Rand Mcnally Tablets?

Do you need to purchase a plan of some kind or need wifi connection to use them? Interested in maybe adding a tool to assist in trip planning.

No, they work off the satellites just like any other GPS. You can connect them to wifi for more features, but... that's the least of your worries with the tablets. Rand McNally is definitely the leader in the industry, and for good reason. But unless this latest iteration of their tablet models have significantly improved, I'd steer clear and go with the dedicated GPS unit. The tablets use unnecessarily sub-par computing power, not enough to reliably run the device. As handy as a GPS is while driving, if the app crashes (which, again unless they've made significant improvements, it will... often) then you'd best hope you planned out your turn-by-turn route, as otherwise you're basically driving blind.

Not to mention from what I experienced using one, there's a difference in the program itself between the tablets and the dedicated units. At least once a week, usually more, the tablet would give me completely incorrect directions, even trying to send me down unsafe routes. With the dedicated unit I have now I've not once had that problem following the given route(though admittedly if I miss a turn or a turn is inaccessible for one reason or another, sometimes the re-route isn't good). The only problem I had with the dedicated units is that its got a small memory leak and you need to shut it down to clear the RAM cache every two to three weeks.

I would actually rather find software for a laptop. Like the truckers atlas but for a laptop that could be zoomed in or out. Look up bridge heights, and calculate distances between points that kinda capability. I'm not looking for gps features but atlas features. It's the map part of the tablet I'm interested in mostly. Anything like that?

Https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rand-mcnally-road-atlas/id624882974?mt=8

The GPS will do all of that for you, though. Whatever floats your boat!

Google maps can do that on a laptop. It just won't give you all truck routes.

So which Rand McNally model is recommended?

The one I use is the TND 525. For the dedicated units all it really comes down to is how much more you want screen size than you want money.