard. You can pick points, etc to create routes, but not drag them to change your route. The search function definitely could be improved, as it will only search a small area around where you are, unless you give it a new city, or such, to search around, which is very cumbersome, especially if you don't know what city is near where you are going. You can't set a distance around you point, at least that I have found, and zooming out the map (which works on Basecamp to increase the search area) doesn't work because it zooms back in as soon as you go to search. It does seem to do a better job of choosing routes than our old TomTom did, or than Streets and Trips does. The Lookahead feature is nice for finding gas stations and rest stops coming up, and taking you to them easily.

As hoped, and expected, the Basecamp software on the PC or laptop makes things much easier and more flexible to setup routes. Also as expected, doing it slightly differently than the guides shows works significantly better. Once you figure out the file and folder hierarchy, and how it works, you can have places for you permanent locations like home, relatives places, etc, as well as folders for anyplace else you may want to go, by trip, type, however you name the folders. Those of us that are so ingrained in Windows Explorer struggle a bit in the beginning, I think.

Here are the steps I needed to do a trip we are going to take next week for a couple of days.

Copy in start point from "permanent" folder to the unlisted area of basecamp

Use search to find destination and drag it to the same area

Search the 6 other places we might want to visit and drag them to the same area, one at a time.

You now have start, finish, and the waypoints you MIGHT want to go to later all in one place. Here is where it gets pretty slick.

Highlight the start and finish (control + left click on each) right click and select make route from selected points--It adds another line to the same area, below the waypoints, as the route

Click on the route and check it on the map-drag and drop it to however you want it.

Routing and waypoints are done

Plug in the gps, highlight all of the items in the list, and click the transfer to device icon, chose the garmin and OK.

You don't have to transfer the route and waypoints separately. On the gps, the route shows up in trip planner, and the waypoints and start and finish locations show up in a folder in the saved area of where to. very nice

All and all, this is much easier than Streets and Trips, and hugely faster and easier than doing it on the gps. I did the route above and put it on the gps in less than 5 minutes.

The huge benefit of Basecamp is being able to expand the search area easily, and you get a list of all the results to pick from that will show on the map when you select them.

There is also a "search with Yelp" feature to search the internet for stuff, but I haven't tried that yet.

Now we need to find out how it does on a real trip. I programed in a few waypoints that I know we will miss, to see how it does. Also took us through tangletown where all the freeways come together to see how the lane assist works. Time will tell.
 
So, you created the route with some stopovers as waypoints? I believe you mentioned elsewhere that if they were created as waypoints, the nuvi will bug you to go to them? As Via Points it allows you to miss them?

Lane assist is pretty cool, including showing replicas of the overhead roadway signage. On my 855, I know it'a about to show lane assist when the voice guidance does a prolonged, mid sentence, pause.
For example,"in 500 feet..........extended silence pause while lane assist display pops up........keep right, then exit right". If the course corrections are multiple and happen quickly, lane assist may not be able to react quickly enough, at least in our experience. I think we've driven through your tangletown, and I think it managed that OK. YMMV.

One thing I wish Garmin had added to these things is a "pause/resume" route button. Sometimes, I'll decide to deviate off my route, on the spur of the moment, and the repeating, droning, "recalculating", and subsequent routing correction instructions drive us crazy. I'd like to be able to hit "pause route" to tell the nuvi, "it's OK, I know I'm off course, please shut up and be patient". Then when we're finished our detour, I can hit "resume" and the nuvi can calculate how to get us back on the original course. Currently, I have to kill the route, and then restart it once we're finished our detour.
 
When you are in a wilderness park trying to figure out where to go the next day and you have no cellular connection, what good is it?

I just topped 20,000 miles of RV travel this year with over 90% on the two lane blue highways. I try not to over think it. Part of the adventure is the surprise. Just drive and explore. You don't need a GPS to find the Grand Canyon. :wink:
 
Mike said:
So, you created the route with some stopovers as waypoints? I believe you mentioned elsewhere that if they were created as waypoints, the nuvi will bug you to go to them? As Via Points it allows you to miss them?

