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Feature Request: Support for RVs

Former Member
Former Member over 13 years ago
I have read the debate about which is best in both forums - Road Trip and BaseCamp. Frankly, it seems BaseCamp is geared to hand-held use - hikers, motorcyles, etc. That's great, but what about us RVers? Neither seems to support larger vehicles, and there are some very real differences. Both Magellan and Rand McNally have just released RV-specific GPS units, and I know the Rand McNally is Mac compatible. My Nuvi 465T lets me define my RV as a truck and it does a fairly good job of keeping me out of trouble. But the vast difference between the truck routing on the 465T and the motorcycle routing on BaseCamp or Road Trip make trip planning on my MacBook Pro an exercise in frustration.

Will Garmin ever start supporting us RVers? I don't care if it is Road Trip or BaseCamp, just give us some Mac software that will allow there to be some semblance of a connection between what gets planed on the Mac and what gets executed by the Nuvi.
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    I'm an RV'er and I have been very pleased with Garmin's support. RoadTrips has not been updated in two years. My personal guess is RoadTrips was a quick fix to give Mac users a MapSource application. I see BaseCamp replacing MapSource and RoadTrips not because Garmin will remove the apps from the download page, the user base would scream bloody murder, but over time I the users will see the many added features of BaseCamp and switch on their own. I'm not sure what features you are requesting for RV's. If you are looking for 13' clearance you might try truck routes. BaseCamp has an improved search for finding everything including campgrounds and BC will let you view in google earth to see if there are big rigs camping when the picture was taken.

    I know there are options for RV routes from other vendors but it has been my experience it is basically the same route you get when you select automotive. The latest version of BaseCamp has 6 different activities to select, Automotive, Motorcycling, Walking, Bicycling, Trucking, and Direct plus preferences like scenic, highways, etc. I guess the developers could easily add RV'er as an activity which would be great PR when listing features but in relative, they would probable have to add two, big RV'er and and give you the trucking route and little RV'er and give you the Automotive route. Personally I think 6 activities is enough especially with the preferences and the ability to change routes by dragging.
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    I have read the debate about which is best in both forums - Road Trip and BaseCamp. Frankly, it seems BaseCamp is geared to hand-held use - hikers, motorcyles, etc. That's great, but what about us RVers? Neither seems to support larger vehicles, and there are some very real differences. Both Magellan and Rand McNally have just released RV-specific GPS units, and I know the Rand McNally is Mac compatible. My Nuvi 465T lets me define my RV as a truck and it does a fairly good job of keeping me out of trouble. But the vast difference between the truck routing on the 465T and the motorcycle routing on BaseCamp or Road Trip make trip planning on my MacBook Pro an exercise in frustration.

    Will Garmin ever start supporting us RVers? I don't care if it is Road Trip or BaseCamp, just give us some Mac software that will allow there to be some semblance of a connection between what gets planed on the Mac and what gets executed by the Nuvi.

    With the release of BaseCamp 3.2.1, BaseCamp is intended to support all (land-based) vehicle types that Garmin GPS's support. It doesn't surprise me that Motorcycle settings in BaseCamp versus the Truck settings on the device are different. Have you tried picking the Truck profile in BaseCamp? If this doesn't work for you, we'd be interested in knowing what short-comings there are. Thanks for your feedback.
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    I don't care if it is Road Trip or BaseCamp, just give us some Mac software that will allow there to be some semblance of a connection between what gets planed on the Mac and what gets executed by the Nuvi.


    First question is which Nuvi do you have, will your Nuvi allow you to upload a route from BaseCamp? It is a little easier if your Nuvi will accepts routes that you drag to the mounted GPS but even if you can't upload, you can still get the route you plan into your Nuvi. Your Nuvi and BaseCamp should have the same maps and they use the same algorithm to calculate the routes. Depending on the model Nuvi you have, your routing preferences will vary but if you set BaseCamp to No preferences for roads, select Automative for activity, you should be able to use shortest or fastest preferences on both the Nuvi and BaseCamp and get the same route you draw in BC in the Nuvi. If your Nuvi won't accept uploaded routes and you want to change the route, insert waypoints in BaseCamp route and use the via function to get the waypoint in the Nuvi route.
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    I've been planning car, truck and motorcycle road trips on Garmin GPSes using a Mac since the days when Garmin refused to even consider having any Mac compatibility of any kind.

