[DieselBoss]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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).

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.