“I also find that I like to create my route using my RV Life Trip Wizard then sending it to the Garmin GPS.”

Are you using Garmin drive to send to the 1080rv ? Or how are you sending the rvlife maps.
I have a 890rv.

@BlueSky  Yes, I am using Garmin Drive for the import/export.  No cables or cards.  I create the route on my desktop computer.  Then I open the Trip Wizard on my phone and export a GPX file to a trip folder.  Then I send it to my Garmin RV 1095.  Works nicely.

We have the Garmin RV890 and it includes updates of maps and operation software at no charge.  In other words, maps and functionality remain current with new devices.  We purchased one of the Garmin cameras and it worked great with the main screen, but the camera itself was of marginal picture quality.  The lack of contrast made it hard to see vehicles until they were close.  We use the window mount. The magnetic connection is the best of any device ever and DW can easily remove it to work with the GPS in her lap and then reinstall on the window.

I have not tried to import our RV Trip Wizard maps into the Garmin, but will give it a try.  Thanks for the tip.

Mike

@Buckmountain, thanks for the camera review.  I thought it would be kind of lacking from reading the specs.  Surprising that Garmin doesn't offer a better camera solution.  I'm patient, I will wait.  I was hoping to be able to dispose of the current camera and save a little windshield space at the same time.

@Slotown posted:

@Buckmountain, thanks for the camera review.  I thought it would be kind of lacking from reading the specs.  Surprising that Garmin doesn't offer a better camera solution.  I'm patient, I will wait.  I was hoping to be able to dispose of the current camera and save a little windshield space at the same time.

We purchased the Garmin BC™ 35 Wireless Backup Camera.  Newer cameras may be better, but I don't recommend this one.

Mike

@Slotown posted:

@BlueSky  Yes, I am using Garmin Drive for the import/export.  No cables or cards.  I create the route on my desktop computer.  Then I open the Trip Wizard on my phone and export a GPX file to a trip folder.  Then I send it to my Garmin RV 1095.  Works nicely.

When I have customized the route in RVlife with waypoints, then imported it into rv890 I have had some issues with the route changing in weird ways. Also the route in rv890 would be fine the first time I looked at the route but after turning off and on the rv890 device it would reroute. I was importing a 15 stop trip with stops like to a relative’s house at a residential area.
Moral of the story trust but verify every time.

Like many others we have the built in Nav in the truck, we don't have the Apple or Android apps as the truck is a 2017 model.

Our Garmin is a 795 so not such a large screen but I find it is much easier to glance at the Garmin on the dash than the screen in the truck - especially when going through complex freeway interchanges.

@sequoia464 my truck is a 2002 F350.  It came with an AM/FM and cassette.  I replaced it with a Kenwood that has Android Auto.  I have a difficult time seeing the screen during the day light hours.  If I put sunglasses on it's just impossible.  I am very disappointed in the Kenwood because of this.  I now only use it to listen to music.  I do NOT recommend Kenwood because of this.  The Garmin is perfectly clear regardless of sun orientation.

Went on a six day trip using the Garmin.  I had previously planned the trip in RV Trip Wizard and then imported it directly to the Garmin.  So that part of the trip held no surprises.  However when we got ready to leave I asked the Garmin return to home.  As I was leaving the the state park (Suwanee River State Park) the Garmin directed me to turn right on River Road.  River Road is a very sandy dirt road marked for service vehicles only.

Bottom line:  Don't throw common sense out the window.  They all seem to screw up!

Other than that, I really liked it.  Easy to read even in bright sun.  Intersections and on ramps very well detailed.

I think there is a setting for not routing over dirt roads.

@BlueSky, I'll certainly look for that!  Thanks for the insight.

They can be programmed for your RVs height, width and length to keep you off of roads with low clearance as well.

@BlueSky, I checked the settings and avoid dirt roads was already selected.  I was hoping it wasn't selected to explain why I was directed on a sandy dirt road.  No big deal during daylight hours but could have been a nightmare at night.

@Slotown posted:

@BlueSky, I checked the settings and avoid dirt roads was already selected.  I was hoping it wasn't selected to explain why I was directed on a sandy dirt road.  No big deal during daylight hours but could have been a nightmare at night.

“trust but verify” is the clearly the motto.  

