Quote:
Originally Posted by DDCavi
Wasnt there a new GPS released this past nov-december that was supposed to be great? Im now in the market also...
EDIT: It was the "PCmiler Truck Navigator". It was being tested by DieselBoss but I havent heard any updates. I check the other thread and its covered in dust.
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Well I best get ON THAT huh?
Ok, here's the scoop folks.
PC Miler Nav 430 has been out for just under 2 months now. We (dieselboss.com) and a few Love's and TA's got the first batch and it went out immediately. Then a few weeks later we got the second batch and it went out immediately. Earlier this month we (and a greater amount of truck stops) got the 3rd batch and now have stock available. Many of the truck stops put it out at $299 (plus the local sales tax) when it came out and some of them are still selling it at that price. How quickly it has sold is indicative of what you all already know - there are very few choices for truck routing GPS units on the market today.
Here are some bullet statements about the PCM430 units:
- The software is very similar in design to CoPilot Truck 11, but it is about a year newer on the maps and addresses. Just like CoPilot Truck, the addresses are more complete in the industrial and the urban areas. It does not have as many rural addresses in it as a Garmin or MS Streets does. So if you drive lot of "farm" loads, or "oil rig" loads and so forth, then you will have more problems with addresses than regular loads. However, it still lets you pick a spot on the maps to drive to, even if it doesn't know that address.
- It has an updated POI database, so it has the vast majority of truck stops and weigh stations, Wal-Marts, etc that were in existence prior to about October of 2008. For those of you who know about the "search for POI along my route" bug in CoPilot 11 - it is FIXED in the PCMiler Nav units. So that means that you can search for weigh stations or truck stops, etc on your route.
- It allows you to put up to 50 stops on a single trip and change the order of the stops, add your next fuel stop, etc.
- The screen is 4.3" touch-screen and does not fade out so bad in sunlight like the WorldNav units.
- The truck restriction routing (low bridges, HazMat, etc) is very good. It is right 99% of the time about keeping you on a proper truck route. HOWEVER, the unit comes to you in "default" mode when you get it. I wrote a "quick setup" guide on how to properly enter your truck height, weight, length, width, and road preferences. (these are expanded truck routing settings not found in CoPilot Truck) The quick start guide comes with any units that we ship, but not in the units in truck stops or other web sites. IF YOU DO NOT CREATE AND SAVE A CORRECT TRUCK ROUTE PROFILE when you get the PCM430, YOU WILL be upset with the route.
NOW, how about a problems with this first version of the Nav 430 you ask???
- The first batch that came out at around Christmas time had something wrong with some of the 12V charger cords. Also, that batch had something wrong with the way the software was loaded in some of the units. There were several of that batch that had to go in for warranty replacement within the first few weeks to get new cords and have the software reloaded.
- The second batch had the cords fixed, but still had software corruption issues to a much lesser extent.
- The current units available now have those fixed and we haven't seen them being returned for warranty now. The only thing that I have seen corrupt the software is when the driver lets the unit battery go dead while the program is still booted up and running. It runs on Windows CE and Windows does NOT like stopping abruptly by letting the battery go dead any more than your laptops do. Don't do that. Bad juju can happen. Keep it plugged or turn it completely off (not just "sleep" mode) when you are not going to use it for a while.
- One of the main complaints still is that the speaker is not loud enough once you are running down the road in the truck. I agree. They need to put a louder speaker in that thing in the future. Some of our drivers don't even turn up the volume so don't care about this, but for those who do, the only ways to get around it is to buy a small external speaker at Radio Shark or BestBuy, WalMart, etc and pug it into the speaker jack. The other way is to get an FM Transmitter and plug it into the speaker jack so you can hear it through your truck stereo once you get into the city and need to pay attention. Either one of those solutions will cost you $15 to $30 depending on what quality you buy.
- A WORD ABOUT SUPPORT. ALK Technologies tech support is extremely backed up since these units came out. It is nearly impossible to get immediate support on how to use the units or report a problem, unless you get it from us. We do in-house support for the PCM430's and CoPilot Truck if you bought them from us, so this eliminates that issue.
So to summarize: The units aren't perfect (but then again I don't believe that there is such a thing.) We would rate current rev of the Navigator 430 at about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. We are vigorously feeding your experiences, complaints, and suggestions back to ALK to hopefully bring the future software / hardware changes so they then rate an 8 or a 9. We can only wait and see what the future (and ALK) holds there. So compared to the alternatives, it is really the only effective true truck route GPS still.
Note: For those of you who asked me to look into the upcoming truck GPS product release from Goodyear, I went to the CES convention in Vegas in January and met with them. They were very responsive and eager to release another player into the truck routing arena. They let me play with the beta unit and offer suggestions. I can report two things based on that meeting. (1) The thing is way ruggedized. Very nice looking hardware. and (2) the software on the unit I tested was NOT yet ready for trucker use. They were very clear in letting me know that their team was still finalizing the software and would have the issues that I saw eliminated by the time it is released (which is very soon by the way.) I will be getting one of those early units and you can be assured that we will run it through the paces for you. Just remember that it takes at LEAST a month of getting them in to driver's hands before anyone can really get a good handle on all of the issues and capabilities of the units.
There is a TON of rhetoric and blanket statements being thrown around the blogs and forums about truck GPS (this is "junk" "that's no good" or whatever.) We test and use them ALL. Members of THIS forum have the distinct advantage of getting the straight scoop on this stuff. Ask and you shall receive.
Hope this helps.
- Don
