Trucker Forum

what is a good gps system that is reliable and decent price up to 300 bucks

Hi.
I bought the Co-Pilot 8 a year & a half ago.It's not always accurate,can't find some streets and for certain, it only knows where a few of the ,low underpasses and truck restricted roads are. The best example it gave me of this was in old downtown Boston. How ever,over all, it is a big help.I've never had /used any other,so I really can't compare. If you buy one, be sure it is "truck specific",Hazmat routing,low underpasses,truck restricted roads,ect. I chose to buy aversion for my laptop so I'd have a larger screen to look at when "zoomed in "With the small ones that stick on the dash or windshield,the screens are so small compared to a laptop that if you zoom in, all you can see is just the street your on. I wanted the big picture when zoomed in. There is a newer version of Co Pilot out now. I bought the Co Pilot brand because I read a review in a truck magazine that said US Xpress was using them in their trucks and had checked other manufacturers and decided that Co Pilot was best,so ask some USXpress drivers.

I have a Lowrance I600C that was a factory install in my '09 pete, it seems to be very slow and cumbersome, and has some major issues connecting at times. I usually end up doing a 'soft reset' at least once a day. I used to own a Mio digi-walker that I purchased from wal-mart last year for just over 100 bucks and it was every bit as good as the Lowrance which was a 1000 dollar option. If I had to do it again, I would go for the extra guages and kept the 100 POS from Wal-Mart.

Hi Hackler,

There are only two GPS companies currently providing actual truck route GPS solutions. Please see below:

A company called ALK Technologies / PC Miler makes a laptop version and a 4.3" handheld version that does truck routing. The laptop version is called CoPilot Truck and the handheld is called PC Miler Navigator. Neither are perfect but both do correctly route big-trucks most of the time. The Navigator is brand new and has been going through some initial growing pains that seem to have calmed a bit now with the version that is shipping today. We sell and support both units. See the following link: http://www.dieselboss.com/Travrout/mapping.htm

The second unit is called a WorldNav GPS from a company called Teletype. We tested one of the 7" units for a month, but determined that it was not an effective unit at that time. This was about 6 months ago. We provided an extensive report back to Teletype at that time detailing what needed to be improved for that unit to be worth the price to the drivers, but did not hear anything back from them to date.

Finally, there is a third unit coming out this Spring from Goodyear. I met with them and got an early look at the unit. The hardware itself was very nice. It is "ruggedized" so that it is harder to break anything. However they were still working on the software and that still needed some work. We will be getting a beta unit soon and will be providing a road test report for that new unit as well.

Hope that answers your question.

- Don from Dieselboss.com

There are a few others now - Garmin, https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=275&ra=true - Rand McNally, http://store.randmcnally.com/category/gps/truck+gps.do. Haven't used these but I'm sure their are reviews on each of them!

kevinmcginnis wrote:There are a few others now - Garmin, - Rand McNally. Haven't used these but I'm sure their are reviews on each of them!

Yes, there has been a great many developments in truck GPS this year for sure since this thread was started! We have tested the following to date: Garmin, PC Miler, Goodyear, TeleType, Cobra, and Rand McNally.

The bottom line at this point (November of 2009) we conclude (and this just our opinion based on our tests for what it is worth) that only the PC Miler series an the Rand McNally are worth your dollars right now. These two are quite different in terms of features, sizes, price, etc. so it depends on what your requirements are to make your buying decision.

Here are two short descriptions to tell what the differences are. The longer reports are on my site:
PC Miler: Lots of screen sizes (4.3", 5", 7") / Lots of different prices depending on which size ($199, $299, $399, $499.) Currently (with the V23 maps) gives you the most accurate truck routing of all brands. (our link: http://www.dieselboss.com/Travrout/pcmiler_truck_gps.htm

Rand McNally TND: 5" screen size only at this time - price is $499.99 / Only been out or 5 weeks so the truck routing is ok, but Rand is been doing lots of updates as feedback comes in. HUGE in terms of features - many more than all other brands (examples: logs miles driven by state, can find what amenities are in a particular truck stop, gives state border warnings, HOS warning alerts as you get close to the end of your 11-hour or 14-hour day, three time zone clocks, average speed and 3 odometers all resettable, etc.) (our link: http://www.dieselboss.com/Travrout/rand_tnd500_mcnalleytruck_gps.htm

From working at bestbuy, in my opinion the garmin nuvi has always stood alone with gps units. there is a new nuvi that you might see a the pilots and TA's that is made for trucks which means all it does is not route you through residential or restricted routes but gps's are never perfect. while it routes you mostly onto interstates and bypass routes, when you get into city driving nothing will be perfect. but the good thing about the nuvi is that it recalculates your route on the fly if you miss a turn and is very quick about it too.

if you have an iphone, i have been messing around with a gps app that does the same thing as the nuvi for trucks for only $89.99, or free if your phone is jailbroken. its called navigon. it tells you what lane to be in and all the highway signs you will see for your exits. the problem with it is i dont know how often its updated but it does very well finding my destination and like the nuvi it reroutes on the fly.

i just use google maps on my iphone to find my customer to get the general idea of where im going.

good luck!!

FYI.

I completed a huge chart yesterday detailing the differences and feature testing that we just finished on the 3 truck route GPS's that we found to be the most effective.

Link: http://www.dieselboss.com/truck_gps_review_features.htm

I have a Garmin Nuvi, and it is awesome. I am a Truck Ins. Broker, and not a trucker, but have to travel a lot. It is fast, accurate, and better than any other GPS that I've had. Hope this helps.

The Truck Insurance man