I have had the rvlife route rerouted by the Garmin when I uploaded it.

@BlueSky

"I have had the rvlife route rerouted by the Garmin when I uploaded it."

That would piss me off unless the road was blocked!

It would do things like route me to I5 when I had RV Life routed to use 101. Very frustrating, also it would reroute the last mile sometimes in funny ways to some locations.

I have taken to having to check the route the night before I leave....
trust but verify... I still like the Garmin better than google or apple maps.

I've looked at these units for probably the same reason many of you have them. But, I'd really prefer a reliable app that would just work through Android Auto onto the 12" infotainment screen in the truck. I've already got the monitor for my trailer's rear camera sitting in the "cubby" on top of the dash and really don't want another screen to find a place for.

But, Google Maps has taken me on some routes that I'd prefer to have avoided when pulling the camper.

RV life has a trailer safe GPS for your mobile device.
when I messed with it did not have traffic options and I had to down load a maps for all the states I was traveling through, in case I lost my cell connection.
the good news was it would load my rv life trips no problem.

Thanks, BlueSky. I'll take a look.

Let us know what you thoughts are. I am going to give it a go on my next big trip along with the Garmin. And of course my navigator and co pilot will be helping…😊

I've used my 1095 for few months now. I really like but like al GPS units it's not perfect. Better than most. Way better than Google Maps or Waze. I can see the screen in bright sunlight as well. I purchased the oversized pillow option and it rests right on the dashboard. I can see it and the windshield quite well.

@Slotown posted:

I've used my 1095 for few months now. I really like but like al GPS units it's not perfect. Better than most. Way better than Google Maps or Waze. I can see the screen in bright sunlight as well. I purchased the oversized pillow option and it rests right on the dashboard. I can see it and the windshield quite well.

I have a smaller unit - a 795 - that also sits on the dash. I prefer that location to the built in nav on the trucks screen - it's much easier for me to glance at it quickly to pick up whatever details I need, than looking down at the trucks screen. I find that watching my speed is easier on the Garmin than having to look at the speedo on the trucks instrument cluster.

@sequoia464 The bottom edge of mine rests directly on the dash and is slightly angled towards me.  I would angle it more but I like two sets of eyes on it at all times when possible.  I also discovered you can tailor the alert noises it makes.  Out of the box it made all kinds of noises but I have filtered those down to just a few.  My favorite is the tone it makes to wake me up 1/2 mile away from the next turn.

One of the keys to keep you from boxing yourself in is to do a very through "map recon" before you begin the daily journey.  I plan my routes in RV Trip Wizard.  I will zoom down and view each turn step by step.  I'm not good enough to memorize it perfectly, but it helps during the day.

@BlueSky posted:

Let us know what you thoughts are. I am going to give it a go on my next big trip along with the Garmin. And of course my navigator and co pilot will be helping…😊

I'll let you know. I downloaded the app and was planning to do a free trial but we don't have an upcoming trip, so I'll probably wait until I can put it into action. Though I suppose I could give it a test run without actually pulling the camper.

I like RV life trip planer, the gps app comes with it. It has some annoying features and is not “the end all” but between the Garmin and RV life and lots of research on my own, I can get where I’m going.
i have tried many different trip planning tools and RV life checks more boxes than anything else, however I will use as many tools as I can in planing and routing.

You can load the RV trip route into the Garmin but it has limits when converting from one to the other.

Waze, apple maps, google maps are designed for short A-B trips they are also useful for commuting in a car. When I am pulling a trailer I’m not interested in saving 3 min to a avoid a traffic jam.

Garmin RV can interface with my phone for weather and traffic but I have not used that much.

@BlueSky posted:

Whe

@BlueSky posted:

When I am pulling a trailer I’m not interested in saving 3 min to a avoid a traffic jam.

This, times 1000. I like Google Maps fine for regular driving, but I want the minimal stress when pulling the camper. I don't mind a little more time.

I have the 7 inch version of the Garmin GPS... the 795.  I also use other apps and programs for long distance trip planning and I like being able to import trips planned on other programs into the Garmin. The only issue is I've run into is with the RVLife app. It still does not use traffic information in its route planning. The 795 does and can immediately re-route when roads are jammed and closed. When it reroutes it continues to use the same vehicle restrictions in the new route. RVLife can't do this. It can't take into account potential traffic on a route at a particular time either. The Garmin is better than the RVLife app because Garmin has traffic data. Its better than Google, Waze, and Applemaps because none of them account for vehicle size and weight in route planning.

