Efficient Navigation

[studebrucer]

We purchased a Garmin 770 , to keep us out of trouble when traveling. Thus far we have not hit an overpass we could not pass under, and have not had to disconnect the toad, for the dreaded unexpected back up. However it is not perfect.

we have a class A 12 ‘ 6 “ high, 35 long not including the toad. We are planning a trip from Athens Tennessee to Wilmington NC. The Garmin is taking us down to Columbia SC , then up to Wilmington. Seems like there should be a more direct route. Any suggestions?

[elkhartjim]

I have a Truckers Atlas that I use to verify and look for alternate routes. Give that a try.

[hwb3pab1]

I haven’t done a lot of traveling in that area but this looks like your best route to avoid congestion.  The next best route would be via Greensboro and Durham.  It’s only about an extra 30 minutes to just stay on  40 the entire trip.

[rayin]

Depending on your individual settings, the RV GPS should not route you where there are weight limits, heights, widths, lengths that your RV will exceed.

[gemert]

Accept the direct route even when it warns you away then check the route details.  It will tell you where there are issues in the route.  You can see why and them make your choice.  I have been routed away from camp grounds because of bridges that cannot take my weight and when I checked the actual bridge was farther from the camp ground.  You just have to research a little when that happens.  It always has a reason and I have learned to pay attention.

[richard5933]

I've also found that the traffic receiver on the Garmin depends on reception for accuracy. If it presents a route that seems like it would put you through a congested area, plug the route into Google Maps or Waze and see what the real-time traffic situation is. If there are portions of the Garmin route that have traffic you want to avoid, it's possible to have Garmin detour around them. By having Garmin do the detour, it will consider your height/weight as it re-routes.

[five]

The Garmin will send you the route that meets the criteria you have told it you want...no interstates, shortest route, fastest route, etc.

[richard5933]

7 hours ago, FIVE said:

The Garmin will send you the route that meets the criteria you have told it you want...no interstates, shortest route, fastest route, etc.

Not sure my point was clear about the Garmin routing...

The original question was about the most direct routing and how to help with that.

My point was that the Garmin includes traffic in its calculations. When the route appears as not being direct, it might be because it's routing you around traffic. However, it relies on receiving a separate signal through a traffic receiver to get the real-time traffic updates. The traffic receiver is the small rectangular box which is incorporated partway down the power cord to the head unit. You've got to use the window/dash mount to have this work - if you're using a standard USB cable to power the unit you won't get a traffic signal and traffic won't be used in setting the route.

What I was posting about is sometimes the Garmin will route you through an area that you know to be heavily trafficked. One example is when it sets a route for me through downtown Chicago on I-94. I know that there will be traffic, always is. However, sometimes when I'm at home and set the route the Garmin's traffic receiver isn't getting a good traffic signal. So, it sets the route without the traffic signal, therefore sending me into horrible traffic.

That's why I suggested confirming traffic conditions for situations like this by using Google Maps and/or Waze. Other than the traffic situation, I'd agree that Garmin will route you as requested and will include your height/weight restrictions.

[manholt]

I must be one of the few that want the most scenic rout, not the fasts...Why else have a rolling hotel room?  Common sense, tells me that I do not want to drive thru the center, of any city, over 20,000 population, unless that is my destination!

[richard5933]

1 hour ago, manholt said:

Common sense, tells me that I do not want to drive thru the center, of any city, over 20,000 population, unless that is my destination! 

Unfortunately, sometimes there are not lots of good options other than find the route with the least traffic and carry on. There is no easy way to get around Chicago if one wants to go from SE Wisconsin to points east. It's either go through Chicagoland or across the lake. The other option is to add a few hours to the trip and detour west, but that can add up to quite a bit and really lengthen the trip. That's why at times it's important to have an accurate traffic picture.

I also enjoy the scenic route, but sometimes it's the priority is to get where you are going and not an extra two to three hours sitting in traffic. We are not retired yet, so we have to fit our travels into the given vacation times. That means that half a day can be important in being able to enjoy our destination or not.

[manholt]

Richard.

I never asked, sorry, I thought you was a retired teacher of some sort...never dawned on me that your DW worked.

[elkhartjim]

I hope my Garmin RV660LMT doesn't use traffic to set my course and actually I don't believe it does. Richard, you're stating if I enter my destination from X to Y the night before and the highway is closed at some point for construction but will be reopened by morning, the Garmin will possibly route me miles out of my way needlessly. 

I've had my Garmin notify me of traffic ahead but it never tried to reroute me. 

I'm a member of a Garmin Basecamp group and that is a subject thats never come up. Many members spend weeks laying out their summer travels months ahead of time on Basecamp so what your saying is what they enter in April may alter their trip in June because of a multi car accident on the interstate the day they make their plans in April for June travel. Hogwash!

[richard5933]

If your Garmin has a traffic receiver, which it sounds like it does, then yes - it will attempt to re-route around traffic and/or roads closed due to traffic. That is, if the traffic receiver is getting a good traffic signal. These traffic signals are transmitted totally separately from the satellite GPS signal, and reception is not always good. If your Garmin is giving you traffic notifications, then you can assume it would re-route around the traffic.

