Motor Carrier Road Atlas

[jkwilson]

Those of you that use one as a trip planning tool, how often do you get a new copy?

I see the 2021 issue is out, so my 2017 version is looking old.

I hate to spend a case of beer unnecessarily, but a single routing screw up caused by out of date maps would cover that cost pretty quickly.

[dedmiston]

My wife works in construction and I used to give her a new Thomas Guide every year for Christmas to get the latest updates. It was kind of a joke though, because even in the best scenario this year's new guide only had the roads and projects she built last year and it couldn't ever have this year's projects because she hadn't built them yet.

For something like a road atlas though, my feeling is that something like that is kind of a dying product and if I want to continue to use it, I'd better be prepared to support it and pay up every year.

In my truck, I pay for the updated NAV data usually once a year or every 18 months.

Honestly though, there isn't a huge risk to having slightly outdated maps. It's rare that roads are deleted; it's just new roads being added. So if you don't have the latest info, you'll probably just miss a shorter route but not drive off a cliff where a road was deleted.

[Devocamper]

I replace mine every few years , we mainly use it for the planing travel on the interstates and low clearances which don’t change very often. I have a 10 year old copy of the east and west mountain directory books and now they have a app so haven’t replaced them either the mountain grades don’t change either .

[ACZL]

FWIW and IMO, spend the 20 bucks each year for a new atlas. Some will say that if you get a RV/semi friendly GPS it may have a update avail each year you can download or so. I'm old fashion and like to look at maps, so for me a semi atlas is very useful