Satnav of Choice? Caravan/Motorhome type

I would be interested to hear of motorhomers experiences of using one of the dedicated caravan / motorhome satnavs.
I would like to buy the TOMTOM GO LIVE but although still available on some retail sites it has been discontinued  by the company in advance of a new release by the end of the year. The old one will still be supported though.
I have read a few reviews on other sites but most are dated

For what it's worth, I wouldn't buy any dedicated satnav again.

We've been using CoPilot for two years now, and it's better than the TomTom Go Live that I had before, and the Garmin Nuvi before that. £30 approx and you get street level maps of Western Europe upgradable for life, plus free Live Traffic for a year and only £8 per year thereafter.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alk.copilot.eumarket.premiumeuwest&hl=en

Dave

1st Have you an android smartphone or tablet ?  If so have a look at Navmi

We have had over the years, in the following order:

Navman - good mapping lousy hardware  Had to be changed.

Garmin Nuvi - Good all round unit both hardware and mapping

Snooper - With original dedicated software (not CC Branded one which I understand is not as good) However this was not backed up with good hardware and Had to be changed due to problems and was getting fed up with the hardware problems. Have to say though Performance Products (the makers) were good at sorting.

Interesting note PP and Falcon are only a few miles from each other

Falcon - dedicated software, still open minded on this as we have not used it much but its not as easy to program as the Snooper or the Navmi App. The original had a problem but it was changed without question  ( they are only a few miles from us )

I almost forgot
The Ford branded Satnav in our car, and latest Seat Leon has a similar unit I think, which I believe is a Sony although not having dedicated LCV sizing etc is the best of the lot, quick to program and relliable routes etc.  If I was buying again which is doubtfull (I would use app on tablet) I would look out for a supplier of Sony Satnavs

Garmin for me.. I have a brand new up to date 6 inch screen one and it's better than the ones in my Jag XF and Toyota RAV4 and they are expensive factory fit items.  

The rate at which the stand alone navigation units have advanced and are still advancing is amazing. 
so opinions in this or that nav unit can be out of date in no time..

Garmin for me too.  I have the Camper version bought from Aldi when they were on offer earlier this year.  Bigger screen giving more information and easier to use.  Yes we have phones and tablets but I dont want to rely on one device for everything so I prefer to use a satnav.
Rich..

Tom Tom or Garmin is down to personal choice, perhaps your question is are the dedicated motorhome/caravan ones worthwhile? For me it is TomTom, I have used a Garmin navigating my friends classic rally car and it worked fine but I just didn't like it as much.  

I faced the question do I upgrade my old Tom Tom GO930T which is now six years out of date or bin it and get a dedicated motorhome one? I added another 4gb memory card to the 930T and downloaded the latest European maps which are on special offer at the moment, so for less than £40 I have an up to date machine for at least the next two or three years.

I didn't buy a new one as I believe like others there are now so many other methods of navigation the dedicated satnav will probably fade away. We have CoPilot on a Sony Xperia Z2 tablet which is an excellent backup and GPS on a Sony Xperia phone. ( Sony cameras are so good I rarely use my Canon camera now)

Interesting Charliefarlie comments about fitted satnav in cars, we have a Mercedes fitted in ours which fortunately the local dealer has updated for free  but a relative had a Porsche Boxster when he went to update the satnav the cost was over £600!

Hard decision, dedicated satnav was a route we decided not to go down at the moment.

groundhog wrote:We have CoPilot on a Sony Xperia Z2 tablet which is an excellent backup and GPS on a Sony Xperia phone.

Hi Hog

I wasn't going to bang on too boringly about CoPilot, but one of the reasons we are so keen on it involves the use of a tablet, so you have jogged me into it.

We use it (CoPilot) simultaneously on both the phone and tablet. I use the phone for navigating as you would any satnav, while Mrs Gromit has the tablet on her knee with exactly the same route information installed. Apart from liking to see "where we are on the map" which is far easier on the bigger screen, if I take a wrong turn or we encounter one of those interminable French deviations, she can easily zoom out to see a wider view and take us back onto the route.

Much easier for her than using a paper map as a backup, not least because she can see at once where we are by the GPS marker, and she can zoom in to see more detail at complex intersections etc.

It works for us, but we all have our own preferences.

Dave

Sat Nav's seem to be a very personal preference, but I've gone back to using TomTom since getting the Broadway...

Like Peter, its the Camper version of the Tomtom Go Live.... after previously having the Snooper, the TomTom is so easy to add on POIs which are non existent for the Snooper, its also more accurate & precise IMO giving clearer exit instructions in advance, very often Snooper left it till you were level with, or past the turn off, resulting in missed exits etc  

I also find the screen clearer to read & custom alerts etc again not available on the Snooper make it a better device for me, although the more recent software / firmare for Snooper improved things visually its still very limited in comparison of customisation.

Hi CC which model did you buy,its a bit of a Tom Tom minefield.And can you set it up with length width etc..cheers..Algy.

My partner bought the motorhome version of TomTom Go Live for about £230 but it didn't have map updates included and these were about £50. He rang TomTom and complained that he could have bought a TomTom Start 25 (I have this and we can't see any difference between the two) for under £100 and get lifetime maps with it. They immediately added lifetime updates to his account. Always worth a try.

Nora

algy wrote:Hi CC which model did you buy,its a bit of a Tom Tom minefield.And can you set it up with length width etc..cheers..Algy.

Details here Algy


https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/drive/camper-caravan/ 


Yes you put in all your vehicle length, width details along with weights etc just as with the Snooper devices



TomTom Camper & Caravan comes with "FREE LIFETIME UPDATES" included, you can update 4 times a year for the life of your device.

It might come with free updates now but it didn't a couple of years ago so anyone with an older one might be wise to phone them.

Nora