Well the time has come I’ve decided to ditch my stand alone Tom Tom because it’s getting slower and slower in starting up and will randomly shut down on me 
Also because they charge yearly for services now so why pay £350 for a sat nav then keep paying £50 each year when I can just buy the app or use a rival app ?
So got my self a £85 Android phone off Amazon and cheap SIM card (so now I have an emergency phone as well as my main one ) and the app is £80 a year all in and I can search by company name as well
After years of taking the pi55 out of guys daft enough to pay 2 thirds of their wages on a Truck specific sat nav…I now have one.
(In mitigation it is a one that is factory fitted in the truck I inherited…So not lost my senses yet after all.
)
What I like about it is it has the same feature as the bog standard poverty spec car one I have used up to now…
You can view the route step by step before setting off.
However,.I have a regular drop at Wanstrow, just under a 14’ bridge on the A road, so to avoid it, instead of turning left after Nunney Catch, I consequently have to take a diversion turning left just before Shepton Mallet A37, back road to Wyke, then through the truck unfriendly/unsuitable hell hole of Bruton.
(Incidentally that road was closed with a diversion via Wells and Glasto on Thursday, which was another 25 miles extra ffs )
Anyhoo, if you havent got bored yet, …the point I was about to make is this effin thing actually did tell me to turn left towards that bridge😳
So being the modern trucker sat nav slave I have become,…I took that road, hit the ■■■■■■ bridge,.and wrote off my trailer 
…
Ok I made the last bit up, but it just shows how some idiots hit bridges dont it?
So now I can be seen in another group I often took the pi55 out of, …a guy with 2 sat navs on at same time…(ok not ALL the time) .
Because I dont trust the bloody thing.
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I dont belive in this oh the sat nav made me cobblers. yes i can see a mistake being made if they didnt know the road but there are signs leading to and on most bridges that are an issue.
The issue i have found with sat navs is if you need to detour off the route it has set you have to go quite away before it accepts the route your on.
I have only once in my short time driving come close to hitting a bridge and to be far the satnav was doing its best to turn me round. Only reason i carried on is i grew up in the area and knew i could get under the bridge except they had altered it and lowered it with crash protection since i had been there last. so it was a case of a 100 point turn and go round the very long way
not trying to pretend i know more than others just disagreeing that satnavs are the reason for bridge strikes
But that is the way these type of clowns are these days…
‘The sat nav SENT me that way’
If you ask them directions to a drop, they can’t effin tell ya,.cos they have taken no notice.
I was going to a drop for first time the other week, and I knew one of our lot was already on his way there.
I looked at map and it was in a very dodgy remote area,.so I rang him…
Me…‘Where are you now mate’
Him…'I don’t really know tbh '.
Me…‘Have ya got lost like?’
Him…‘No why?’
Me…‘So which way in have you gone, there are 3 ways in’
Him…‘Don’t know, I’m just following my Sat nav’.
Me…Hung up on him.
Drivers and screwDrivers.
being a screwdriver myself i understand the following the sat nav bit However, if its going to be a drop i might well do again in the near future I always remember one of the first bits of advice you gave me and at the very least try and remember the signs that i pass ie at the big roundabout with the mc donalds follow signs for x and look for landmarks to confirm the route. That way if for some reason the satnav or microlise isnt working i can at least get near the place
Following a sat nav does not make you a ‘screwDriver’ mate,.I follow them myself, (afyer checking a map first) that is what they are for.
The SD bit comes in if guys are stupid enough to totally rely on them without question, and the t its up type consequences that result.
I have seen quite a few signs saying ‘Do not follow sat nav’ in quitea few of places…they aint been put up for no reason.
Did I give you that advice? …dont remember if I did.
But if so, at least somebody takes notice of my ramblings.
.
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Wrexham industrial estate is one coming in on the A534 at Holt there’s a sign
A few weeks ago they had the A34 sb shut from A303 to winnal rb
Official diversion and ■■■■ nav sent you up A303 to M3 and down but there’s another truck friendly route through Sutton Scotney and Winchester which is a marked as a diversion route for non Motorway traffic and brings you out at M3 jct 11 and only adds 5 mins on at 3am
Mind you a don’t think a was flavour of the month doing that route 3 nights on the bounce with an empty box on a skely 
It depends on the definition of sat nav.I can’t get my head around the talking type of sat nav like take the third exit off a bleedin roundabout or turn left in half a mile or hundred yards and all the other incessant bs.The second or third exit could be left or straight on or right requiring the correct position on the approach.There could be numerous turnings within the distance bs.
I generally just use it as a useful detailed map in a similar way as we used maps in ye olden days.Either stop and check.Or read it off the dash tv screen like we used to use street maps on the steering wheel.But I’m getting more sceptical of the latter there’s just too much going on around and ahead to check a map while moving.
Luckily my old school sixth sense also seems as good as ever usually the alarm bells going off this ain’t right long before I’ve gone far out of my way.
Also the only bridges I need to worry about are under 7 foot high.
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I drive a truck in the real world ,
The sound is off on my sat nav and I try to read road markings and signs
Friday my sat nav was only used for the last 1/2 mile through Poundbury to get me to my drop as I’ve been driving past Dorchester for the last 30 years car, van ,7.5t, 18t,26t and artic
Usually 5 mins of planning can save an awful lot of explaining
yes ive fallen foul of erent sat nav senanigans from time to time and if its somwhere ive not been to before i usually check with google maps ( great for sattilite and street veiw ) as well as sat nav
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Not sure why anyone buys dedicated satnavs these days, I’ve not bought one for what must be going on 15 years, Google Maps does job just fine
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Why would you say that Luke?
Because he’s a Trucking god
Because Google maps is free….
My Tom Tom truck nav is currently gathering dust in the cupboard and is unlikely to be use for several more months until I get back from warmer a climate.
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Although I originally planned to stop work around spring bank, I parted company with the agency mid February and have been doing nothing since.
My next move is driving down to Plymouth on the 12th June to get the ferry to Spain, and then driving down to Lisbon via Salamanca, where I will be going to the “Rock in Rio Lisboa” music festival on the 15th, before taking up residence in a beachfront apartment 20 miles south for 5 weeks. With a few side trips including down to faro for the weekend motorcycle rally
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Because he’s not far wrong.
So you are saying your height was correctly entered?
I’m not in either camp to be honest regards truck sat navs. It was when I started driving class 1 that I thought hang on a minute, I need something because these things are a bit more of a problem getting turned. Before that I was a car sat nav man. My system on my old TomTom was to put a permanent roadblock in at locations that had bridges or were unsuitable.
@blue_estate You need to watch you get a decent Android phone because the GPS on them can be off. I did have a cheapo phone that was a bit hit and miss, but when I updated the phone to reputable brand, the positioning was spot on.
As far as I know mate aye.
All our trailers are same height, the last driver who had the truck put all the settings in.
Tbh with you I dont have it on most of the time, but when I get back to work, I’ll try and suss it out as to whether the settings are right …
Cheers I did not even think of that .
As for me I did the job long before sat navs.
I bought a car sat nav about 17 years ago because I was delivering Belgian carpets to UK town centres for Brit European Trans, otherwise I maybe would not have bothered.
I am glad I did as I would not be without it now, it makes the job so much easier but because I use it properly…as a guide rather than a nailed on instruction.
The built in truck sat nav I got in Nov, I did not even switch it on at first, but a few weeks ago my curiousity got better of me,.and tbh have been using it more often.