Autorouting Solution

[+New England n00b]

I have a Legend GPS and a Laptop. I may soon be in need of quality autorouting fora new line of work.

 

1) Is software on the PC adequate for good autorouting? If so, which is best in regards to updated maps?

 

2) Is a dedicated GPS a better option, if so which one and why?

 

Thanks everybody!

Edited September 25, 2004 by New England n00b

[SergZak]

1)  Is software on the PC adequate for good autorouting?  If so, which is best in regards to updated maps?

 

If you have a Garmin GPS and a laptop, you can download nRoute for the GPS 18 here. You do not need a GPS 18 to use it...just a Garmin GPS. Garmin made this software available for all Garmin users, not just for GPS 18 users. You will also need some form of map data like City Select to use with nRoute.

 

The upside of laptop/GPS use is that you carry all map data with you on the laptop and have a huge screen. The downside is that it's cumbersome and it may even be illegal to have an operating computer within reach/view in your vehicle while you're driving.

 

2)  Is a dedicated GPS a better option, if so which one and why?

 

You'll have to decide for yourself if it's "better". Today's units (Garmin StreetPilot series, Garmin Quest, Garmin GPSMAP 60C(S) (to only name a few)) have ample map memory and can autoroute just about as fast as a PC can. They are also much more portable and take up much less space in the car. Read up on the Garmin Quest. This will be my next unit as soon as retailers get some stock back in.

Edited September 25, 2004 by SergZak

[+Tail of Two Cachers]

If you want autorouting, there's really only 2 GPSrs to consider if you're looking at Garmin.

 

The Quest which is on Amazon for 513.00. Comes with 115mbs or so of memory. Has voice, internal battery, and is smaller.

 

The StreetPilot 2610 which can take a compact flash card and hold all the maps depending on the size of card you get. It's bigger, no battery (but you'd leave it plugged in), has the voice, touch screen, remote. It's 713.00 or so on Amazon.

 

Both come with unlocked City Select maps.

[+New England n00b]

Thanks guys... If I do move into the career I am thinging of, size won't matter - it'll be in the truck all day long. I might end up just keeping my Legend for geocaching and have a dedicated nav GPS.

[robertlipe]

Sometimes I wonder if these boards are sponsored by Garmin...

 

Garmin makes many units that autoroute. So do their competitors. Without details in what's important to you, it's hard to make a good recommendation.

 

What matters most to you? Portability? Battery life? Screen size? Spoken directions? Map availability? For what country? Being able to hold every map on some continent without access to a PC? Price? Expandability?

 

A cross-country truck driver with bad eyesight that never plans to take it out of the truck would have very different requirements than a backpacker that wanted one unit to autoroute him to a trailhead, flip to Topo maps, then proceed into a three night hike.

[tubemonkey]

Sometimes I wonder if these boards are sponsored by Garmin...

Shhhhhhhhhh ..........

 

tm

[+Olar]

Personally I would go with the 60C or 76C, a RAM Mount, external antenna and power cable. The colour display makes it far easier to read than the old style units and it only takes a second to unhook everything so you can jump out of the truck and bag a nearby cache. The autorouting with City Select works great and you wouldn't do any better with something on the laptop as an alternative. If you had the room you could take it one step further and autoroute with the aforementioned 60/76c and display realtime on your laptop using Streets & Trips or MapPoint.

 

Cheers, Olar

[+New England n00b]

To be clear, I am considering an autorouting GPS for long-haul trucking.

[robertlipe]

Without answers to the other questions (and questions yet to be asked) I'd be skeptical of any answers.

 

"What's the best car?" (The answer for a below-knee amputee in FL flipping a folding chair from front seat to back will be very different from that of an Alaskan Mailman that cares mostly about how quickly the power windows will roll back up.)

 

And anyone following up, please focus on helping NEn pick the right unit and not critquiting my auto analogy...

[+StormCrow42]

To be clear, I am considering an autorouting GPS for long-haul trucking.

Then I'd certainly have a good look at the Garmin 2620. It has a full map of the US already loaded on an internal hard drive, and has features for plotting out the best route to multiple destinations, as well as road avoidance to get around construction zones or road closures.

[+Renegade Knight]

To be clear, I am considering an autorouting GPS for long-haul trucking.

It would be worth your time to get a dedicated autorouting GPS to use.

 

My understanding is that Garmins autorouting software is better than Magellans, but both have dedicated GPS unitls for autorouting. An update or two of the Magellan can fix the original isses that I was picking up on in the forums. It's been long enough this could of happened.

 

For long haul trucking you want something that will be able to hold all the maps of all the areas you will be in. Any handheld GPS will fall short on that. (Unless Magellans SD card option lets you have one map set for everwhere that just works with no file swapping)

 

If you do go with a a laptop, I'd get a dedicated GPS for that so you don't have to futz with connecting it and disconnecting it.

