Garmin GPS for truckers

[reed0427]

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=275&pID=31541

Garmin is releasing in the second quarter of 2009 a new GPS program designed specifically for truck drivers. Check out the link, looks pretty good. :thumbsup:

[Mpneypit]

IT looks pretty good. Will have to see what other truckers say about it when it comes out.

[matcat]

Looks good, I can't wait for TomTom to come out with a truck GPS though!

[DieselBoss]

I wrote a review on this GPS today for our site, but thought it would be helpful info for you all too.



The reviews are mixed so far in general. Now that we have 6 weeks of usage with our drivers I'll update here with a more concise review (besides the comparison and feature chart I posted earlier.)

The interface: Very good. Easy to click buttons. Clear screen and maps. The screen will "wash out" in direct sunlight (as do the other brands of truck GPS) but the overall "look and feel of the 465T is very nice.

The maps: Excellent. Garmin uses NavTeq map data and the address data is very complete. It's isn't 100% as I have found a few addresses that it doesn't have, but overall the maps are excellent.

Route planning: Good, but not very good. It is fairly easy to plan multi-stop routes. However this model does not have the ability to automatically "optimize" your stops like higher-end Garmins or the PC Miler does. Also it is less "friendly" in what you have to do to view or reorder the route directions manually to force it to use certain roads that you want it to. But it can be done with a little practice.

Truck routing and guidance: Mixed. Clearly this unit has extensive truck "attributes" overlaid on the NavTeq maps. It will route a big truck much better than a standard "car" Garmin will. However, the truck routing is not "mature" or complete with the current rev of the 465T software as it has failed to put us on truck-legal roads on many occasions. It failed our New York City testing (which is arguably the most complex test we can give it) as well. It does of very good job of re-routing you if you miss a turn, but pay close attention to whether the road it uses is truck-legal. The bottom line on the routing is that it is "ok" at this point but drivers who don't pay attention will have it let them down in this regard upon occasion.

* a note for Canadians. Though the 465T has the same thorough maps for Canada, the truck attributes are only for the lower 48 at this time. Don't expect it to know about trucking-legal roads in Canada at this time. Rumor has it that Garmin is working to correct this on a future billable update to the maps.

BlueTooth: Mixed. This is one of the features that Garmin uses to justify the higher price of their unit. It pairs easily with your bluetooth-enabled cell phone but this feature has very little use in a semi truck because when you speak to someone through it, they will tell you that you are hard to hear and sound as if you are talking "in a wind tunnel." Also, the speaker is not loud enough to use this feature at highway speeds for you to adequately hear the caller, except in the most quiet of rigs. HOWEVER, if you are stopped it is a cool "bell and whistle" as a hand-free cell phone option, and the ability to have it automatically dial POI phone numbers is very nice.

Lane change warnings: Good. Only the Garmin has this, and it works well most of the time. It usually correctly identifies when you need to move over lanes to make your upcoming turn and that is very helpful in a big rig.

Speed limits: Mixed. It's nice that it shows use the current speed limit for the road you are on, but it only shows the car speed limit and not the truck limits in split-speed states.

Real-time traffic: Very good. Another feature that Garmin has to justify the higher price works quite well in the major cities. It is "free for life" according to Garmin but is "ad driven" in that you get ads on the screen for various businesses who have paid for that placement while you are using the real-time traffic feature. All-in-all this is feature is one of the actual more compelling reasons to choose this unit.

Mounting: Mixed. Garmin includes a "dash mount" style kit with this unit rather than a standard "windshield suction" style. Theirs requires that you place a sticky play where you want it to sit in your rig. This is helpful in states where the DOT guy may be on you about windshield-mounted devices, but makes it hard if you do not own your rig to move it to a new truck, and there have been complaints about the stability of this mount in use. They do offer a suction-style mount as an additional accessory for the 465T on their web site.

Accessories: somewhat disappointed. We wish that the 465T included an external GPS antenna for improved signal and an AC power adapter but it currently does not.

