Had a friend lose a front a/c unit to a low bridge. She is looking for a competent GPS that would direct her along trucking routes or at least alert her to low bridges.
Any advice about these units? Also, what would be a good price for this equipment?
I don't know of any truck specific GPS units. There are computer programs out there that will route you on truck safe routes. These programs will keep you on truck routes & not let you enjoy the scenic routes. These programs can cost up to $250. None of the trucking companies I drove for would pay for this. They figured it was the driver's responsibility to be safe even though they wanted to route you.
Ricky
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Last edited by 3 Dog Nite; 10-22-2009 at 05:35 PM.
Reason: add more info.
Had a friend lose a front a/c unit to a low bridge. She is looking for a competent GPS that would direct her along trucking routes or at least alert her to low bridges.
Any advice about these units? Also, what would be a good price for this equipment?
Thank you,
kristin
Kristin,
No offense intended to you and/or your friend.
BUT, if your friend is not capable of using her eyes to determine that a bridge is so low that is MIGHT (or not) rip the AC unit off of the top of a 10 foot tall Airstream, I do not think that a GPS unit is going to do any good at all.
Reading your post reminds me of the chap who purchased a GPS when they first came out some years ago in Europe. He followed the road on the GPS and proceeded to drive his car into a river. Seems the map on the GPS did not reflect there was no bridge at the river and he failed to note that minor detail.
This particular driver was on the news reports blaming the GPS manufacturer for his predicament; in the background the divers were attaching a cable to his vehicle so it could be winched out of the river.
Sorry but technology is in no way going to be able to save your friend from ripping the AC off the top of an Airstream until such time as driving is completely automated.
If your friend is not capable of seeing a bridge over the road and being aware that s/he has a 10 foot tall trailer behind their vehicle at the same time I sure hope this person is NEVER on any road anywhere near our location.
Lighten up there Buckaroo! If you google that question you will find lots of others have asked it. The consensus answer is to download a POI file (Point of Interest) of all the low bridges to your GPS. A couple of places that have them are www.poi-factory.com has a Garmin file and www.tomtomfree.com says it has one for TomTom GPS. They said you can set the Garmin up go give a warning when you are approaching a low bridge.
This might be exactly what she is looking for. She is a GREAT and experienced rv driver; the freak incident happened late at night on a hilly, curvy road.
Clearance heights don't seem to be much of a problem with our AS...however, with our suspension-lifted truck camper, it was a different story...
We have a roll-up garage door at work, so I parked the TC underneath, then rolled the door down onto the highest point (the AC, of course!), then was able to take an accurate height measurement for clearance purposes...
I attached a large lettered sign onto the sun visor above the steering wheel with the clearance measurement (rounded UP to the nearest 1/2 foot) so I wouldn't forget...There were many times I jumped out when approaching gas stations to make sure we'd fit beneath!
Most bridges and overpasses are labeled with clearance measurements...so it's indeed the responsibility of the one behind the wheel to act accordingly, IMHO...
Technology is great, and GPS is a boon for us when in unfamiliar territory...but even with POI data onboard one's GPS, I still think it's one's own responsibility to look out the windshield for possible conflicts and be prepared...
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Had a friend lose a front a/c unit to a low bridge. She is looking for a competent GPS that would direct her along trucking routes or at least alert her to low bridges.
Any advice about these units? Also, what would be a good price for this equipment?
Thank you,
kristin
Go to a truck stop. Buy a truckers (motor carriers) atlas. It shows all the truck routes and lists all the low clearence bridges by state then road.
Technology is great, and GPS is a boon for us when in unfamiliar territory...but even with POI data onboard one's GPS, I still think it's one's own responsibility to look out the windshield for possible conflicts and be prepared...
From the article: "Most trucking companies rely on GPS services that are specifically for trucks and route them away from restricted roads,..."
Apparently, there is some type of truck route specific GPS available, but some truckers are using standard GPS to find the shortest route, which doesn't always work out for the best.
We have an older Garmin C340. You can designate the type of vehicle you are driving as "Truck". But, I have no idea whether it would route you around low bridges.
PC Miler has been an industry standard for truck routing for years. They now make a GPS with that same truck routing.
BTW, I have discovered that there have been times when a PC Miler route was 100 miles shorter than a standard GPS route.
Godspeed,
Trent
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