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« Last post by windtrader on Today at 06:47:54 PM »
RJ - Garmin has no interest in hearing anything from me, I'm certainly not their target audience. Based on my hands on testing, it is fine for someone who does not want any muss or fuss. It does the basic job of routing and navigating roads using GPS tech. It has numerous limitations but assume that the design and function objectives put ease of use above the ability to alter start/end points in the trip planner or easily import GPX routes and waypoints. Like I said it is big, bright, and plenty loud but quite short in ability to integrate any information outside its own propriety data ecosystem.
Richard - The best tool for any navigator is the one most familiar and comfortable with and used regularly. They all do basic navigation just fine. With respect to being surprised about road restrictions, temporary road closure,s detours, etc. that is always a possibility.
For me, pre-trip planning is second nature. Over the decades of backcountry hiking, 4 wheel driving secondary and dirt roads, forest and old logging routes, off road ATV trips, etc. My tools include USGS Topo and USFS maps, various aerial imagery, and software tools for trip planning. For road navigation I find Google Maps, Waze, Google Earth, Caltopo quite adequate. Any custom map can be created, stored, and printed as desired.
The only new twist for me is road restrictions which I posted earlier about finding sources. I have to believe all public roadways have some mandate for posting these locations to some public accessible database. As long as georeferenced, it is simple to filter the dataset to include ones along your route.
Lastly, like BW notes, the fun is enjoying the journey and the better you plan and know your routes, the more you can enjoy the trip rather than worrying about hitting a bridge. In reality, you really just need to check the secondary roads for them as virtually all major routes have sufficient clearance for typical bus conversions. Chances are greater to encounter road closures or rerouting than than a low bridge.
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