I must have put wrong post code into my sat nav. I turned into a narrow road that quickly became a farm track, I had to keep going until I found somewhere to turn round. Then there was an almighty crunch, my motor mover cross member was bent, the right hand motor assembly was bent down and twisted, digging into the road. I had to spend over an hour on my back in the (cold) mud, removing the mover, which is completely trashed. Today I have picked up a new Royal Atlas mover from Riversway in Preston. A very expensive wrong turning
We often have people driving up our lane which is a dead end. They get to the end where they turn round in a gateway and then I watch them punching away at the sat nav which is obviously telling them to go further.
It is much better to check the full route on the SatNav map before travelling. If I'm going to an unknown place I now fine tune it with google maps after ending up on the wrong side of a train line and taking a huge detour.
------------- Mavis
It is easier to smile than frown so share a smile every day
I only use my sat nav when driving/towing in an unknown area but I always check out the unknown sections of the route on google maps also making notes of suitable off road laybys for breaks
I used my Garmin today and it's useless! It tried to send me down farm tracks - twice - but failed. That bloody woman just won't listen, so in the end I resorted to the map method.
------------- Some days you are the dog,
some days you are the tree.
although we have satnav in all our cars I never travel without a hard copy large scale map. I like to have a good idea of where I am going and if I am using satnav it is only as an aid. I will not do everything it tells me if I am not happy with it.
I have the satnav telling me to turn, My own intuition tells me otherwise, the wife demands something different, then there`s the bloody dog barking and gobbing at the traffic . . .all in a days holiday! . . ."Recalculate!" At least they know what speeds I should be doing . . .and the speed cameras` positions . . .
------------- Peripheral people don`t have as much excitement but they sure live longer
done that without a sat nav,long narrow lane just wide enough for the car and van.drove for about 2 miles on this farm track nothing on each side only grass.at the top of the lane there was a cl caravan site.she said what do you want? i said i am booked in.not here you are not im full.then she gave me a roasting for turning round and going on the grass.you dont forget those days.hope you get your van sorted soon.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Like a most people here we used to get around before the satnav era by the trusted map without much trouble.Just write a route and follow it.I now have a satnav but still write details as a back up and the latest map (cheap enough). I still rely on a map and details written on a A4 sheet in my tank bag on the motorbike as the satnavs for bikes are so expensive in relation to the car ones.
Yes they are very good if in a big town or city if on your own
A satnav will have two settings - fastest route and shortest route, for towing it should be set to fastest route - that will use A roads and motorways. In fact, I never use the other one as it will take you over the top of a mountain on a track to save a few miles!
Mine ( TomTom1) will calculate the route and then you can read through it, step by step, with a map before you go. Any roads you don't want to go on, you edit them out and the satnav rewrites the route.
I also use google maps, and trust them far more than the sat nav. It's a good idea to use google earth to have a look around your final destination as a lot of sites are usually down narrow lanes, so its easy to be mistaken.