Foretravel Owners' Forum

I have searched on this forum and found some information on who is using what GPS.  I see where some have upgraded to the Garmin 770, but when I check reviews, they aren't good.  Just wondering how those of you who upgraded are now liking your 770's?
Is there anything else out there that is better?  Since I have a Macbook, I would really like a good GPS app to work with it.  Is there a good app for this?  I have used the CoPilot in the past and have not been pleased with the results.  I had a Garmin 760 and liked it, but again, it had some issues as well and sold it.  Now, I am looking for another to help guide us in our travels.
Any input any of you can give would be most appreciated.

I use an iPad mini 4 with Verizon on a RAM mount above the drivers area running either Waze or Google Maps.

While Google Maps gives tons of useful information such as traffic advisories, time to destination and now speed traps and work zones it does not provide height, width or weight limits.
I use both Android and Garmin.

I use Waze or Google with Apple Car Play on the dash radio.  It does pretty well and is so easy to see.  You still have to do a little research beforehand if leaving the main roads.  Also if it tries to turn us down some residential street we just keep going and let it recalculate or pull over and figure out what the heck is going on. 

I use both a Garmin RV 770 and Google Maps. Nether is perfect, but Garmin more likely to limit you to RV friendly roads.

I use the RV770LMT and I'm very pleased with it. One can switch between car, Motor home, Car/trailer. When in MH or Trailer mode. The Garmin will alert you when the route is questionable. 

The 770 is a bit big for our Subaru's dash and blocks a lot of the view. As the Subaru has Apple car play. The WAZE app is the ticket and car play links up perfectly with our iphone 7 and I can even use the cars screen as it is touch sensitive. ^.^d
And both the WAZE app & the Garmin have a UK voice included which I prefer over the irritating American female teenager voice that talks way to fast in the Google app.

There is a big difference using a MacBook Pro and a tablet or smart phone. If you are going to use a laptop, buy a GPS receiver that receives both GPS and GLONASS (Russian GPS). This insures reception in big cities, bad weather or forests. You Mac will work with USB or Bluetooth. I used Garmin's GLO for flying but like most Garmin products, it has a couple of glitches. Overheating and shutting down while on the dashboard is a big one. The aviation model is only $10 more and updates 10X/sec vs once a second. It is dead accurate! They connect to older iPads without internal GPS receivers.

I've always liked Holux GPS products (Taiwan). They have been around since the start and have a very long battery life and never fail or overheat. Good prices too. They will not connect to an older iPad/iPhone Ours has a battery life of over 20 hours of operation when charged.

Google Earth/Maps works well on a Mac

I use a Samsung Tab S for flying (replaced the complete radio stack with the tablet) and traveling. The AMOLED (just like the new really expensive 4K TVs at Costco) screen is better than any Apple tablet and they come with an excellent GPS/GLONASS receiver. They also have an SD card slot. The application is your choice with many available for highways, topo, marine and flying. I use Here (we go), MapsMe and Google Maps. It worked well in Egypt and last month in Guadalajara. Tethering to our iPhone gave real time traffic in Guad and was worth it's weight in gold especially in rush hour.  The Tab S or S2 is available on the used market for under $200, an excellent investment. All apps I use are totally FREE.

Having said all that, I keep an old TomTom fastened on the dash above the AC/heating controls. Lifetime updates with a 5 inch screen. It just sits there with an uncomplicated screen and never gets in the way. I like everything about it including a two mile warning for highway turns. About $35 on Marketplace.

Pierce

Thank you all for your input on navigation!  I have owned several Garmin products and when I had looked at the 770, it seemed to have some not so good reviews.  However, after checking out YouTube, I found several Rver's who have done reviews on this unit and found it very useable.  I do like my Mac and may try it for a time in navigating!

In planning trips, I use a Mac desktop to plan routes, check prices on RV parks, hotels, fuel, restaurants. The same that almost any Android or PC can do. Moving to the laptop, our 13 inch MacBook Pro will do much of the same and can be taken to restaurants, etc to research just about anything. Easy to put in a day pack. Great to use in a coach plus you can send streaming video including many free TV stations to your coach's 4K TV. Moving to a tablet, you lose some features but gain others. The smaller size makes it very convenient to walk with stopping to check restaurant ratings, museum guides, etc. Just make sure the tablet you are interested in has a built in GPS/GLONASS receiver. But the tool we use most is the smart phone. The larger the better. Not only does it navigate but for a minimal fee, you can include a data plan in almost any country. Great to navigate or use to get back to your coach or car in a strange city plus they take excellent photos and very high quality video, much better than a tablet. All the apps I use are free and have free updates.

Your consideration of the MacBook is a great compromise as it's very fast doing almost anything with a keyboard that has a much lower frustration level compared to the smaller keyboards tablets and especially phones have.

PIerce

I use a Garmin RV660LMT which is a 6 inch version of the RV770LMT. I like how it works in the car and tolerate it in the motorhome.
I purchased the RV660LMT to replace a Rand Mcnally RV 7720 which I really liked until it malfunctioned. I liked the 7720 because it displayed "rest stations", truck stops, and Walmarts, however, it malfunctioned when I attempted to update the maps, it just did not get updated. Contacting Rand McNally resulted in advice which did not work, then shipping 7720 to Rand McNally, which, when received back, was not updated and could not be updated. The 7720 now had a new free undocumented feature - it would freeze several times a day which required a reboot to unfreeze - very inconvenient when approaching a destination. Contacting Rand McNally resulted in a worthless "blah, blah, blah".
I use maps in a MacBook Air for preplanning a trip. I do not have an iPhone, tablet, or mini but do have a flip phone with a camera that I do not use - it is just a cell phone.

Pierce, I have had my Mac for some time now and really like it.  I do some trip planning on it as well as use our smart phone for additional guidance.  Really like the GPS for additional features like size of RV and weight for issues like bridges and overpasses, etc.  When we were on the road in the early 2000's, I had a PC with an air card that worked well for us at the time.  So many toys, so little time!  lol

The issue I have is that of font size. Even on the small Garmin 770 screen. The label & street name are easily visible. When i use the google maps or waze app on my Subaru star link 7 inch screen (same as the 770) the road network is easy to see, but the label, street names are very, very small. Which makes it much harder to use. I don't see myself buying a Macbook just to be able to see the guidance when the $300 Garmin works fine.

Joe, the GPS we have (and I don't remember which one) has a camera and a sd card so if someone pulls in front of you then slams on brakes to cause an accident you have the proof on the sd card for the police. " BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT OWNERS OF MOTORHOMES ARE RICH". So far haven't had to use it but there have been a couple of instances that someone pulled in front of me and shut down--near misses but I at least have the camera rolling!
Chris

All stays on my iPad while driving. 

tablet with tomtom  go. 

Garmin 770LMT and google maps with low clearance.com added to mix. I recently allowed Google maps take me around a traffic jam in Dallas. Will never do that again. Should have stayed with Garmin. Driving alone at rush hour. Love the signage and lane info on Garmin but just learning how to use it.

Update;  I ended up  purchasing the Garmin 770 since I can set parameters of the coach and had good luck with our Garmin 760 that we had.  Wish I had kept it, but at the time, did not think I would need it, as I had a built in on our 450 dually when we were pulling the fifth wheel.  UGH!
Thank you all for your input and suggestions.

Older model Garmin RV760. Put in length, height, weight, etc.

Like it a lot.

Got the GPS up and running, heading out in the morning for Virginia!