Sat Nav Advice

Despite being a technical dinosaur, I am looking at buying one of these.
What are the things to look out for ? Would be used mainly in a car but would like the option of putting in bridge heights to use in a truck. Do they keep the maps up to date ?

G'day atkipete
You need to be very careful when using the sat nav in the truck. Many blokes have been caught,(including me),up the end of a dead end street and nowhere to turn around when using any old one . There is one , A Garmin , I believe, which is called the Diesel,( pronounced DEE-Sell). I have not used one , but have seen it in use, and you can enter into it what you are driving, (single, B-Double or RT or Rigid), and it will plot a course for you ,taking into account bridges, load limits, B-Double routes etc. I looked at buying one when I was driving, but I picked up a job in the mines back on the tools again(Electrician).
When I last checked , they were just under $400 Smackers. But I thought well worth it.
That's my 2-bob's worth.
Cheers
Alistair

Thanks Alistair, I see a review on the Garmin Dezl 560 on line but I dont think it relates to Australia. I first used a GPS in England about 10 years back but have held off buying one because I dont think the quality of our maps was as good. Hopefully they have got this sorted but interested in what other users have found.

I use a Navman in my Ute and I don

Thanks Ian, On the couple of occasions I have used sat navs in Australia I found the maps not quite right. ie lacking newly built roads or junctions or details such as telling you to turn right over a medium strip. Perhaps I am expecting too much of them. ?

My Samsung tablet came with a GPS app that uses Google maps. So dar no problem with out of date maps as it downloads them each time. The one thing you do need is an Internet connection while initially loading the route and options. A wireless 3G router works well.

lacking newly built roads or junctions
Yes it does sometimes take a while for newly built roads etc to appear on my Navman you must upgrade often I

My first ever GPS was a navman and was pretty good. When the battery gave up the ghost it was cheaper to buy a new unit with more features. I bought another navman and it was a piece of crap so I returned it and got another, piece of crap again so returned it and got a garmin with lifetime updates. After dealing with garmin, trying to mate elephants would have been easier!, I was told that lifetime updates meant for the life of the unit which they consider to be about three years. As far as warranty goes, even though you register the unit, you need proof of purchase, unit serial number as well as the name of your grandmothers first boyfriend, what you had for breakfast the first week of June 1978 and a lot of other questions. In the end I gave up > but I suppose garmin is probably the best of a bad bunch!
Billy

G'day, I've got a Navman in the Diamond, but it is a bit long in the tooth now. I use it mostly as a speed check as the speedo is in miles and a bit out.

I have heard that the best combination is Garmin receiver with Hema maps, but have had no experience with it.

Cheers

Difference between UK and Australian maps - The UK has had a long history of ordanance survey mapping to a high scale and even in mountainous areas they literally walked every inch to validate the mapping. Once came across an OS bloke in a derelict slate quarry and told him he didn't have a tunnel marked, and he dutifully drew it in. It started out as an army thing and the cold war civil defence mindset kept it going, as well as it's civilian and legal uses. On the other hand in Australia it is state based and now quasi commercial, and once more than a km from a bus stop gets unreliable. As they still map 'surveyed roads' which were drawn last century but never built the lack of site inspection becomes telling. Comes down to slack attitude by governments.