Passed my Class 2 a while back but have been unable to take a job till now.
Low bridges and weight restricted roads give me fits when looking at planning routes.
Does anyone have suggestions re a decent sat nav for truckers?
I’ve heard that Garmin and Tom Tom are no brainers but they’re also expensive, however there’s some budget ones out there too.
Are they any good
Help
Not sure about the cheaper models, but if you want a garmin or Tomtom try eBay… when I was looking there was some on there, tomtom 6250 going for about £200 used, garmin lgv700 about the same.
Snooper is also a good brand (expensive however)…lasts a very very long time so worth every penny! 
When I was driving we used to Tom Tom, the company changed to garmin and they were worse than useless. They would take inexperienced drivers through the centre of London to get to Kent from Nottingham. We get so many fines from going through the LEZ zone, lol. I’m sure they are better now, but I’d stick with Tom Tom. You normally get what you pay for in my opinion. If you get a cheaper one it ‘could’ make life difficult. Trying to reroute when it takes you towards a weight limit or low bridge is no fun.
Some of my friends use an app called roadlords
Omega:
Passed my Class 2 a while back but have been unable to take a job till now.Low bridges and weight restricted roads give me fits when looking at planning routes.
…
Don’t know why you should get fits! IF YOU have done route planning. Garmin and TomTom I have found poor. What they call updates are not… so up to date!
There are two issues with route planning - long distance and exact destination. Long distance routes vary a lot I have found and often for me the destination is a nursery or food factory (country lane to negotiate). For long distance I compare Here maps, google and Co-Pilot - I use a phone. RoadLords I have found routing poor. Here maps the best of all.
Artics are for A roads. Stay on them until a destination takes you off. Ask yourself the question - ‘which way would an artic go to this location’. You will then rarely come across weight restrictions or bridges. In my current job I go all across the UK, London, Cornwall, Scotland - only once have I looked at my Truckers Atlas which was in Swindon as there are 6 bridges West side and one has to enter and exit on the East.
Many locations I go to are in a 7.5T restricted zone e.g. Bakkavor-Harlow. London gives a truck satnav problems as there are many such places again which it then gets confused over. South West London has many bridges but I seem to have steered round them all with no trouble. It goes with out saying watch road signs.
Route planning is vital along with a Jotter pad to do sketches. NO sat nav is going to keep you out of trouble.
Thanks for all the reply’s, there’s some great advice from everyone
Cheers fellas
I carry this in my bag at all times - There is an updated version available now
smile.amazon.co.uk/Philips-2018 … 849074046/
I also have a Garmin Dezl 770. I’ve only pulled the atlas out a handful of times and generally due to road closures not properly marked up or double checking bridge heights on diversions.
The Garmin has been good as gold in London especially and let me take on agency work in parts I’ve never been to before. The Garmin will keep you away from bridges and weight restrictions if you set it up correctly with the dimensions of your vehicle and route preferences etc.
It will only know of road closures if Highways/Police have made the closures known. I don’t know about the TomTom but the Garmin will update with traffic and road closures within a couple of minutes of it opening/closing if Police/Highways have done their part - There’s also a manual detour button but that function isn’t perfect if it doesn’t know how long the road is closed and might try and take you back on to a closed road the next junction up etc Google Maps is also annoyingly guilty of this too and that’s where Highways Agency website comes in handy for pre-planned roadworks and closures
The downside of the Garmin is although the maps are lifetime updated for Europe and the UK but any speed limit changes and camera locations are not - Nothing’s perfect
Keep a Hella > 12 volt cigarette outlet adaptor handy for when you get a truck that has a broken 12 volt cig outlet
No idea what the newer Garmin version are like as it uses a completely different setup for traffic and road closures via your phone’s bluetooth or something 
What I did. (not a recommendation)
To Curry’s/Dixons/PCWorld. Asked a “techy” for the precise differences between the various Sat-Navs on offer. Decided which would be best. Walked 30m over the road and bought the same from Argos. £100.00 to me, and feeling slightly shabby. And smug. 
