RV Trip Wizard

[Pahaska]

I prefer to keep planning and navigating separate. Each has its own requirements. I want to plan on a big screen. That can be my home computer or it can be the tiny PC I have installed in the AI that uses the 25" TV for a display. For navigating, I want my 7" trucker's/RV Garmin on the dash that is plenty large to view, but not so large that it blocks vision.

As a 40-year veteran programmer, I know that the more functions you pile together, the more bugs that will come out of the woodwork.

[AKNate]

I have used furkot for trip planning. It was a little clunky in places to do what you want, but overall is the closest replacement for Microsoft Streets and Trips I’ve found. It’s free too, but you can also add extra features for $14/year.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by Njg

RV trip wizard syncs perfectly with the RV Life app on my phone and all of my routes sync over. It is essential because google maps will send you over 12 foot wide 2 way bridges in Nebraska and onto dirt roads. It downloads the maps onto the phone for times where you have no cell signal. My opportunities for improving the app are as follows:

1. It ABSOLUTELY needs CarPlay functionality. It is really hampered by this lack of functionality because looking at my phone while driving has its obvious drawbacks..

The Car play integration is coming as are improved POIs.

RV Trip Wizard is from RV LIFE and syncs with the RV Life app. It's not related to Road Trippers as noted in an earlier post.

The RV Life app provides mobile access for www.CampgroundReviews.com, making finding campgrounds easy. The app is free.

If you have an older installation of the app on your device and are a Trip Wizard subscriber, you may need to logout/login or reinstall the app to get syncing started as this is a recent change. Once you've done that your trips and maps will be available via the app.

[Silvr_Bullet]

That’s good we own two different brand vehicles, I have noticed that each manufacturer doesn’t support all the same apps, I hope that the RV app will be on all Car Play platforms.

[Janet H]

Currently the RV Life app is available for IOS and Android. The Car Play integration is coming. As an Android user, I've been waiting a long while It's always been possible to sync a Trip Wizard trip plan to google maps real time routing (turn right in 300 yards) but not simple and lots of folks just aren't willing to jump through the required hoops on your device to do this.

[InterBlog]

OK, we are getting greater diversity of comments on this thread than I expected. Suggestions regarding a few newer apps, and developments on old apps, that I had not heard of.

To that end, let me sharpen and re-phrase my earlier comments into a QUESTION:

Does anyone use a GPS-based app, with or without real time traffic integration, that can be customized to display just a subset of the user's desired features, such has every Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Subway, Chipotle, McDonald's and Cabela's in America? Every single one of those plotted and displayed on the route automatically and touchlessly as the route is in the process of unfolding? Without bloatware and without a bunch of other crap that the user does not want to have cluttering up the screen?

Thanks.

[Heckler56]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

OK, we are getting greater diversity of comments on this thread than I expected. Suggestions regarding a few newer apps, and developments on old apps, that I had not heard of.

To that end, let me sharpen and re-phrase my earlier comments into a QUESTION:

Does anyone use a GPS-based app, with or without real time traffic integration, that can be customized to display just a subset of the user's desired features, such has every Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Subway, Chipotle, McDonald's and Cabela's in America? Every single one of those plotted and displayed on the route automatically and touchlessly as the route is in the process of unfolding? Without bloatware and without a bunch of other crap that the user does not want to have cluttering up the screen?

Thanks.

No “banging head on the desk”? 😁

[AstroBruce]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

OK, we are getting greater diversity of comments on this thread than I expected. Suggestions regarding a few newer apps, and developments on old apps, that I had not heard of.

To that end, let me sharpen and re-phrase my earlier comments into a QUESTION:

Does anyone use a GPS-based app, with or without real time traffic integration, that can be customized to display just a subset of the user's desired features, such has every Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Subway, Chipotle, McDonald's and Cabela's in America? Every single one of those plotted and displayed on the route automatically and touchlessly as the route is in the process of unfolding? Without bloatware and without a bunch of other crap that the user does not want to have cluttering up the screen?

Thanks.

Garmin RV 770 LMT will plot every Cracker Barrel along your route, or every Wallmart, or every Cabela's. You just can't have then all at the same time. It only takes a few screen touches to change from Cabela's to Walmart.

Bruce

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by AstroBruce

.... It only takes a few screen touches to change from Cabela's to Walmart.