Summary: The 465T currently carries the highest price of the fast-growing market of truck GPS units, but justifies that higher price with the addition of lane-change warnings, real-time traffic alerts, and bluetooth cell phone connectivity. The interface and maps are very clean and complete, but the truck routing attributes are not fully mature yet. I feel that the 4.3" screen is adequate but could be improved by offering a 5" or 7" version. Garmin allows for manipulation of the POI's and other program aspects via an application downloadable from their site and typically posts updates (sometimes free and sometimes not) on their site which will make it easier for users to update these units as the software is improved over the competing units. For Canadian drivers, or those (like car-haulers) who need and external GPS antenna, the 465T is not the best choice.

Overall we give this current "first rev" of Garmin's entry into the trucking GPS market at 7 out of 10.

Hope that helps.

- Don

[Glad Hand]

My brother inlaw bought the Garmin 465T as soon as it was released for sale figuring that since it was a Garmin product as opposed to the infamous Alk products or the WorldNav products, that it would be a good product because of Garmin’s strong reputation. Wrong! He has been cussing it out everyday ever since he bought it, as the unit pulls him off of legal routes and onto illegal routes all the time among many other nasty things. He says it was a gigantic waste of money and is going to try to get his money back. Too bad because he saved his money forever. Thus, heads up buyers beware.

[charged]

my dad bought one the other day at best buy. He says it has many problems, but didn't elaborate on them.

[DieselBoss]

IMPORTANT FYI for all owners of this product.

Garmin has put up on their web site 2 software updates to these. One is a "firmware" update to try to correct some bugs and the other is a "maps" update. The firmware update is done by using their "Updater" application and by plugging your unit into a computer. This was a pretty straight-forward process and fairly quick and free.

The maps update is $70 if your unit is older than 60 days. Mine was 61 days old. If you registered your 465T less than 60 days ago then I suggest that you get this update before that time limit expires. They also have a "lifetime updates" option there for $120. The file size download for this update is HUGE and the extraction / update process is lengthy so I also suggest that you have over an hour and a good internet connection when you perform it. This update consists of a new NavTeq maps database for addresses and roads, but does NOT contain any truck routing changes until whenever they put out the next one.

- Don from Dieselboss

[Malaki86]

Today I had the chance to play with one of the 465T's for a couple of minutes. It looks nice - except...

I was at the Pilot on I-80 in PA at exit 173. This same exit has a Flying J and a T/A within 1/2 mile.

Anyway, on the GPS, I hit the "Where Am I" button. It showed the exact location as to where I was (inside the Pilot). I then hit the button for "Fuel". Guess what - it showed no Flying J, no T/A, no Pilot... It did show a Sheetz, a Shell, an Amoco...

Ya - don't think those are truck fuelstops...

[DieselBoss]

Today I had the chance to play with one of the 465T's for a couple of minutes. It looks nice - except...

I was at the Pilot on I-80 in PA at exit 173. This same exit has a Flying J and a T/A within 1/2 mile.

Anyway, on the GPS, I hit the "Where Am I" button. It showed the exact location as to where I was (inside the Pilot). I then hit the button for "Fuel". Guess what - it showed no Flying J, no T/A, no Pilot... It did show a Sheetz, a Shell, an Amoco...

Ya - don't think those are truck fuelstops...

Yup. I have found that their trucking-specific POI's are rather incomplete.

[Malaki86]

The gps unit I'm waiting to hear more info on is the Rand-McNally one. If anyone has true truck specific info, they'd be the one.

[DieselBoss]

The gps unit I'm waiting to hear more info on is the Rand-McNally one. If anyone has true truck specific info, they'd be the one.

There is a HUGE difference between having truck-specific data and GETTING IT INTO a working, practical, accurate GPS. Just ask Garmin... I agree though that if any of this vast array of truck GPS players has a decent shot of bringing a new device to market, them RM has a better starting point than most.

We'll be running it thru its paces soon and will let you know what we see.

[Glad Hand]

Have you guys tried the Truck Stops Plus add on template for Streets & Trips yet? My wife got it for me last Christmas and I thought it would be junk but ended up being very pleasantly surprise.

Anyway, I downloaded the 60 day free trial of Streets & Trips 2010 two days ago and after I got it installed, I went to the Truck Stops Plus website to check if they had updated it yet too and they had, so I went ahead and bought and downloaded the 2010 version too.

