anybody got the Garmin 7500... was lookin to purchise this one anybody have it or any experiance with it??

I have the Garmin 7200. Same thing except for the hookup for dead reckoning capabilities.... If you drive OTR you don't need this option. The 7200 is great for what anyone might need. Its easy to use. You may need to get used to the way it operates, keep the manual close by. short learning curve on this one. Well worth the price. Fun to use also. I bought a memory chip and put music on it, ripped from CDs I have. I just did it for fun.. I used the FM transmiter to play them on my FM radio in my truck, it will only play MP3 format. Go for it you will not regret it

Steveo

yea i was looking up info on it ill go with the 7200. i thought there was a big difference between them but its just the dead reckoning. is it pretty good with its routing for big trucks? i know nothin is a 100% perfect but if its good ill def pick it up

I don't have one, but I know that it's not setup for trucks, meaning it doesn't care about the size of the vehicle or whether or not you're hauling hazmat.

Myself, I use my laptop and CoPilot Truck (backed up with the MCRA, of course).

Yeah, this thing don't really know if u're a Haz-Mat Pullin' 53 foot monster, but it does have options, it wants to know if u are a car, delivery or truck (big truck??) After that u can select your prefernces as in, I like to use the BIG ROADS vs. secondary & minor roads. If you haul route restricted Haz-Mat... This devise will only agrivate you with constantly RECALCULATING your route when u don't follow what the device tells u to do, but thats OK you can just go into MAP VIEW and watch the road travel beneath your "icon" (small triangle)
I had to buy a mount, from Ram Mounts. I forgot the web site, but it works really good no complaints here. A happy camper am I :wink:

Steveo

I also have the Garmin 7200, for about a year now. I belive the 7500 also has a slightly larger screen but the 7200 is already massive. Just recieved the free 2008 map update, it was an easy upgrade. You can install differant voices for directions as well. Built in music speaker is fair but the 7200 has an music out jack so if you have a line in/out jack on your radio, music and all will play over the truck's stereo system. There is also jacks to hook up a vcr and will play movies on the 7200's screen as well, very nice features that you will use if you learn how!

Durections are good but not perfect, keep in mind dir's are meant for 4 wheelers so you have to check the routing once in a while, dont trust it 100%. You can set the unit to run both the shortest and fastest routes and compare before running or in route. Auto recalculation is also very nice.

Really cant say anything negeative about the 7200, it will seem a little pricey, mine was on sale at Fry's Electronics for $890 but worth every penney. Customer support is also great, I accidently broke the glass screen and Garmin replaced the entire unit for free...no questions asked.

A lot of the die hards and super truckers that know every road in America are not comfortable or dont see the benefits of Gps but in my book...especially with all the other bonuses the 7200 offers...it's a no brainer!

Couldn’t I just buy a laptop for a fraction of the cost that would allow me to not only use navigation software and also multitask, but also allow me to do instant messaging, send and receive emails, cruise the Internet, check weather, watch movies, download music, plus a myriad of other things. I mean can you do any of those other things with your Garmin 7200?

I run with a laptop as well, even have CoPilot truckers version but nothing comes close to the 7200. If you are on a budget or are seldom on roads that you are unfamilar with, a laptop can suffice. Just a personal decison for each person, heck a lot of drivers still use paper maps or call the shipper/reciever, that's fine too. If a nice GPS will fit into your budget I think most drivers will be impresses and happy!

Actually, I have been using a laptop with Streets & Trips for years now and it does a great job for me. I have plenty of friends who used CoPilot for a while but they all told me that it often tried to route them on restricted route roads and that it was far harder to learn and use than Streets & Trips and a bitch to do trip planning with. All of them are back to using Streets & Trips again. Anyway, I recently bought this thing, www.truckstopsplus.com, and I can’t say enough good things about it. It has all the truck stops, superwalmarts, rest areas, weigh stations, and everything else and they are all accurate, not to mention that you can check your routes for restricted routes and low clearances on your laptop screen. It makes everything so much easier.

I can dismount it and put it in my pocket. Can you do that with your computer?