<<bangs head on desk>>

Sounds just like the Garmin that I paid 400 bucks for. Every one of these stupid things is designed for a driver who has the luxury of a copilot sitting in the passenger seat, sipping pina coladas, and scrolling through screens at the driver's beck and call.

I'm solo-driving a 4-ton truck 3,000 miles across continent at the fastest safe speed, from sun up to sun down. I cannot be scrolling through screens at 65 miles an hour. The DEVICE needs to do that work, not me.

I have limited but tedious success with the Garmin hands-free voice command "Find Place". Unlike late model passenger vehicles, the T1N Sprinter is extremely loud, so in order to use voice activation, a scream-fest is needed. The phrase "Cracker Barrel" is distinctive enough so that it is recognized about 75% of the time.

Of course, there's no way to specify that it only display Cracker Barrels along the PLOTTED ROUTE. No sir, it is constantly wanting the driver to double back 20 miles, or head through a mountain pass over to a parallel freeway, as if that makes sense whatsoever. So I'm often screaming at the Garmin every half hour in a repetitive fishing expedition for what's up ahead, to compensate for that particular dearth of logic.

I could sit here all day describing the nonsensical shortcomings of this thing.

[AstroBruce]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

<<bangs head on desk>>

Sounds just like the Garmin that I paid 400 bucks for. Every one of these stupid things is designed for a driver who has the luxury of a copilot sitting in the passenger seat, sipping pina coladas, and scrolling through screens at the driver's beck and call.

I'm solo-driving a 4-ton truck 3,000 miles across continent at the fastest safe speed, from sun up to sun down. I cannot be scrolling through screens at 65 miles an hour. The DEVICE needs to do that work, not me.

I have limited but tedious success with the Garmin hands-free voice command "Find Place". Unlike late model passenger vehicles, the T1N Sprinter is extremely loud, so in order to use voice activation, a scream-fest is needed. The phrase "Cracker Barrel" is distinctive enough so that it is recognized about 75% of the time.

Of course, there's no way to specify that it only display Cracker Barrels along the PLOTTED ROUTE. No sir, it is constantly wanting the driver to double back 20 miles, or head through a mountain pass over to a parallel freeway, as if that makes sense whatsoever. So I'm often screaming at the Garmin every half hour in a repetitive fishing expedition for what's up ahead, to compensate for that particular dearth of logic.

I could sit here all day describing the nonsensical shortcomings of this thing.

Did you forget to take your meds this morning?

Bruce

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by AstroBruce

Did you forget to take your meds this morning?

Bruce

Hi, Bruce. You're a trailer owner. Everyone here in the Sprinter child form knows that I am always this way, whether or not I've remembered to take my meds.

[InterBlog]

To expound in characteristic manic fashion, my 3rd annual outbound road day is basically spent traversing the 500 miles that constitute the western spine of Virginia.

I am a bit tired by Day 3, and I'm starting to get cranky, because I know that my Day 4 will require me to solo-navigate the New York City - Boston corridor and on up into Maine, which is almost always an exercise in absolute misery.

By this time, I know my annual route by heart (second image below), but I cannot for the life of me remember where all six Cracker Barrels are located along the freaking Virginia portion of the route. So I spend part of every 3rd outbound travel day screaming for them to appear on my Garmin.

It's just absurd! My brainless, poorly-designed GPS should be able to do that one small thing for me - be programmable in advance with Cracker Barrels on my exact bloody travel route. But no.

[groundhogy]

ROUTE ELEVATION.
Does this program (or any other) show you what type of grades you will have to tow up or down?
I often make route choices based on the more gentle grade. The only thin I’ve found is to use google terrain and zoom way in and finger my way along the route noting how fast the contour numbers change.

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by groundhogy

ROUTE ELEVATION.
Does this program (or any other) show you what type of grades you will have to tow up or down?
.

With one click, you get a profile of elevation for the trip as shown here.

Sorry ... I just saw that I cropped the elevation numbers off the left side. Elevations are shown.

[Janet H]

You should give it a try. Here I've set up a short trip in western NC. I've chosen to display only state parks with pull throughs and cracker barrels, loves gas stops and costcos on the map. There are filters you can set to add or hide points of interest on the map, gas stations and types of parks. Clicking on the map pin displays the details. There is a slide up to display gradient info along the route and the park elevation info is available. The app does a lot and once you've learned your way around you can configure it to show all sort of things.