GPS

[Dennis Crawford]

Folks,
It appears that my Garmin 7200 has bitten the dust.  I have a big trip planned and need to get a replacement.  Garmin has the new dezl 760lmt and Rand McNally has the 7720LM.  Has anyone researched either of these products?  I was happy with the 7200 and am leaning toward the Garmin, but the 7720LM has some nice RV features.

thanks,

Dennis

[MarcRodstein]

I have had numerous Garmins and now I have the Rand McNally 7710. The RM 7720 is basically an improved 7710 so I imagine the basic Nav features are the same. I have found that the RM has better RV oriented features than the Garmins, but is not as intuitive to operate.  

Nice things about the RM are the ability to more easily call up Walmarts, Truck Stops, and Rest Areas. More Campground information. However I find the process of navigating from screen to screen and find what you are looking for is confusing. If you don't need or want the RV-specific features I would go with the Garmin. But if you can overcome the more tortured logic of the RM, it does have some nice features that the Garmin does not.

Maybe you can find an RM seller with a liberal return privilege and try it for yourself. That is really the acid test.

[LEAH DRAPER]

I have the RMcN 7710 also and really like it, but it is certainly different than the Garmin's in my toad/cars.  It has a lot of nice features which need to be explored.

[Steve Adams]

We have the 5 inch version of the RM and it does have some good RV features. Unfortunately, it seems every time we need to insert an address or look something up we get very frustrated as the use of it is not intuitive at all!

Just last year we drove to San Jose and even though we had entered the weight of our rig it routed us onto 2 roads in the Morgan Hill/Gilroy area with bridges that were rated at 9k. In both instances I saw the signs before making the turn. Very, very frustrating.

I'll be getting a Garmin next time.

Steve

[Joel Weiss]

Nice things about the RM are the ability to more easily call up Walmarts, Truck Stops, and Rest Areas.

I don't know anything about the RM's, but on the Garmin I find a Walmart by typing Walmart and pushing the search button.  Same thing for Sam's, Costco, etc.

We have the 465T trucker Garmin and it has kept us out of trouble more than once.  Sometimes it avoids routes that are truck-restricted even though they would be Ok for an RV, but IMHO, if trucks are not welcome on a particular road, most of the time that means I don't really want to be there either!  

[Edward Buker]

I have the Garmin Dezl and there are things I like about it and things that I do not. They all have their pluses and minuses and personal preference would certainly come into play when choosing Garmin or RM. I'm sure both units are capiable.

One of the reasons I went with Garmin was the ease of map updates which are good for the life of the unit and the extensive POI files that exist. (Point Of Interest) There are literally thousands of possibilities of files built by users on the web. You download the POI files on your computer and transfer them to the Garmin via internal memory or a memory card plug in. As you travel you select the POI catagory like campgrounds, breweries, ships, wineries, diners drive in and dives, state fairs, Wal-Marts, museums, literally most anything of interest is out there in a file. You select a catagory and it tells you within a radius what is within range. You just select one item and it gives you a route from your current location. I do not know if the RM unit has this feature but there are many discoveries on the road that we would have cruised by had we not had access to the POI files.

Later Ed

[John Hennessey]

We have the Magellan Road Mate for truckers and really like it.  Compared to the Garmin that came in our Jeep it is head and shoulders above that.