Satnav woes.

[sydnsue]

I have a Garmin Camper 795 satnav that is just a few weeks old. When I was heading for the Rye rally, I set the destination from home which is near Southampton to Rye. As I was approaching Eastbourne, it sent me onto the London road. I assumed this was just avoiding Eastbourne but it continued heading for London. I zoomed out on the display and it was taking me on a route that added around 60 miles to the journey. Needless to say, I cancelled the route.

After the rally, I set the satnav for HOME and once again it tried to take me on a huge loop North towards London which again I ignored.

I have checked through the settings and there is nothing I can see in the preferences that would cause this crazy route.

I have just returned from a 3,000 mile Spain holiday and most of the time it performed as expected with motorways, tolls, etc. but twice it took me through minor roads when staying on the main road would have been better. In one case it added 1 hour to a 5 hour journey.

Is there anyone here familiar with the Garmins who can suggest what is wrong? My old Garmin never did this and that was probably 15 years old but the software was completely different to the new models.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I always have Mway turned off unless I specifically want to go that way.

 

[QFour]

If you start putting dimensions in then they start using truck routes which can take you miles out of your way. I don't bother with dimensions on my CoPilot sat/nav and just pick what looks like a good route. If we don't like the look of a road we dont go down it and let it recalculate the route.

 

[Val54]

Is it set to fastest time or shortest route and are you using Garmin Drive to give you live updates?

 

[sydnsue]

I always have Mway turned off unless I specifically want to go that way.

That would be difficult as I use the M27.

 

[sydnsue]

If you start putting dimensions in then they start using truck routes which can take you miles out of your way. I don't bother with dimensions on my CoPilot sat/nav and just pick what looks like a good route. If we don't like the look of a road we dont go down it and let it recalculate the route.

I shall see if that makes a difference.

 

[sydnsue]

Is it set to fastest time or shortest route and are you using Garmin Drive to give you live updates?

Neither. The new models don't give that option any more. I preferred being given the choice. There is something on there called "Route Shaping" which is terrible.

 

[saxonborg]

I had a similar problem with my Garmin once, I was heading for the Dartford crossing but it kept directing me towards London, I gave up with it and relied on memory. When I looked into it later I had forgotten to change the tolls setting so the satnav was taking me into London to avoid any toll crossing fee.

 

[Sonar]

That would be difficult as I use the M27.

When the m27 was first built it was a fast way to get from Portsmouth to Soton. 20 mins top

Now it’s not fast anymore especially from Soton to Farnham
now it’s an hour in the morning from jcn 7 to. Fareham jcn

We live in Hedge end Jcn 7 and sometimes that’s blacked as well. But bothers me not much as I were only for 1/2 the year .

 

[sydnsue]

I had a similar problem with my Garmin once, I was heading for the Dartford crossing but it kept directing me towards London, I gave up with it and relied on memory. When I looked into it later I had forgotten to change the tolls setting so the satnav was taking me into London to avoid any toll crossing fee.

Tolls are always disabled when in the UK.

 

[sydnsue]

When the m27 was first built it was a fast way to get from Portsmouth to Soton. 20 mins top

Now it’s not fast anymore especially from Soton to Farnham
now it’s an hour in the morning from jcn 7 to. Fareham jcn

We live in Hedge end Jcn 7 and sometimes that’s blacked as well. But bothers me not much as I were only for 1/2 the year .

It doesn't help with constant road works at the western end near me. It's been a 50 limit since they started on the Smart motorway.

 

[wildebus]

I would suspect a weight setting combined with LEZ avoidence enabled.

 

[GWAYGWAY]

I bought a truck one and it is no good to me at all it has a preference for only motorways regardless of where I want to go. I went back to my old tomtom one.

 

[trevskoda]

They are obsolete these days, 8 inch mobile with amigo magic earth or petal maps, these can be set up as you wish, all free to download.
Amigo uses tom tom system maps.