Edited September 26, 2004 by Renegade Knight

[+YuccaPatrol]

Let me also agree that you will want a dedicated automotive GPS system for long-haul trucking.

 

I have the best of both worlds, as I have a 60CS for geocaching and a StreetpilotIII for use in the car.

 

Sure my 60CS can autoroute and get me where I need to be, but the larger and brighter screen of the streetpilot makes it much much safer to use while driving.

 

On a long distance trip, I'll take my streetpilot with 2 year old maps over my 60CS with the latest updated maps anyday.

 

Although the screen of a laptop would be great, it is simply too difficult to use a computer while driving. laptop screens wash out in sunlight and are too big to place where you can see both it and the road at the same time.

[+Firehouse16]

Well thanks to my Garmin 60CS's auto-routing and MapSources auto-routing I was able to set a one day Southern California Geocaching record, 144 finds. I couldn't have ever done it without these two things. Of course my GPS was hooked to my laptop. A little auto-routing and some fine tuning, good too go!

[+New England n00b]

Thanks guys. The 2620 is pricey, but then again I can probably write it off on taxes as a legitimate business expense. That is one cool looking unit, btw.... It has a freakin' hard drive in it? *techno-drool*

Edited September 27, 2004 by New England n00b

[robertlipe]

That is one cool looking unit, btw....  It has a freakin' hard drive in it? *techno-drool*

So do some models from the company that make Hertz Neverlost.

 

And yes, these dedicated dashtop units cost a couple of times what a good handheld cost.

Edited September 27, 2004 by robertlipe

[+Renegade Knight]

That is one cool looking unit, btw....  It has a freakin' hard drive in it? *techno-drool*

So some models from the company that make Hertz Neverlost.

 

And yes, these dedicated dashtop units cost a couple of times what a good handheld cost.

Night Stalker travels quite a bit. He's used the Neverlost system, and replaced it entirely with City Select and his GPS 60CS. For his purposes which include finding his hotel, his temporary local office, finding caches, and finding a place to eat, the City Select software is better than the Neverlost system. He no longer pays the extra Hertz wants to provide a car with the system.

 

I'd send Night Stalker an email and ask him specificly about his experience though. I think asking a few direct questions would do you some good. From the sounds of it you can wait the week it will take for an answer. He's heading to Phoenix today.

[robertlipe]

To clarify, I wasn't recommending the Neverlost system specifically. I was pointing out that there is another company that makes these products.

 

Certainly comparing the aging Neverlost with current products is unrealistic and I wouldn't evalute the current Roadmates based on experience with Neverlost.

[+tirediron]

As a semi-on topic comment... I wouldn't get to caught up in auto-routing for OTR hauling. It will probably be fine for major highways and exits, but once you get into suburban areas, you way well find that it's telling you to make a left somewhere that has no advance turn signal, or down a road that is so narrow you will have no room to make a turn.

 

Not a concern if you are depot driving pin to pin, but if you are gonna be doing local delivery (such as moving company) or delivering to retail (groceries) it can become a real pain. I've found myself in one or two situations (okay, that was long before autor-routing GPS, but still) where you sit there and say "How the fudge am I gonna get two 38' trailers outta this?"

[+StormCrow42]

As a semi-on topic comment... I wouldn't get to caught up in auto-routing for OTR hauling. It will probably be fine for major highways and exits, but once you get into suburban areas, you way well find that it's telling you to make a left somewhere that has no advance turn signal, or down a road that is so narrow you will have no room to make a turn.

Garmin's units (at least) have a vehicle type option where you can tell the GPS you're driving a semi. From what I've heard, that causes the unit to prefer highways and major roads more than usual. I'm not certain if the GPS has data on roads that are forbidden to truck traffic or not, but I wouldn't be that suprised.

[+tirediron]

As a semi-on topic comment... I wouldn't get to caught up in auto-routing for OTR hauling.  It will probably be fine for major highways and exits, but once you get into suburban areas, you way well find that it's telling you to make a left somewhere that has no advance turn signal, or down a road that is so narrow you will have no room to make a turn.

Garmin's units (at least) have a vehicle type option where you can tell the GPS you're driving a semi. From what I've heard, that causes the unit to prefer highways and major roads more than usual. I'm not certain if the GPS has data on roads that are forbidden to truck traffic or not, but I wouldn't be that suprised.

Yeah, I've played with that on my 76CS, but real world experience tells me that things like that often change without warning.... I think that perhaps a laptop running M$ S&T or similar might be better as it would allow you to edit routes, enter construction zones and other things that will fudge up your trip...

[+Imajika]

2) Is a dedicated GPS a better option, if so which one and why?

 

Well, I haven't tried autorouting with a laptop and GPS but I do own a Garmin 60cs and it is amazing. We just got back from a vacation in WA and without my GPS, I would NEVER have found some of the stuff we went to see! I'm using the 60cs and City Select 6 and it is awesome.