All that said, there are settings where you can tell the Garmin whether or not you want it to avoid traffic. I have mine set to avoid traffic, and at times if the Garmin senses a problem ahead it will re-route mid trip. Usually it offers a couple of alternatives if this happens at the beginning of the route. If it happens mid-trip, a warning will pop up and tell me that there is another route that will save xx number of minutes. I'd then have to positively select the new route.

Now, if along the route the Garmin determines that the road ahead is closed, it will re-route in real time and will not ask. It does this using the best information available to it, which is not always current. For example, there is a stretch of road around here that is closed at night sometimes for construction, usually from something like 10pm - 5am. However, when I leave for my morning commute at about 5:30am, sometimes it still thinks the road is closed and will try and route me around it. I wasn't paying attention the first time it did this, and I ended up being diverted to a parallel surface road and spent about 30 minutes extra getting into town that day.

The GPS units are good. They won't knowingly lead you astray. But they do need to have an intelligent mind double check them at times, which is why I will confirm traffic conditions before leaving if possible.

I've yet to encounter the Garmin leading me down a road with a height/weight restriction where I shouldn't be, but I do keep my eyes open to signs and such just to be sure. I'm not going to put my life in the hands of a little electronic box alone.

[elkhartjim]

After checking with my Garmin user friends, we came to the decision you have a hybrid Garmin. Not one of us has ever had the Garmin try to reroute us because of traffic and we all agree its not an option we want.

I'm glad you have it and enjoy it.

[richard5933]

1 hour ago, elkhartjim said:

After checking with my Garmin user friends, we came to the decision you have a hybrid Garmin. Not one of us has ever had the Garmin try to reroute us because of traffic and we all agree its not an option we want.

I'm glad you have it and enjoy it.

I've got two Garmin units - one is an older nuvi 3590 LMT in the car and the other is the RV 760 LMT. The 760 is the one I'm talking about, and it's not a hybrid. Don't even know what a hybrid GPS unit is. They both have the same traffic receiver and both handle traffic the same way.

The traffic re-routing feature can be easily turned on/off, and it's really great if you are getting near a city which you are unfamiliar with as it will take you around the traffic areas so you don't inadvertently end up being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or get stuck on a route which is closed for construction. Traffic and road construction are not features of the regular maps - they are features of the traffic receiver.

Both of my Garmins are LMT units. I believe that it's possible to buy a stripped-down version without the traffic features, and if you're not using the power cord with the traffic receiver you also won't have traffic routing. The name of the unit, RV 760 LMT says it all ... The LM is for lifetime maps, and the T is for traffic.

Don't know what settings you and your user friends have, but mine does have settings where a user can elect to have the Garmin route around traffic. That's the whole purpose of the traffic receiver which is built into the power cord. The traffic receiver is the black rectangular part about 6" from the small end of the cord.

If you do have the LMT version of the Garmin and don't have the traffic routing options, then perhaps it's time to run an update? I update both of my units at least every couple of months to get the latest maps and software updates. Garmin has software called Garmin Express which you use on a PC to update the units.

[pflaumek]

I travel to Star NC from Perry GA, so the route the Garmin is sending you on may be the best route. My last trip was in October this year after the hurricane came through the southeast, many of the back roads and small towns had their bridges washed out.  Some of the back roads have overpasses that are very low, so the Garmin may be routing you based on the road conditions.  A portion of I-20 in Columbia is under construction, and the road is very rough.  Other then that, it should be smooth sailing

[elkhartjim]

Richard, give it a break.

The OP is asking about routing for a specific trip not how the Garmin works.

[wildebill308]

On 12/4/2018 at 9:13 AM, STUDEBRUCER said:

We purchased a Garmin 770 , to keep us out of trouble when traveling. Thus far we have not hit an overpass we could not pass under, and have not had to disconnect the toad, for the dreaded unexpected back up. However it is not perfect.

we have a class A 12 ‘ 6 “ high, 35 long not including the toad. We are planning a trip from Athens Tennessee to Wilmington NC. The Garmin is taking us down to Columbia SC , then up to Wilmington. Seems like there should be a more direct route. Any suggestions?

You can go any way you want. I ran it on Google and don't see any  major problems. Nearly all of the trip on Interstate and I bet a lot faster than going crosslot on state roads. You might want to look at the terrain on Google Earth. I would probably drive that rout. I have been in that area before as I see pins in Gatlinburg and Spartanburg.😎

Bill 

[manholt]

Athens to Ashville, then I-26..about 600 +/- miles, mostly boring.  I'm not big on just doing Interstate .  I would take 74 from Columbus to Wilmington!  I have no problems with it in my coach.  As Bill said, pick any road you want.

[ispjs]

We have always been retired since starting our RVing adventure, therefore using a GPS to route around traffic congestion in the planning stage has never been an issue for us.  We preplan our travel days on the routes that we want to use to get to the destination we want to go to pretty much on our time table.  We apply common sense, for example if we are coming from the south around Chicago heading to the Michigan side of Lake Michigan we don't do it during rush hour.  The tools we use for preplanning include our Trucker's Atlas and the little Blue Truck Stop guide to name a few.

If stopped in traffic or an interstate delay presents itself then we turn to I-phone apps (Waze, etc) and the portable CB for information and routing possibilities.