 

[sydnsue]

I would suspect a weight setting combined with LEZ avoidence enabled.

Thanks but LEZ is disabled. Even if it were, I don't think there are any between Rye and Southampton.

 

[sydnsue]

They are obsolete these days, 8 inch mobile with amigo magic earth or petal maps, these can be set up as you wish, all free to download.
Amigo uses tom tom system maps.

Thanks. I will look at Amigo. Also considered Waze but there is no vehicle size system.

 

[wildebus]

I have the Garmin 660 Camper, and you can set different vehicle profiles with weight and size info. So I have one profile with the Motorhomes dimensions and another profile for a standard car.
I would imagine yours has similar options? It might be interesting if you have not already to have a regular car profile as well as the Motorhome, and see if switching profile changes the suggested routing?
I don't know of anything specific, but there may be something built in that is the issue. For example. I know on my 660 Camper, there is a speed limit bug that if you specify a Motorhome in the profile, your max speed limits reduce to commercial van limits even if they should not.

As far as non-Garmin alternatives go, yes there are lots, but none I have tried or used match (IMO) the Garmin quality of navigation (putting your specific issue aside).

 

[sydnsue]

Thanks Wildebus. It's worth checking. Already the satnav flags a warning if I go over 60 but everyone complains about that. It's not something that can be turned off and Garmin don't seem to care about the error. I assume it can take different profiles so I will have a look. My old Garmin was excellent. I could choose from 3 routes which were displayed like the routes on Google Maps. Definitely a backwards step. I think everything changed when Garmin was bought by a German company. This one has nothing in common with the old version. I wouldn't buy another one, especially considering the cost of this model. Expensive is not necessarily good.

 

[wildebus]

Thanks Wildebus. It's worth checking. Already the satnav flags a warning if I go over 60 but everyone complains about that. It's not something that can be turned off and Garmin don't seem to care about the error. I assume it can take different profiles so I will have a look. My old Garmin was excellent. I could choose from 3 routes which were displayed like the routes on Google Maps. Definitely a backwards step. I think everything changed when Garmin was bought by a German company. This one has nothing in common with the old version. I wouldn't buy another one, especially considering the cost of this model. Expensive is not necessarily good.

My first Garmin Car Satnav commited suicide when I disobeyed it. Told me to head onto the M18 (Doncaster?) and I didn't fancy that route and carried on the A1 - soon as I went past the junction, it turned off and never came back on again (Amazon swapped it out and it was ok for 4 years after that until I bought the 660 Camper back in 2016). I do still have that Garmin Nuvi from 2012 and still works (at least it did last time I tried it!).

I think I have alternate routes given on my 660 - maybe the core navigation software has been changed since and your Garmin is very different to mine? The speed limit thing is something that is wrong for sure but I don't mind it as it does result in a pretty accurate ETA time I have found
I have a built-in Sat Nav in my dash head unit plus I can use Google Maps as well as other Nav apps but I have always found Garmin more intuitive and the display just nicer to use so I just use that.
One reason also I will always keep my 660 is I have the reversing camera linked to it which is very handy (plus a forward camera as well which used occasionally for parking in tight spaces). Have you got the optional camera on yours?

 

[sydnsue]

We only have the Elddis cam on the back. I use a windscreen cam for the front. My old Garmin must have been 15 years old but it worked a treat. I decided the battery needed renewing as it ran out soon after disconnection but when I opened the unit, there was a flexible ribbon that went between the body and the screen but it had age hardened and snapped when I separated the screen from the body. One of those times when you wish you hadn't started something. I contacted Garmin but they said it was too old for spares and offered me the 795 for about £280 which was a huge discount. While we were in Europe, we had the phone with Google Maps running alongside the Garmin. They both had errors in the routing at different times. Made me wonder if all satnavs have their problems. I shall see how it goes with this one but if it continues to misbehave, I shall try something else.