That is the interesting part of how Basecamp handles things. When you are getting all your locations picked, which is the first thing you do, you include the start, end, and any stops you want to make along the way (that you don't want to miss, and would like the gps to tell you to go around if you miss them) and also any points you might want to visit on the way, or once you get to your destination. You don't include any points that are used to shape the route to how you want it at that point. Then you just highlight the start and end and tell it to do a route. The start and finish are set as solid points at that point, but he others are still just sitting there. Then you go to the route and drag it where you want it. Basecamp creates whatever points it needs to get the route you drag, but they are created as vias (or shaping points) which are not announced, and you don't have to go through. They are buried in the route, so they don't show up. At that point you have a route with a start and finish, to your chosen path, and a list of places you may want to visit after you get to your end, or during the route. They are still set as waypoints, so you can chose them for a route from "where to" whenever you want. As I said, you then transfer the whole works to the gps and the route goes into trip planner, with the vias to shape the route, and the waypoints the route, and all the others that aren't vias go into the saved locations. It looks like it will be very user friendly that way

Lane assist is pretty cool, including showing replicas of the overhead roadway signage. On my 855, I know it'a about to show lane assist when the voice guidance does a prolonged, mid sentence, pause.
For example,"in 500 feet..........extended silence pause while lane assist display pops up........keep right, then exit right". If the course corrections are multiple and happen quickly, lane assist may not be able to react quickly enough, at least in our experience. I think we've driven through your tangletown, and I think it managed that OK. YMMV.

The delay you speak of is what really hurt the Streets and Trips. We could be on 5 lane road, in the right lane, and it would finally say exit left once we were past the exit. It did not have lane assist as such

One thing I wish Garmin had added to these things is a "pause/resume" route button. Sometimes, I'll decide to deviate off my route, on the spur of the moment, and the repeating, droning, "recalculating", and subsequent routing correction instructions drive us crazy. I'd like to be able to hit "pause route" to tell the nuvi, "it's OK, I know I'm off course, please shut up and be patient". Then when we're finished our detour, I can hit "resume" and the nuvi can calculate how to get us back on the original course. Currently, I have to kill the route, and then restart it once we're finished our detour.
Click to expand...

I don't know if your Garmin has a "detour" feature, but if it does, that may take care of what you need, as long as there isn't a waypoint you miss. I haven't played with it yet, but it looks like you hit "detour" it then gives 3 choices of how far, and then you can go off course and it will shut up. If you get back on route within the miles, I think it would just carryon.

It does appear that Garmin addressed some of the past complaints, like the missed waypoints, so that is good, but who knows what else the messed up in the process. A lot of folks that used Mapsource in the past (I am not one that did) are bitching that Basecamp is to hard to use and inflexible, but it looks like it is pretty good to me, at least so far
 
Think I get the waypoint versus via point difference. I guess I should fire it up and try Basecamp, to see what's what, and whether it might be worth a shot for our next trip.

When a lane assist situation arises, ours seems to go silent while it's popping up the visual of what to look for as you approach the actual junction/course correction. I tend to listen for the pause, have a quick glance at the nuvi to see the visual, and then scan ahead for the actual junction signage. I'm honestly not sure how useful the visual lane assist really is, when it's calling out the steering directions to you, at more or less the same time. The course correction instructions seem to come more quickly or more slowly, in step with the vehicle's speed in any given situation. If you're travelling at highway speed, the nuvi will give you directions farther in advance of the point of course change, than it will if you're traveling at neighborhood speed. I find that our nuvi seems to figure out speed and ETA fairly accurately.
I have also found that the lane configuration, (i.e. the number of total lanes you're dealing with as you approach any junction and course correction) in the upper left corner of the screen is usually accurate. If it shows on the screen, 3 lanes left arrows and 2 lanes right arrows, and you are in the 4th lane from the left, and supposed to exit right, you'll be OK to stay where you are. That was confusing until we figured out that the lane configurations on the nuvi were accurate. Of course, construction and other unexpected lane closures can screw that up.

Funny, as soon as I hit submit, it occurred that I do have a detour function. I thought it was a way to create a detour when you see or hear about a problem ahead, again, not sure how useful it will be, since you're usually pretty much into a problem, before you'd know that you needed to detour around it. I don't think it's a way to tell the nuvi that I'm about to veer off course to follow a detour, but I've never used it, so I'm not sure. Another item to add to the list of must try.
Crap. Now I've got homework...... :shock:
 
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