Ultimate Caravan Satnav

I sat it out for an hour a few days ago on the A34 - Newbury to Oxford - and thought that if only I had a sat nav then it would have re routed me around the blockage. But then I looked at all the other cars which did have sat navs and were standing still in that same queue - and I thought maybe it wouldn't.

I have just bought a TomTom Go6200 Wifi. I chose this model finally because of a £70 discount direct from TomTom but was considering it anyhow. I am using it on our 'small' car as the daily satnav (the old one went out of service) but invested in this hefty model because I intended to use it, together with the add-on TomTom 'camper' map in our tow car (in place of the in-built satnav).

However I find:

1. the Go 6200 is not compatible with the add-on 'camper' map.

2. the camper map has to be used with the GO 'Professional' series of satnav - which are intended for truck, coaches and vans. (I had this clarified by TomTom support).

NOW! - I do NOT want to buy a truck satnav, because in reality 99% of usage will be with a day to day car - not towing!

3. However, all is not lost, because I have found that by using the GO 6200 with the smartphone MyDrive app, I then have the ability to plan routes as a car or motorbike or a truck. And in truck mode I can enter dimension of my towing outfit (width, height, length, weight, axle weight, max speed (60mph)). Thru experimentation on some caravan routes I know - and with bits to avoid - I have found that the satnav will route me correctly (I experimented with the route from the east to the Wharfedale site, if you are interested). And it is easy to leave the satnav in car mode and just chose towing (truck) mode as and when I need it.

I will say I think that TomTom's proposition to buyers is confused or unclear at best, and they are probably losing sales as a result.

I look forward to my first towing trip in early feb guided by the new satnav - and will report back!

I have loaded up a pic of some screenshots of my experiments with my recently acquired tomtom 6200.

having found I cannot put the Camper map on it, but having found the paired MyDrive Connect app has a configurable Truck option for routing, that can be set up to my car/caravan outfit vital statistics, I decided to try some options.

So I set a start point as Thirsk, and a destination as Filey, knowing that I needed to avoid Sutton Bank which is prohibited to caravans.

the screenshots show the suggested routes for car/motorbike/truck (configured to match my outfit).

I think it is a usable success - but then of course I knew about the Sutton Bank hazard - which was still one of the suggestions for a truck (lorries are allowed up it!). 

So, have a look, and make up your own mind.

Incidentally, I have now planned routes and maintained (sync) my set of routes etc for the 6200 on 2 x smartphones, 1 x android tablet, and 1 x windows PC thu the web app (to which you need to log on). For my money it is much more usable on at least the tablet, if not the PC - simply for the size for my poor old eyes, and fat fingers. We always take our laptop with us on caravan hols so that will work ok.

Trev - what I tend to do is take one of the suggested routes and then research it on Google Maps - 'driving' it in Street View if necessary.  Once I am happy - or not - I then alter the My Drive route by dragging it at various points, so that the suggested route is exactly what I am happy with. Once finalised, I then use the Wifi facility to transfer it into My Routes on the Tom Tom and it is there to be used. My experience so far, suggests that the Tom Tom sticks exactly to the selected route, thereby avoiding any nasty surprises.

richardandros - that sounds good approach and what I intend to do. we generally take a PC with us, and so far (unsurprisingly) I have found the PC screen much better than even a tablet to do that detailed routing on.

So, all in all, I am looking forward to my first trip using it.

So far - we have not used it in the 'small car' for which it will be used 99% of the time. May drive into London at the weekend so that could bea baptism of fire!!

I have the Tom Tom 6200.  Didn’t buy it for the facility to plan routes for the caravan but discovered it on an upgrade....I “tested” it out on a trip to Castleton and found it would have me down all sorts of tiny roads unsuitable for the van.  I just plan routes out as before and don’t trust sat nav but do find them very useful during the journey with the route planned in, especially the live traffic feature

You need to be connected to the internet to get live traffic updates: the service cost more, and you have to have a generous data allowance on your phone contract/bundle.

You can't rely on early warning messages from the gantries either. Often by the time you reach the point referred to, the problem has gone away.

A few years ago I purchased a Tom Tom with "lifetime map updates"

Recently I received an email from Tom Tom advising me that I now only have 2 year "lifetime" left.

Therefore now, urgently, comparing funeral cost insurance policies

😂

I don't know how it works but I get live traffic updates on my VW system and it seems to be fairly accurate and will re-route you if appropriate.  It doesn't use the internet and doesn't cost anything (well other than the cost of the car!)