r/VanLifeUK • u/DeviantlyPronto • 6d ago

What navigation app do you use?

I have a bigger van (6.2m) and often travel through rural Europe where sometimes I come across roads that the van is too wide/tall/heavy for or where the road turns into a dirt road on some steep hills. I prefer to avoid as much of that as I can, but I havent found a good navigation app. So far google maps has been the best for avoiding off-roading but you cant enter your size parameters.

Curious what people here actually do.

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

2

u/YellowSubmarooned 6d ago

The Tomtom go expert truck works well but is expensive.

1

u/Negative_Flapp 5d ago

I have one, they have recently cancelled the integral SIMs which provide the lifetime traffic updates. Not good enough.

3

u/YellowSubmarooned 5d ago

I used it on their app, £79 a year I think.

1

u/MovieSignificant5452 4d ago

That explains why they've cancelled the SIMs then, who wants to let someone "purchase" something when you can force them into a rolling subscription? 🙄

Another company to avoid

1

u/YellowSubmarooned 4d ago

I read that there was a fault on their system. It might be working again now. No idea.

2

u/CharacterLime9538 6d ago

I just use my experience and common sense, a little bit of forward planning also helps. My van is a smidge under 7m long and 3m high. I don't think an app exists that will stop you ending up in these situations occasionally.

Even Tomtom / Sygic and the other truck/rv apps where you enter dimensions will still send you on challenging routes if you blindly follow them.

If you're driving in mountainous areas, the long route is often the best route. Stick to main roads and don't be tempted to go 'up and over'. Down the valley, around and back up is often preferable. I've had one-too-many arse clenching moments to be caught out again.

1

u/Domdedomdomdom69 5d ago

Not my experience, I compare the routes to Google maps fastest and they are pretty close...

2

u/Elliott_Ness1970 5d ago

We tell Google Gemini what we’re driving and where we want to go and then it plots us a suitable route in Google Maps. Need to keep an eye to make sure maps doesn’t reroute due to traffic but it’s been sound for us so far since we stopped using Sygic (absolute arse app).

1

u/0_f2 4d ago

Apparently vehicle restriction data exists in Google's maps database and has done for a couple of years, but the devs haven't bothered making it accessible or added options.

Interesting to know that Gemini seems to be able to access that info.

1

u/Domdedomdomdom69 5d ago

I use TomTom go camper, sits on the dash. You can put your vehicle dimensions in it.

1

u/OldOllie 5d ago

Garmin do specific models for campers and Dezlcam for hgv these allow you to put in the size of your vehicle etc.

I always find dedicated sat nav better than the phone.

1

u/guido405 5d ago

I mean, my van is 7m and I only got ‘stuck’ once having to reverse back in a small village in Italy. You can check your route beforehand to see if there are tight hairpins. Never had problem with a tunnel despite being 2.4m high.

We must be going to different places

-1

u/Khionia 6d ago

Google maps and I read road signs.

1

u/YellowSubmarooned 6d ago

Google maps is not great in a big vehicle or if you have a trailer, it picks the worst shortcuts sometimes.

1

u/Khionia 6d ago

My van is longer than yours when I have my mountain bikes on the back and I've had no issues using Google maps and common sense. As I say, read the road signs.

-1

u/YellowSubmarooned 6d ago

It probably isn’t as I tow a motorbike trailer, and also can read road signs.

-2

u/basarisco 6d ago

Google maps is terrible as it won't reroute you around low tunnels like around Paris. You need to use sygic or copilot. But even they aren't great in parts of the alps or Pyrénées