I don't like the Garmin Drive app. It's not convenient and frequently fails to connect to my phone. My Rand McNally GPS was far easier to connect to my phone. I don't like the interface much. It seems to require more screen jumping and menu diving than any others GPS I've ever owned.

I made mistakes of getting OTR (truck version) several years ago.  I keep thinking of switching to RV.

The biggest downside of truck version, you have to know street address of campground. If road has truck access, is unknown or has restrictions, it doesn't appear on screen.  This also includes, clearance issues.

If you shut off truck, for break or fuel, it can reroute you, from that point.

The features that can be annoying or not.  It keeps track of your hours and will display food stops, at break or meal times.  It also starts showing you fuel stops and maintenance, based on hours.  This can be handy or not.

I keep looking at switching to RV version, but does it show all campgrounds (COE) or just ones that pay for listing?  Same with fuel and food.  I'm guessing they must pay fee to be listed.  Does it show boat ramps, bait shops, grocery stores?

Thanks

@RobertMT posted:

I keep looking at switching to RV version, but does it show all campgrounds (COE) or just ones that pay for listing?  Same with fuel and food.  I'm guessing they must pay fee to be listed.  Does it show boat ramps, bait shops, grocery stores?

Thanks

I use the 770 which is similar to the 795.  They use a couple of different databases and they list 20,000+ campgrounds and RV parks.  Fuel and Food is the same as any of their other GPS.  If you hit the fuel button you’ll get a list of stations on your route or nearby depending on how you search.  Grocery stores are a shopping category.  You can also set up a custom shortcut on the home screen, so if you want you can have a shortcut that with a tap will look for Starbucks.  It also includes RV services and dump stations.  You can set up multiple profiles, un my case I have the default “car” profile and a “towing profile”, you may get a different route depending on the profile and when in the towing profile I get the speed limit for towing i.e 55 in CA and ETA’s are based on that instead if 75.

Thanks that's helpful.  The truck version only shows fuel and food options, that have access and parking, for your vehicle profile.  You can basically set those from straight truck to semi, you set height, width, length, trailer combos and weight.  I have four profiles set and get routing based on them.  I can set governed speed, posted speed limit or governed speed, is used for time.  It's uncanny how accurate it can be.

It also alerts for speed limit changes, school zones, sharp curves, grades, RR crossings, dangerous intersection, ECT.  State borders and scales are nice, but unnecessary extras

I've been using this for about a year now with interesting results.  Something went bad wrong with mine and I spent an hour online with tech support before they gave up and issued a return code.  Bottom line it quit importing routes totally.  And then it quit building routes that were over two hundred miles.  Garmin sent a replacement.  It's still a little quirky with importing routes from RV Trip Wizard.  Sometimes it will crash when I try to display the route.  If I load it a 2nd time it will work.

I am now convinced all GPS's will try to send you down a bad road eventually.  I have never go use dirt roads and twice it's tried to send me down a dirt road.  RV Trip Wizard will put you in the pretzel hold as well.  I don't know about you but pulling a trailer on the interstate right through the middle of Dallas TX at 3:30 PM is something I never want to experience with a while pulling a TT again.  When I got to our daily stop location I pulled up the Trip Wizard and sure enough I planned that route.  Lesson learned here is after the route is planned zoom in and check real close where it's sending you.  I will gladly spend an additional 20 minutes on a beltway around a busy city.

I'm guessing some of the big fuel stations do pay to be on the route and highlighted.  But other even better locations are not even when you search for them.  Case in point is Buc-ees.  I never pass one of those if I can help it.  Big lanes and cheap fuel.  They almost give away their ice.  I sent in a request to RV Trip Wizard to add them.  They replied right back that they are working on it.  I think that means they are waiting for a payment from Buc-ees.

Google maps sends you out of the way, so you past by fast food place, on your right, if it's near mealtime and they're a sponsor.

I purposely avoid cities and mostly travel the back roads.

Sometimes GPS sends you interesting places.  I learned to roll down the window and just enjoy the Banjos.