    While I would never argue against more choices for routing preferences in a GPS or its support software, I have to ask what it is you are trying to do that BaseCamp will not accommodate?

    Put another way, if your GPS's preferences allow you to take an acceptable RV route, then why do you need BaseCamp at all? If, as I suspect, you want more control, then I agree 100%, as I like to fuss over every single turn and route choice. Guess what? BaseCamp does that just fine regardless of what mode, activity or set of preferences you start out with.

    No matter how Garmin concocted a set of routing algorithms for "RV," I suspect you would want to override those choices in some cases and again, BaseCamp can do that right now. While it would probably be dumb to set BC to "Motorcycling" to plan your RV route, all it would take is a bit more editing time and energy to correct it. Start with Truck or Auto and that effort will be much less.

    -dan
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    If you check this forum often, your probable checking every turn and know how to get every turn on your GPS. If we consider users (probable a large majority) that only visit the forum when they have a problem or never visit, I seen most of this group having the problem stated by MFTDOC. The problem being how do you get the route created in BaseCamp or MapSource in your GPS. The problem has more to do with the GPS than BaseCamp but it is still a major problem in my opinion. Currently you have to match BC to your GPS preferences to get the same route drawn on the GPS and with BC routing algorithm receiving tweaks and older GPSs not being tweaked, it is very difficult or impossible to get the same route drawn on the older GPSs. I think the best solution would be for Garmin to make a BaseCamp certified GPS but it looks like Garmin is going the opposite direction. If the Nuvi 32xx series has not received a firmware fix, you can't upload a route from BaseCamp or MapSource. If not for BaseCamp, I probable would be using my iPhone and iPad instead of a Nuvi 1490LTM, Forerunner 305, Oregon, and Dakota.
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    I respectfully disagree. With the huge array of Garmin models it would be a nightmare to try to match all of their individual routing options to the trip planning software.

    Instead, the efficient approach would be two-fold: add an option to disable recalc on the GPS models, and make it clear that BaseCamp is meant for power users who want to control every turn, at which point, unless the GPS recalcs and the user has not supplied enough "hard" waypoints to preserve their desired route, the GPS's prefs/options are not a factor. In that sense there is no need to match BC and GPS prefs to create the same route.

    The average non-power user you describe is likely never going to use BaseCamp at all. They use their GPS to get from A to B, at which point the newer models' "Trip Panner" function works just fine for them (though I find it clunky and buggy, at least on the 1695 I tested).

    -dan
  • 0 over 13 years ago
    I respectfully disagree. With the huge array of Garmin models it would be a nightmare to try to match all of their individual routing options to the trip planning software.

    Are we not in the nightmare now if we want to draw a route in BC and get the route in a GPS?

    Instead, the efficient approach would be two-fold: add an option to disable recalc on the GPS models, and make it clear that BaseCamp is meant for power users who want to control every turn, at which point, unless the GPS recalcs and the user has not supplied enough "hard" waypoints to preserve their desired route, the GPS's prefs/options are not a factor. In that sense there is no need to match BC and GPS prefs to create the same route.


    The average non-power user you describe is likely never going to use BaseCamp at all. They use their GPS to get from A to B, at which point the newer models' "Trip Panner" function works just fine for them (though I find it clunky and buggy, at least on the 1695 I tested).

    I respectfully disagree, I don't think there is enough power users to pay Garmin's development cost for BaseCamp. Not that Garmin should ignore power user, Power Users probable influence the decisions of many buyers. What I think Garmin need to do is make a GPS that accepts BC routes and draws the same routes on the GPS. I am not advocating matching preferences. I don't think the current firmware will allow current GPSs to do the calculation but it should not be very had for BC camp to convert the route to a track or sampling of a track and have the GPS convert the track to a route.

    Garmin bought Navigon as a hedge against point A to B people switching to smart phones or tablets but I think BaseCamp can be a game changer for maintain Garmin's GPS sales. I have never meet a GPS user that did not want to plan a route on a laptop or desktop computer with all the resourced of the web. I think all use want to drag the route for shaping and drag the route to the GPS. Problem now is the route may change.


    -dan

    It used to be users just wanted to double click now users just want to click and drag