Garmin GPS 760lmt For Trucks

Well I got a deal on the garmin GPS for trucks. So far its been giving me some really bogus directions like having take side streets 3 miles from my 90 when there's a freeway right next to it. I know I'm the captain of my ship and don't trust tech to do your job for me and I agree but just wondering if anybody had advice as to the settings to make it more useful to me.

Checking the specs at garmin, I noticed a sub-note for the routing using your truck profile specs. It said not available in all areas. Great, which areas?? I wonder if for the areas it can't get good info from the state, the program over-restricts routing perhaps based only on something like the basic type of road. Might try setting up different profiles for states where you have biggest problem??

Personally, I don't know how much I'll have to spend to get the same functionality as I had in my cheap 3.5" MIO (since bought by either Magellan or Garmin). I could force a different route (like avoid going thru downtown Chicago) simply by adding a waypoint by touching the map on the bypass route. It would give me miles and time to every point in a list. If I had used it in a truck, I could have quickly added three truck stops, stopping points at the estimated end of my day so I could constantly evaluate which one I could make before HOS was up. The units I've tried so far, some will let me enter multiple waypoint destinations, but none let you see/get info on anything beyond just the next one. It even spoke street names. Couldn't update past 2007 maps and had no traffic info, so had to retire it. Still looking for something as useful.

GPS units can really be screwy. I have the Rand 720, have updated it, and it doesn't change the fact that it tries to get me to take bad routes. One notorious thing it will do is try to tell me to take the lower level of the GW bridge in NYC. Trucks are supposed to use the upper level. That's just one example.

Also, if yours is anything like mine, if you purposefully go off the suggested route, it will continue to try and re-route you until it finally catches up with the game plan.

I've also noticed that when there are multiple layers of streets, i.e. if you're on upper levels of cloverleafs or something of that nature, it will really freak out.

As you said, they are just a tool, and only that. I ALWAYS follow the company route guide first, and also use Google Maps when trip planning, as well as my GPS. Common sense is also something good to have.

I use the the rand 720. the only thing that it does that is annoying to me is it directs me to car entrances not the truck entrances at my shipper. Other then that i have no real complaints. My company quallcomm has tried taking me no roads that are posted no truck roads.

Yeah, I'd say that I'm generally happy with my 720, but the bonehead directions it tries to give sometimes really makes me wonder if it was worth the $. I could give a few concrete examples when it would do ridiculous stuff.

I've seen it do enough screwy stuff that if I was OTR I would definitely rely more on a company route guide in concomitance with my own route planning using Google Maps and a Rand McNally paper atlas. The fact that my 720 tries to take me on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge is a huge disappointment - how could Rand have missed that one? And when I'm in Jersey City - it totally freaks out. I've had guys tell me that their phone GPS does a better job.

The best way to get these above issues resolved is to make the company aware of them.

Garmin has a special web page that you can use to Report a Map Error. Use this form if you would like to report a map error and inquires or request.

Examples of map errors include:

~ Map errors or omissions (e.g., roads, addresses, points of interests, trucking restrictions, buoys, imagery, etc.)

~ Routing Concerns

~Questions regarding map content and or compatibility prior to purchase

Rand Mcnally has a Contact Us page which has multiple ways to get in touch with them. Just choose the one that works best for you.

The best way to get these above issues resolved is to make the company aware of them.

Garmin has a special web page that you can use to Report a Map Error. Use this form if you would like to report a map error and inquires or request.

Examples of map errors include:

~ Map errors or omissions (e.g., roads, addresses, points of interests, trucking restrictions, buoys, imagery, etc.)

~ Routing Concerns

~Questions regarding map content and or compatibility prior to purchase

Rand Mcnally has a Contact Us page which has multiple ways to get in touch with them. Just choose the one that works best for you.

That's kind that you put that info out there. I was already aware of the ability to submit errors for Rand. Honestly, it's more of a hassle to report something because either I forget what happened, or it's usually just a really bad sequence of directions. There are a few examples - like the lower level GW Bridge - that I could submit, but the majority of it is just poor "on the fly" navigating that I wouldn't even begin to know how to submit, let alone try and remember how it played out.

I set the settings for fastest route disabled a just for traffic seems to be helping.