I use Google Maps, Waze, Garmin RV890, and paper maps.  I am convinced that paper maps are the most valuable and each of the electronic gadgets have some positive points, but each has some serious faults so that I would not trust any of the electronic devices by itself.  Admittedly,  I am old and learned how to find my way around by map long before Google Maps, Waze, Garmin, and any other electronic gadget had even been dreamed of so I am probably a bit set in my ways.

I bought the Garmin because I thought the RV features would be useful.  But I have learned to trust it less than either Google or Waze.  I am from Michigan and I know my way around Michigan.  When I ask Garmin for a route in Michigan, it hardly ever gives me a route that I would have selected.  Google and Waze usually are closer to my liking. If Garmin does this where I know my way around,  I suspect it is doing the same when I am in unfamiliar territory.  My problem with my Garmin RV890 is that when I ask for a route, it will give me a route that is suitable for my RV characteristics, however I have little confidence that it is the best route. My real problem is that when I do not follow the Garmin route and deviate from the Garmin route, Garmin begins to give instructions to get back to its route and those instructions disregard all vehicle parameters and will send you down anything that is a plotted road right of way, including abandoned two-tracks that are impassible by any 4 wheel vehicle.

Another thing I dislike about the Garmin RV890 is that while I bought it for the large screen,  it continuously pops up a window box on the righthand third of the screen with stop suggestions.  I wanted the big screen for a big map,  not for unrequested information.  I find it annoying that I am having to click that unrequested stuff off about every 15 minutes or so.

I don't like Google Maps for directions because it seems to always be zoomed wrong or zooming in too close so that it is hard to see what is a couple blocks ahead.  I also have a distrust for Google Maps because when I ask it to take me to my home address,  it misses by 3.2 miles and instead of ending up on my nice paved county road, it takes you to a location on a dirt two track

I typically have Google maps on my iphone, zoomed out to show traffic 25-50 miles ahead,  I have Waze on the truck apple car play for directions, and I have the Garmin for a large screen showing what is immediately around me.  All this is after verifying my route on a paper map each day, if I am in unfamiliar areas.

I did finally learn how to edit a Garmin route on the RV890, but it is easier to let Waze, or maybe Google Maps, do that part.

It sounds like RV version has some of the same problems as the truck version.

It's hard to drive and use paper map.  The phone is bad enough.  While I just listen to it, when someone tries to call or message, it kicks map into background and mutes it.

Many times, I just use truck GPS to display map, without selecting route.  I use the tools menu, to minimize sub menu and pop ups.

I first got cheap gps, for speedometer, after replacing third Speedo gear on my 90.  About every other time odometer rolled over, it would start skipping around.  That $29 TomTom was easier to use and didn't send you down rivers.  It seems most of development has been geared towards ads and sponsors.

The 1095 has a 10" inch screen.  It's wonderful and can be seen no matter where the sun is.  Then they ruined it by putting large blue pop up stickers for ALL attractions.  At times there can be so many that you can't see any of the roads.  There is no way to filter them out or turn them off altogether.

The seven inch is large enough.  It seems like for $500 they could do better and if double that, just gives more ads, on bigger screen, no thanks.

Speaking paper maps, couple years ago, I got new atlas.  I thought, I was being smart paying extra and getting large print version.  Instead of just making it larger, they put more pages in same size books.  This made page breaks on maps awkward at best.

Sigh...

@Slotown posted:

The 1095 has a 10" inch screen.  It's wonderful and can be seen no matter where the sun is.  Then they ruined it by putting large blue pop up stickers for ALL attractions.  At times there can be so many that you can't see any of the roads.  There is no way to filter them out or turn them off altogether.

You should be able to turn them off - they’re called “up ahead”.  On my 770 if the feature is on you can pick the three default items you want, you can also add additional categories including campgrounds.  Mine is set up for gas stations, rest areas & restaurants - if it’s on you have to show 3 categories.  If I turn “Up Ahead” off none of the blue tags show on the map.

From the 1095 manual, there should be a on/off check mark too.  The photos reflect how I get to it on my 770.  Settings, Map & Vehicle, Map Layers, Up Ahead Places.  Clicking on the arrow in the Up Ahead Place field takes you the categories where you have to pick 3.  Unchecking the box turns off the feature, no blue tags on map. Categories below it can also be added to the map layer.

Customizing the Up Ahead Categories

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