Why does that matter? It’s not that the “lesser” brands are bad devices, some of them are impressive. The numbers matter because of companies like CoolRVToyz.com, who produce enhanced products for GPS units. Unfortunately, there is no “standard” for producing add-on information to GPS devices in the form of Points-of-Interest (POI) data and other enhancements. When companies develop these accessory products for GPS devices, they often can’t afford to focus the resources on the smaller segments of the market. It’s just good marketing strategy to put their resources in that 95% of the market.

So, as a consumer looking to purchase a new GPS, this is a big consideration. Sooner or later you may want additional POI’s for your GPS. Your selection will be much larger if your GPS is one of the brands with the larger market share.

Happy RV’ing …

Phil King

Garman GPS
GarmanGPS

When picking a GPS, the most important question to ask is “What do I want to do with it?” Any automotive GPS unit will tell you where you are and where to go, without getting you lost. As RV’ers, we all have a set of basic needs our GPS must fulfill. Beyond that, it’s completely up to you whether you want, and are willing to pay the extra money for certain features.

Pre-Loaded Maps

The first factor to consider is what maps you need pre-loaded in your GPS. That, of course depends on where you plan to travel. Many systems come with road maps for the entire United States and Canada loaded into their main memory. Some come with all of North America and some come with Europe as well. This gives you the luxury to go anywhere without worrying about whether or not you loaded the proper maps; it also makes the device ready-to-roll, right out of the box. Pre-loaded maps occupy part of the main memory of the GPS; any excess main memory can be used for additional maps, MP3 music, or custom POI’s like the CoolRVToyz Ultimate RV Parks & Campgrounds List. This brings us to memory capacity.

Memory Capacity

How much memory your GPS can hold is very important as well. If you purchase a unit that has very little extra main memory, and can’t be expanded; you may find yourself unable to add features or points-of-interest (POI) when you want. Many GPS models only contain enough main memory to hold their pre-loaded maps, with very little left over. This is only a problem if they do not have a memory expansion slot. A memory expansion slot allows you to add memory to the GPS should you ever need it. Most take a Secure Digital (SD) card for memory expansion. SD cards are inexpensive and a great way to add memory to your unit when you need it. More expensive units typically have a considerable amount of their main memory free for your use, and also have a memory expansion slot. Less expensive units typically use most or all of their main memory for built-in features, but most of them still have a memory expansion slot.

Text To Speach

Another important feature to look for is “text-to-speech.” Most voice-prompting GPS units will give an audio notification such as “Turn left in 300 feet” or “Take next exit.” A unit with a text-to-speech function will speak not only the direction but the name of the street as well: “Turn left onto Mulberry Lane in 300 feet” or “Take Exit 23A.” This is a huge help for many people, especially RV’ers, as they won’t even have to glance at the screen to know where to go.

Live Traffic Service

A great new feature to consider is live traffic service. Available in larger cities, a subscription to a traffic service gives you real-time, up-to-the-minute updates on traffic and road conditions. Freeway’s blocked from Exit 23 to Exit 29? Your GPS will notify you and offer an alternative route. After a free trial period, traffic service typically costs about $7/month. Some Garmin units also offer XM Radio services, so that you can get not only live traffic but XM Satellite Radio as well.

Even beyond a typical traffic service is the new Enhanced MSN Direct service. Many of the upper-end Garmin units, like the Nuvi 780 come with this capability. With MSN Direct, you can check the weather, avoid traffic backups, compare local gas prices, get enhanced movie listings, stock information, news and local events when you travel with your unit. Even plan trips from the convenience of your computer, via Windows Live Local, and then wirelessly send locations to your GPS. Like a traffic service, MSN Direct carries a monthly charge after the free trial period.

Bluetooth Enabled

One of the newest additions to GPS systems is the integration of a Bluetooth chip. If both your cell phone and GPS unit are Bluetooth-enabled, you’ll be able to pair them up for hands-free calling, dial-a-POI features, and more, making your automotive electronics suite completely integrated. The CoolRVToyz Ultimate RV Parks & Campgrounds List takes advantage of this feature on the Garmin GPS units and allows you to dial a campground hands-free from a touch of your GPS screen.

MP3 Enabled

Another new addition to GPS systems is the ability to play MP3 music. By loading your favorite MP3 music or audio book into your GPS you can play it either through the GPS’ speakers or your in-dash radio. Many of the better GPS units also come with an FM transmitter to link them directly to your in-dash radio so the music comes out of your vehicle’s stereo system. This is particulary useful since the GPS will automatically lower the volume of the music to give you directions, or if you receive a phone call.

