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I just traveled around ireland with my garmin sat nav towing a caravan, but it wanted to take me down small roads alot rather then using main roads that were a simlar distance, which was difficult when towing, heading to france in 3 weeks and i was wondering if anyone knows a way to set it that it uses main roads and not smaller roads/lanes? or is there any other way around this.

Heading from roscoff to carnac, then carnac to vendee and then to samur, any advice on route very welcome

thanks

 Hi,

have you got Garmin mapping on your PC ? if so you could map-out a route and download it to your garmin.

Also you could try avoidance's in your settings.or map-out route using via-points on your Garmin.

What model do you have ?

Andy.

I doubt you'll find those truck settings much good - they normally just alter the driving times to allow for a slower speed (that's what mine does - doesn't change the route at all). Understandable really - most B roads are easily wide enough for a caravan but not all - how can a sat-nav know that? None of them can hold the data needed to determine the width of every road in the country along their entire length.

In fact, I can never understand why people say use a map - an unnamed road on a map could be easily big enough for a caravan but it could be a single lane with passing places - I've never had a map that can distinguish that.

The best you can do is to make sure your sat-nav is on 'Fastest' route, as opposed to 'Shortest'.

Shortest will do the nearest to a straight line between where you are and where you want to go (good fun if you're just exploring by the way, takes you to very out-of-the-way places ).

Fastest will take account of road type and what speed you do on them and so will always suggest an A road over a B road, for example (unless the A road takes you miles out of your way).

Quote: Originally posted by nelmo on 13/7/2011

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I doubt you'll find those truck settings much good - they normally just alter the driving times to allow for a slower speed (that's what mine does - doesn't change the route at all). Understandable really - most B roads are easily wide enough for a caravan but not all - how can a sat-nav know that? None of them can hold the data needed to determine the width of every road in the country along their entire length.

In fact, I can never understand why people say use a map - an unnamed road on a map could be easily big enough for a caravan but it could be a single lane with passing places - I've never had a map that can distinguish that.

The best you can do is to make sure your sat-nav is on 'Fastest' route, as opposed to 'Shortest'.

Shortest will do the nearest to a straight line between where you are and where you want to go (good fun if you're just exploring by the way, takes you to very out-of-the-way places ).

Fastest will take account of road type and what speed you do on them and so will always suggest an A road over a B road, for example (unless the A road takes you miles out of your way).

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I have to agree, the 'fastest' route is the right setting. We are going through France and into Spain and initially was using the Garmin Mapsource program (its a quite brilliant program when you get the hang of it) to work out all my routes in blocks with waypoints for rest periods and refueling. It was all going according to plan then I transferred all the data to my satnav (Garmin Nuvi 265WT) and I could find all the waypoints but no routes??? After further research it seems my series does not support routes so Im going to have to add the waypoints when we move off each day. So i'd advise anyone purchasing a new sat nav to make sure it lets you preset your routes.

One thing I had been doing in the mapsource program was making a closer study of roads closer to the sites, using a combination of Google Earth and Streetview I was able to set the route to avoid unsuitable roads such as some where you could just about get a car down apart from a caravan aswell!! Because I also downloaded the the map updates to my pc aswell it automatically installed the updates in MapSource, the routes automatically match the routes that would come up on your satnav. MapSource also allows you to block off unsuitable roads or roads you wish to avoid meaning it directs you where you wish to go. But as I said its no use if your SatNav doen't allow you to input the preset routes.

Thanks all for the replys, been very hellpful, i have a garmin nuvi 250, it hasnt got the truck settings, i think i will map out my own route and try and load it on as a custom route, i dont mind smaller roads when we are driving without the caravan and i only have 4 different drives with the caravan on so will give it a go that way.

Thanks Again

Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 13/7/2011

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Hi nelmo.
        Would you not think the truck setting, would avoid low bridges and weight restricted bridges etc, just a thought having never owned a satnav with truck setting on it, so you could well be correct.

Maybe it's a good question to ask the work experience kid, when I am next in Halfrauds!.

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They may do but I can honestly say, in my 25 years of driving, I can't ever recall coming across a bridge that low. There's lots of them with a height of something like 4m but I've never seen anything lower that might affect a caravan. Also, as John says in the above post, you're not going to weigh more than 7.5t and have you ever seen a bridge with a lower rating?

The kid in Halfords won't have a clue...

Quote: Originally posted by carpetking on 15/7/2011

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Thanks all for the replys, been very hellpful, i have a garmin nuvi 250, it hasnt got the truck settings, i think i will map out my own route and try and load it on as a custom route, i dont mind smaller roads when we are driving without the caravan and i only have 4 different drives with the caravan on so will give it a go that way.

 

Thanks Again

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Though as I said above I dont think any of the Nuvi 200 series allow you to do custom routes.