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 Topic: DONT blindly trust Sat Navs!
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11/7/2024 at 9:59am
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Think I've found the perfect camp site to 'break' all sat navs/route planners! Setting caravan as the vehicle and even entering dimensions didn't prevent them from being totally bonkers!
Planning a trip with the caravan to CAMC Borrowdale site on the bottom end of Derwentwater in the Lake District. I read the site advice on approach routes, which is ONLY approach from the south off the B5289 at Grange, which seemed blindingly obvious to me as I already know the roads quite well, BUT clearly no one pointed out 'blindingly obvious' to all the route planners/sat navs I tried!
Every single one has tried to route me from the north (Keswick) down an unclassified single track hilly, winding, mountainside lane on the west of the lake! FFS why! There is a perfectly good near flat and straight two lane 'B' road on the eastern side of the lake! A few via's sorted most out to force the route off the mountainside lane, but TomTom's online route planner was having none of it, all the added via's did was cause it to entirely encircle the lake to hit them, but still take me back to Keswick to do the final leg down the wholly unsuitable mountainside lane – NOTHING would make it abandon that lane! - I was routed within a few hundred yards of my destination to hit the nearest via, bet then retracing the route back miles to pick up the start of the WRONG route - how crazy is that!
I don't really need a sat nav to guide me on the last leg from Keswick, as I know the roads well enough, but tend to use it to jog my memory on approaching turns etc., as after a good 6 or 7 hours on the road I'll probably be getting weary, I also like the current traffic news/roadwork/holdups that it advises, so tend to want it to cover my entire route.
If ever a demonstration was needed NOT to blindly trust a sat nav/route planner, this must be it! Have to concede the mountainside lane route is doable with the caravan, but it's a hellish route with potentially endless conflicts with oncoming traffic on the single track, compared with the absolute doddle of a decent 'B' road route which is actually no longer!
Never trusted a sat nav enough to not confirm a route on a map of some kind, and a bit of Street View checking on any doubtful places just to ensure it's not too risky with the caravan, but this has REALLY undermined my confidence that even caravan specific ones should be trusted at all! I've always found TomTom's online route planner to be very reliable for my caravan journeys in the past, but that confidence has now gone!
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12/7/2024 at 12:53pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Quote: Originally posted by dk168 on 12/7/2024
Need to bear this in mind if and when I decide to go back to the Lake District.
Not high on the list as I am still having flashbacks of me in my car rolling down a slope into a ditch when I attempted the Hardknott Pass!
DK 
Blimey DK, I know Hardnott well, driven it dozens upon dozens of times in a variety of cars over decades, and all without incident thankfully, and it truly is a place you REALLY don't want to find yourself having a mishap, it brings an absolute sense of acute reality to 'between a rock and a hard place'! 
One of my delights is to take people unfamiliar with the area for a drive over the pass - "scream if you want to go faster folks", "scream louder if you want to drive back the same way"!   .... mind you the loose 'scree' that litters the road and destroys your grip, and the crumbling edge on the hairpins where you can drive off the edge and tumble down a rocky slope gets a certain orifice a bit 'twitchy' for even the bravest of us!
I've certainly seen a few come to grief, mostly because they are just very poor drivers with no sense of spacial awareness, those rocks on the inside of the hairpin bends are VERY unforgiving to car bodies! Seen a fair few clutches that will never be the same again as well - smoke and clutches are never a good combination! - allegedly it's the steepest public road in Europe, others contend that claim, but 1 in 4 and 1 in 3 (claimed) are certainly not for the feint hearted (or dubious vehicles!). It gets all the more interesting when the cloud is down and you can barely see beyond the end of your bonnet!!!! - that's the time to turn around and go back if you are smart!
Yet to see anyone attempt a caravan over the pass (STRICKLY 4x4 tow vehicle to get anywhere near the really tricky bits if you were STUPID enough to try!), but have seen some hopelessly inappropriate MHs, well more large Campervans, FWD just can't get traction, the wheels spin forward, the vehicle slides backwards! - REALLY bad idea to try! 
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13/7/2024 at 10:24am
Location: Devizes Wiltshire
Outfit: MWB VW Crafter PVC
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I spoke too soon!
Coming out of Fforest Fields (FF) near Builth Wells to go to Yew Tree Inn/Ross Cider in Peterstow, which I passed on the way from home to FF, I followed Google Map, missed a turning, and then found myself on some hilly narrow single track roads with sheep and lambs on the roads!
Slowed right down, only came across 3 cars, and they all back tracked to let me pass.
I was very relieved when I re-joined a B road!
DK 
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