directions

[Ziphead2]

for trip planning it is confusing, google maps, maps, waze, ect? what is the easiest and best one to use? any experience?

[austinjenna]

I use the RV trip wizard which will take you a preferred 'rv route' way by avoiding low bridges, etc... It has worked well for me.

[valhalla360]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
360 now that you mentioned it I did cross the country in a 1936 Plymouth pick up once. You do remember those I'm sure. Today I use a modern DP with a diesel in the back that got $3600 worth of damage going into Pigeon Forge because DW insisted on using her GPS thing and it took us down a near dirt road.

If you check your brain at the door, neither map nor GPS can help you.

[Grit_dog]

@ferndaleflyer, my response was not directed at your post at all. It was directed at the OPs question. Cheers

[ferndaleflyer]

360 now that you mentioned it I did cross the country in a 1936 Plymouth pick up once. You do remember those I'm sure. Today I use a modern DP with a diesel in the back that got $3600 worth of damage going into Pigeon Forge because DW insisted on using her GPS thing and it took us down a near dirt road. Oh and I have lived and worked in 23 countries before Google and got there and back each and every time. I also don't use face book. Old school but it works for me and having read your posts on here for years I should not dispute your grasp of modern technology and its effects on the world. Carry on

[Grit_dog]

The OPs question begs the question of overall minimum competence to travel.
If you’re really OCD you could plug in the same destination in Waze Google and Apple and a half dozen others likely and see where they all take you.
Hint, it’s gonna be about the same. Or exactly the same.
How did you look up directions before thinking about directions with a RV? (Presume you’re not 50-60’ long and looking for truck routes only or something obscure.)

[valhalla360]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Road maps have taken me all over this country for something like 67 years so see no need to change besides after all these years most of the time I need nothing but recall. But that is just me.

This is like saying you traveled all over the country in a 1950's vintage carburated british Mini.

Yeah, you can do it but it's a heck of a lot easier and more reliable to use a modern truck with fuel injection.

[bigred1cav]

I use a erasable truckers road atlas. Mark my route and x the number of miles I will drive, then look at rest or camping areas where I am stopping for night. I use Harvest Hosts. Passport America put an x on the map,

I prefer Waze and as of yet I do not know how to put waze on my PC for a rolling big screen use.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I use the trip planner from https://freecampsites.net/#!&query=TripPlanner

[Samsonsworld]

I use Google maps for directions and I also use street view to plan my fuel stops. I like to find stations with easy access for longer trips. I'll plan my route on my computer, then mirror on my cell phone.

[pbeverly]

I use a paid subscription for TomTom on my phone. On the TomTom website I can tell it I put it in RV mode where I have entered my setup deails, length, width and heighth. It will then plan routes using that information. I can then study and tweak the route as needed. Once I am happy it saves the route and the app can synch to my phone.

Couple years ago I did not do this and went on a trip in the Smokey Mountains, the GPS put me on roads I had no business being on towing a TT. Afterwards I discovered the TomTom feature I described above and experimented. For the Smokey Mountains trip I would switch between car and rv and it would change the route. When using the RV settings it avoided the road I should not have taken.

[ferndaleflyer]

Road maps have taken me all over this country for something like 67 years so see no need to change besides after all these years most of the time I need nothing but recall. But that is just me.

[JimK-NY]

Ziphead2 wrote:
for trip planning it is confusing, google maps, maps, waze, ect? what is the easiest and best one to use? any experience?

I can tell you that I use Google maps for overall trip planning and for my daily route decisions. Paper maps cannot compare because they do not show current conditions and do not allow searches for Walmart parking lots, campgrounds, fuel stations, etc.

My choice may not pertain to you. What is it that you find confusing? What sort of planning do you want to do? Overall routes or daily stops for fuel, rest, overnights?

[ktmrfs]

depends on what kind of trip. If it is a camping trip I dig out my old streets and trips. Yes it's old, yes it doesn't have latest road updates. However (a) it's easy to do a route taking backroads and the route i want (b) I put in how often and long rest stops are (c) how many miles for gas (d) when we usually start (e) when we want to stop for the day (f) what our average speed is vs speed limits.

so... pretty quick it can give me a daily trip plan, which we can then tweak based on best place to stop, where to plan for gas etc.

Then depending on what our plan shows and what we know I either then just use my Garmin RV for directions, or import the streets and trips route to basecamp then to the garmin RV for a route,


For "normal" trips, not towing google maps on the phone with android auto to the car display, Nice thing about google maps is it is pretty accurate about time and picking a route around traffic holdups.

And on more than one occasion while towing when we hit a traffic stop I just hit onstar and had the operator route us around telling them I am pulling a 35ft trailer, They then did a route suitable for the trailer.

I've also used the onstar service on occasion when I wanted a very specific route. For example, San Diego to Cresent city staying on highway 1 as much as possible and using 101 as an alternate. routing through San Fran was fantastic. Down to 'in 3 blocks be in the right lane to turn on xxx street. a block before the right turn you will pass a McDonalds. turn right at xxxx street. There will be a xxx store at the corner".

if we are going to explore any FS road etc. For most locations we visit I have paper copies of 24K:1 topo maps, problem is they aren't updated very often. Along with that if it's a new area I download Avenza maps. USFS is now putting many of the MVUM on Avenza for free.

MVUM show where we an legally ride on FS land with our dual sport motorcycles. Nice to use those maps to get to old FS lookouts, etc.

And if all else fails, I pull out my garmin montana with 24K:1 maps loaded or my garmin inreach likewise.

[valhalla360]

BB_TX wrote:
I use google maps from point A to point B for fastest time. Gives 2 or 3 options. Then I use google maps satellite view and street view to see the actual highway, 2 lane, shoulders or not, 4 lane-not divided, 4 lane divided, thru middle of towns, bypass towns, etc. Then choose the road I like best.

That's pretty much what we use/do.

If you have a mapping app you prefer, it should be fine. It's always a good idea to look at the route ahead of time but no need for an RV specific GPS.