Travel Guides and TourGuideâ„¢

One of the most exciting new features is Garmin’s new TourGuideâ„¢ capability. With TourGuideâ„¢ you can purchase completely guided tours for your GPS. Start the TourGuideâ„¢ and simply follow the tour. Your GPS will guide you to points of interest, explain them and even show you photos. It’s like having your own tour guide right along for the ride. At CoolRVToyz, we’re very excited about this new technology. We’ve already begun a project to create a Garmin TourGuideâ„¢ product for RV’ers who want to tour Route 66 from end to end. In the spring of 2008 we will be travelling the Route ourselves to test the product and plan to make it available by Summer 2008.

Conclusion

Among the most popular GPS navigation systems for RV’ers are the Garmin nuvi 200, 360 and 680, the Lowrance iWAY 600C, the Garmin StreetPilot c550, the Magellan Maestro 4040 and CrossOver GPS, and the TomTom ONE 3rd Edition. All of these units (and many more) are compatible with the CoolRVToyz Ultimate RV Parks & Campgrounds List.

So which GPS is the “best?” That depends entirely on your needs, your preferences and your budget. At CoolRVToyz, we’ve partnered with Tiger GPS, one of the top GPS retailers in the world. Tiger GPS has enough models to choose from that we’re certain you’ll find exact what you need. To make your selection even easier, you can use their Automotive GPS Selector. It will let you select the features you want and show you the models that fit your needs.

The first GPS I bought was a Garmin Streetpilot C550. It turned out to be a great investment. It has plenty of memory, Text-to-Speach capabilities so it speaks street names, Bluetooth to attach to my cell phone, and the interface is simple and intuitive. It didn’t take me long to decide it was a good fit for what I needed a GPS for.

The first nice thing about the Streetpilot is its simple interface. When you turn it on you’re presented with 2 main choices … Where To? and View Map. You touch Where To? and you now have 9 choices. One feature I really like is the Go Home button. Each time we stopped, I simply programmed the GPS that this was now “home”. Then, as we traveled around town, all I had to do was tell the GPS I wanted to Go Home, and it took me right back to the RV. That’s a nice feature when you’ve wandered around a strange city all day and have no clue where you are in relation to the park you’re staying at.

Another great feature is the 6 million points-of-interest (POI) already programmed into the GPS. Want Mexican food tonight? Just touch the Food, Hotels… button and search for what you want by type of food, fuel, banks/ATM’s etc. These POI’s are great, but they were a bit lacking in the RV Parks & Campgrounds. Garmin lumps RV Parks and Campgrounds into the Lodging category and there aren’t that many of them. Unless you know the name of the park, they were difficult to find even if they were already in the GPS.

Fortunately, Garmin built the C550 with lots of memory and the ability to load custom POI’s. That was the primary reason I started compiling the Ultimate RV Parks & Campgrounds Directory. I was a bit frustrated with what was available in the GPS. I looked at other RV Parks Directories and didn’t find any that contained anywhere near all the RV Campgrounds in them. Many of them were good, they were just lacking in completeness. Others had more parks, but their accuracy was not all that great. So, I drew on my professional knowledge of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and computer databases. The result was the largest RV Campgrounds Directory available anywhere – and it’s still growing. I was using it when we traveled, and giving it to a few friends at first, but my friends told me I was crazy not to sell it, so that’s When CoolRVToyz.com was born.

The other feature of the C550 I use a lot is the Recently Found list. Each time you use the GPS to navigate to a location, it stores that location in it’s Recently Found list. Then, all you need to do if you need to return to that location again is press the Recently Found button and there it is. The GPS keeps the 50 most recently found locations handy for you to return to.

Of course, no product is without its shortcomings. The things I found a bit lacking in the C550 were the lack of a coordinates display and its inability to reset its own time zones when travelling. The C550 doesn’t give you a display of the Latitude and Longitude of your current location. That’s a bit annoying. Fortunately, Garmin fixed that in the Nuvi line. If that’s important to you, you may want to look at the Nuvi instead of the Streetpilot. I’ll be reviewing a Nuvi later, so check back.

The other annoyance is the fact that the C550 can’t reset its own timezone. That seems a bit rediculous, especially since it is a GPS and always “knows” where it is. You’d think it would know when it crossed into a different time zone and would reset itself accordingly. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the C550. You have to manually adjust the time zones as you travel.

That’s what I think. Feel free to ad your own comments.