What is the best GPS to use?

[JohnEd]

I am pretty much set to use my laptop for the GPS.  The only one I see here is the "Delorme" system and it seems to get positive comment.  Is it the best for laptop applications or are there other systems?

Thanks,

John

[JackConrad]

I am pretty much set to use my laptop for the GPS.  The only one I see here is the "Delorme" system and it seems to get positive comment.  Is it the best for laptop applications or are there other systems?
Thanks,
John

We use DeLorme & MS Streets & Trips on our laptop.  We run both programs at the same time with 1/2 of the screen showing Delorme and 1/2 the screen showing Streets & Trips. Although similar in operation, each has specific features that we like. Running both also give us redundancy if one fails (has only happened a couple times).  Jack

[Busted Knuckle]

Well for starters I have trucked all over the US for 18 yrs with out a GPS! I thought the was the silliest, dumbest, goofiest waste of $ when they first came out available for the general public! But with that said, I have been using MS Streets & Trips on the office computer and my laptop for yrs!
Well not so long ago (about a year ago) dad bought "Lola" a Garmin C336 (I think) and I laffed about him needing one.
But then came a trip where dad left Lola in the bus I was driving. So I decided to play with it "just of r kicks". Well low and behold I liked it! So then I too questioned here on the board, and got lots of great advice from everybody.
Well in the end I decided to go with Sean Welsh's recommendation of the Garmin 7200.  So I bought "Susie" off ebay. I loved it from the start. I have been using it since around Thanksgiving of last yr, and have no major complaints! Now I didn't say NO COMPLAINTS, as I have had trouble with it not going exaclty the way I do sometimes. But I love it! It does occassionally try to give me a bogus rte, but I always screen ahead and "double check the rte. So I am never shocked at the way it wants to go, I just "go my way" if I don't like what it shows.
Well it wasn't long after I bought "SUZY", that he decided that he liked her too. So I was asked to watch and find him one on ebay too. So dad got a 7200 also, and the first trip out he named her "Luceile". When asked where he came up with that name he said well she "picked a fine time to leave me. With four hundred children on the buses and a cop wanting me to pull into a field!" So she became "Luceile" named after the one in Eric Clapton's  famous lyrics! Dad say's the only thing "Luceile does faithfully is lose signal when she's needed the most!

But even with "Luceile's" fault (which I have seem to have cleared up with an external attenna) we are very satisfied with our Garmin's. Of course don't just trust them 100% and they will get the job done great! As I said in the beginning I trucked across this great country for 18 yrs before they were even thought of by the general public, and could always find my way with out one. So if needed to I could do it again.

As a side note as a daily drive I detest "MapQuest" it is wrong more than "Luceile" loses signal! And I haven't tried any others.

FWIW   BK 

[Sojourner]

Busted Knuckle....you have a way of sweet sense of humor and talking about your father & mother together on board. I love it. It a America from the old school. We need you!

Thanks for sharing.

Sojourn for Christ, Gerald

[JohnEd]

Jack,

Thank you.  DeLorme it is!

BK..a most excellent post...Thanks

[John316]

BK I agree one hundred percent about Map quest no being accurate a lot of the time!!! It has left us stranded a lot of times.

We like using a combination of GPS (via Blackberry), Google maps (disclaimer: not great but better that map quest!!!), an old fashioned atlas, and when in a pinch, using the laptop, with cell connection to the internet, with Google maps to figure out exactly where we are (like when we "happened" to end up in downtown El Paso TX and a lot of the main on ramps onto the interstate were closed). With that combination we usually don't end up too lost .

God bless,

John

[BJ]

I have a garman 4.5 screen. being a commercial charter driver I think they are lifesavers. But the are not perfect. Yet.  We have drivers that have other units that are not happy with them, wishing they bought a garman. Which by the way is what consumer guide recommends.  I find that I also make a map for backup. Microsoft trips for anything electrical can fail....This is my second one and I find the newer ones are more reliable.

[zimtok]

I just got a Magellan 1400 about 2 months ago. (Crutchfield for $179)

Some new roads don't show up on it so it looks like I'm off-roading. But I use it mainly for a speedometer and odometer to check the mileage driven.

I have used it to a couple times to navigate, but only in general terms. I still look at maps and plan my routes the old way. (I like trying out of the way routes when I'm not on a schedule)


.

[belfert]

I must be lucky with Mapquest as it just works 99% of the time.  Usually when I have issues, a Google or Microsoft map isn't any better.  The only reason I continue to use Mapquest is the user interface is better than Google.  Google expects the address all as one line and half the time it claims there is an error with my entry.  Mapquest has the street, city, and state seperate.

I don't own a GPS as I just don't go to unknown places often enough to need one.  

[Lin]

I was at a truck stop yesterday.  There was a GPS system there that claimed to be designed for truckers.  Don't know anything about it though.

[makemineatwostroke]

Lin, we use use WorldNav 7200 for our trucks, best out there like I said before type in address,weight,width and,length off you go will even tells what turns are going to be a problem for you length our drivers love these and you can buy it with a 7 inch touch screen( I have one in my coach)  have a great day

[BJ]

  ALERT!  Last month a truck driver got a large ticket from a HPO for having a lap top in the driving area. He claims that he was using it for a GPS only but the officer told him it was unlawful to have anything that can play a movie, etc in the driving area of a moving vehicle and the courts would have to decide.. Info from our insurance company advising the charter company not to use GPS on laptops.  I understand that DOT is also involved in this and will make a decision on GPS laptops       

[John316]

That is too bad. That is interesting because police officers usually have laptops up front with them.

God bless,

John

[PP]

All of our Law Enforcement Officers have laptops mounted up front with them. Of course, they feel they're above the law  FWIW

[makemineatwostroke]

John316 and PP, those are not lap tops in police cars they are called mobile computers if you notice they have no key board only a touch screen and use 12 volts for power and I have never saw one with a GPS dispatch will send directions if needed    have a great evening