New for this year with the Truck Stops Plus is they now cover Canada as well as the USA and altogether it now has more than 10,000 trucking specific POIs. In fact, they advertise that they have the largest and most accurate trucking specific POI database on the market. Let me say it is a very worthwhile add-on for anyone still using Streets & Trips.

By the way, I just checked I-80 at exit 173 in Mill Hall, PA and it shows a Pilot on the Northeast quadrant, a Flying J on the Southwest quadrant, and a TA across the street from the Flying J on the Southeast quadrant.

It shows the Pilot is a medium size truck stop. The Flying J and TA as both being large size truck stops. It shows that all three of them have scales, and in addition the TA truck stops also does major repairs.

The Pilot has a Subway, the TA has a Subway and a Country Pride Restaurant, and the Flying J has a Pepperoni’s, Magic Dragon, and Country Market Restaurant. It uses the actual truck stop logos so that’s pretty cool. I love this thing.

With Streets & Trips this year you can now export your routes, stops, pushpins, etc. to .gpx files. Thus, you can now plan your trips in Streets & Trips and then export them to compatible Garmin products. I’m also wondering if you could export the Truck Stops Plus POI database into that Garmin 465T?

[Malaki86]

To export the TSP template, you need to export it to a different file type, which, trust me, isn't easy to do. I had to download a trial of Microsoft MapPoint, then download a trial for a utility program to do the actual exporting.

But, now I have the entire TSP data saved as a CSV file which I can (and have) exported to other gps programs/devices.

[Glad Hand]

To export the TSP template, you need to export it to a different file type, which, trust me, isn't easy to do. I had to download a trial of Microsoft MapPoint, then download a trial for a utility program to do the actual exporting.

But, now I have the entire TSP data saved as a CSV file which I can (and have) exported to other gps programs/devices.

Did it export the franchise truck stop icons and other icons, full descriptions, and GPS coordinates also? And what GPS device did you import it into? A lot of them only allow you to import like 500 custom POIs. Did it work okay? I mean can you see the POIs on the maps and will it give you the full description?

[Malaki86]

It exported the name, the gps coordinates & the descriptions.

I've imported it into my Garmin Nuvi 200 and StreetDeck, which is a computer front-end program with navigation (along with a lot of other stuff, such as an mp3 player, cd player, xm radio integration, etc).

[Glad Hand]

So how did it work? Can you see truck stops, rest areas, turnpike service plazas, weigh stations, etc. and be able to tell them apart as you are traveling like in Streets & Trips? Can you search and route to them and add them as stops? Is there a way to like import the truck stop icons and the other icons?

[Malaki86]

No, you can't see them in the Nuvi while you're driving. But, in all fairness, you can't see any poi's on the device period. You can search for them just like any other POI.

[DieselBoss]

It exported the name, the gps coordinates & the descriptions.

I've imported it into my Garmin Nuvi 200 and StreetDeck, which is a computer front-end program with navigation (along with a lot of other stuff, such as an mp3 player, cd player, xm radio integration, etc).


That is an awesome tip! The Gamins and the S&T do allow for manipulation of the POI database (with some computer knowledge in your back pocket of course.) I wondered about importing the S&T truck stops add-on into a Garmin and apparently you succeeded. Thanks man.

[Malaki86]

Remember - first you have to export the truck stops addon to a CSV file so that other devices/programs can use it.

Streets & Trips won't do it, but Microsoft MapPoint will - they have a 60 day demo available, which I used. I also had to use a 3rd party script program as a demo to do the actual exporting.

[Glad Hand]

Cool.

[DieselBoss]

FYI - Garmin posted a firmware update today (to version 2.7)

Use their web updater application to update when you are ready.

The release notes say:

Changes made from version 2.50 to 2.70:

Corrected issue where FMI ETA message was not being sent automatically when a route is calculated
Corrected issue in FMI delete protocol where a packet receipt would only be sent upon failure
Corrected LBA log file corruption issue
Prevented power button from powering-off unit during GCD update
Corrected issues where some microSD cards are not recognized
Corrected issue in custom POI along route/road search