Totallyrad

I've been driving commercially a little more and after the gps on my cell phone sent me sightseeing in a non-commercial neighborhood I think I need to invest in an OTR gps. The problem I have is there's tons of them to pick from and they're not cheap so chime in and help me weed out the junk please. Here's what I want.

• OTR routing
• Good speaker quality
• Id ike to be able to use it on my motorcycle as well so I have to have a waterproof case
• The company I'm working for tracks mileage state by state so data logging would be nice, but not required

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

BikerJim44

The best GPS I ever used, and I've driven truck OTR and local for over 30 years is printed by Rand McNally.
Sorry but I have a hard time running a cell phone so a GPS is way beyond my redneck comprehension. LOL
Seriously though I have two Garmin Nuvi GPS' but they aren't for truckers. I would rely on Garmin or what's the other big name, can't think of it right now but it's right up there with Garmin.
All I know about my Nuvi is when I was trying to get out of Austin a couple years ago on the scoot that little gal in the box kept on telling me " Turn around you idiot, I aint a gonna tell you this again or I'm comin out there and slap you up side of the head". Well I finally took her advice and low and behold that sweet little English gal calmed down and got me out of Austin. Good thing too cause I was about to kill me one of them idiot drivers over there if just one more of 'em had run out in front of me. **** it man that is one of The worst cities to drive in. I'll take Beantown anyday over Austin!
Wish you luck but I'll stick to my laminated GPS. Jim.

Wow! You can't even say D A N G here? I didn't even cuss and I see the little asterisk thingys where I put that word up there.

Russ Roth

I have no insight for the OP except to agree the regular Nuvi GPS is not for truckers. And I also made a trip from Portland/Vancouver to Austin (actually Round Rock) and PDX/Vancouver and Austin have the honor of having the absolute worst drivers I have seen in any one place at the same time. I'm not sure which place is worse but I sure wouldn't argue if anyone thought it was PDX.

2006BLKMegacab

Ive never really used my garmin in my KW, However Ive had great luck with it, looking through the costco website I did see a "garmin dezl 560LMT trucking GPS" that is supposed to be fairly trucker friendly, for what thats worth haha

NE frmhnd

Gotta agree with Jim. If I had a set of directions that sounded funny to me, I'd bring the town up on yahoo maps, center it over the exit I needed, then switch to map/satellite hybrid and follow the directions. A few times it helped a bunch, knowing what was across the street, or how the place was laid out.

I don't trust GPS. When I switched to Sprint, they gave me a 30 day free trial for it. I was sitting at a dock when I downloaded the program, and as the wind rocked the truck, the phone GPS was telling me I was moving over 400 feet. And it kept telling me to take a wrong turn on the way home. Got home and it told me I had to get back on the road headed north. So I did, it took me several miles north, to the first address in the next ZIP code.

Guardrail

I use the Rand McNally TND-510 OTR. It has been the best one I've used yet.

JKM

TR. I have a PC miler brand GPS, model 740 iirc, and I would NOT recommend it to anyone, it is the biggest piece of garbage I have ever bought, it's really not suitable for use even as a wheel chock.

With that said, I am under the impression that Rand McNally makes the best OTR GPS. I have a couple co workers that gave cobras and they don't seem to have any complaints though.

Here are some reviews, read through, lots of info there, I use my laptop now, on a ram mount, I have co-pilot, and streets and trips loaded on it, as most of the time I'm travelling on permit specific routing.

http://www.truckgpsstore.com/trgpsre.html
http://www.gps-planet.com/truckgps.html
http://www.dieselboss.com/truck_gps_review_features.htm

One of the Garmon models may be the best choice as they are likely the only ones you will find a waterproof case for.

XLR8

I use the Teletype WorldNav GPS unit.

Designed for truck route use, offers all the driver features you mentioned and available in various screen sizes...they also offer an app for your 'Droid based smartphone. Dealing with the manufacturer direct.

Here is their web site link:

http://www.teletype.com/c/portable-truck-gps.html

cowboyinc

have used them all and tested.rand mcnally is the all time winner

NE frmhnd

When I drove for Schneider, I knew a guy who had something set up in his laptop, that would talk to him to tell him his turns. And he could save his routes to bring up later, if he found a shortcut or something. One day he found himself on a county road outside Goshen, IN, by-passing all the lights in that town, herding cattle off the road with the oncoming county mounty, who asked him what he was doing on a gravel road with a set of doubles. The maps showed the road being improved and paved, but there was apparently a dispute over the county line, so they didn't pave that section.

He was told to get along his way and not to go that way again, after showing the sheriff his set-up.

JKM

No worries here, if I am on a road, it's because I am supposed to be there. I have to follow routing right down to the letter, off route fines are usually pretty hefty... I also always look the route up on a map before hand, generally only rely on the GPS to assist me in remembering how far my next turn is. On routes I am not familiar with, I will sometimes view the entire route on google satellite view for any obstacles i may want to know about. I have been given state routes in PA before where I found low clearance overpasses I would not have been able to get under, but they were on the state provided route...

NE frmhnd

That was probably 15 years ago Irish got caught on that county road.

PA also allows you to run up to 58,000 on a tandem straight truck, but a 5 axle trailer, with the bridge law, tops out at 73,200. Off the federal highway system.

NY has a ton of 12'6" bridges that are really 14' high.

Iron Mike

I don't trust anything 100% even maps. Phone GPS isn't even true GPS it is simulated using cell phone towers. It isn't near as accurate as a real GPS. I don't know about truck models but I love my Garmin 1450LMT. It is fantastic on the road, one of the great features is showing lanes at interchanges. I never trust it completely though. Paper maps aren't always truthful either. Several years ago we were driving down a state rd in Arizona, when the pavement ended and it was basically a dirt and gravel rd. even crossed a dry stream bed. None of this was indicated on the map. We did see a cool ghost town though. I keep thinking of Michael Scott of Dunder-Mifflin driving into a lake because a GPS told him to "turn right now".

NE frmhnd

As long as 3 towers are getting your call signal they can put you in a very small area, but 400 feet is not very small.

We have a gravel state highway here. Route 18, east of Stockville, is gravel clear over to US283.

john40

You might look into a Garmin Nuvi 465LMT, which is a smaller version of the 560LMT and is designed for truckers. I am not a trucker, but I find this unit helpful when RVing.
John