Tomtom 6250 all day long, if I’m going somewhere new, il use google maps satellite view on my phone to pin point the exact location entrance for trucks, then il save that location on my Tomtom, been using it over a year now, hadn’t let me down once !
Hi,
Just a quick follow up,
I took the plunge on a Garmin 760 truck Sat Nav from eBay
I paid £146 for it and when it came it looked like a brand new one, had all the cables, connections, up to date maps, even had the protective sticker over the screen and it came in the original box.
I’ve been using it for a week on a variety of jobs including cross country rods, motorways and city centres. So far it’s been brilliant!
The screen size is perfect and bigger than I thought it would be, the routes have been faultless so far and it even connects to my phone giving me hands free.
This one came with both window mount and with a heavy weighted base that the suction cup can mount on and can just sit on your dash board.
I’m very happy with it and would definitely recommend it to other drivers particularly new ones who aren’t familiar with the road networks.
Cheers
I went for the Garmin Dezl 800 from CEX, it’s like a bloody iPad haha, it’s massive but seems great.
Haven’t actually got a job yet but wanted to be prepared.
I tell the GPS where I’m going (the exact route), and it merely provides a moving map!
I use CoPilot on my phone and iPad. It has an easy method of adding “route through here” to force it the precise way you want to go.
I just study my destination and memorize the last mile or so. I run through road/junction for the route, and have a quick look for easy alternates should I get diverted. That really helped one night when the M1 was closed and was being diverted somewhere around Milton Keynes. Because I researched the route previously, I used my own alternate which made things easier.
TruckerGuy:
I tell the GPS where I’m going (the exact route), and it merely provides a moving map!I use CoPilot on my phone and iPad. It has an easy method of adding “route through here” to force it the precise way you want to go.
I just study my destination and memorize the last mile or so. I run through road/junction for the route, and have a quick look for easy alternates should I get diverted. That really helped one night when the M1 was closed and was being diverted somewhere around Milton Keynes. Because I researched the route previously, I used my own alternate which made things easier.
What do you set the tachograph to for all the time you spend route planning?
stu675:
TruckerGuy:
I tell the GPS where I’m going (the exact route), and it merely provides a moving map!I use CoPilot on my phone and iPad. It has an easy method of adding “route through here” to force it the precise way you want to go.
I just study my destination and memorize the last mile or so. I run through road/junction for the route, and have a quick look for easy alternates should I get diverted. That really helped one night when the M1 was closed and was being diverted somewhere around Milton Keynes. Because I researched the route previously, I used my own alternate which made things easier.
What do you set the tachograph to for all the time you spend route planning?
It should be Other Work, at a guess
bugger.lugs:
What do you set the tachograph to for all the time you spend route planning?
stu675:
It should be Other Work, at a guess
Correct = other work
ROG:
bugger.lugs:
What do you set the tachograph to for all the time you spend route planning?stu675:
It should be Other Work, at a guessCorrect = other work
Is an employer willing to pay hourly rate for that? 
stu675:
ROG:
bugger.lugs:
What do you set the tachograph to for all the time you spend route planning?stu675:
It should be Other Work, at a guessCorrect = other work
Is an employer willing to pay hourly rate for that?
I was assuming route planning was done at work
stu675:
ROG:
bugger.lugs:
What do you set the tachograph to for all the time you spend route planning?stu675:
It should be Other Work, at a guessCorrect = other work
Is an employer willing to pay hourly rate for that?
I’d be looking for another job if they told me they wouldn’t pay me to plan my route.
I’d assume planning is part of the working day! Pull out the real map for the planning, and throw it into the GPS. I can have it up and running in around 5 minutes. Note that I do not use address search in the GPS. I eschew postcodes, and find the exact spot along the road then tell the GPS the precise point by tapping on the map.
Address/postcode for finding places is the worst thing ever.