Rand McNally GPS

[KFay1019]

I am thinking of purchasing a Rand McNally TripMaker RVND 7710 GPS with lifetime maps for use when we travel. I feel like I should know about height and weight restrictions on various highways. I currently have a Garmin Nuvi but don’t know if this is good enough, even though it has worked well in my car. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated before I go spend the money on it.

[Rob_Fla]

I would like to know feedback for someone that has one the the RV GPS units.

I have looked at the Rand McNally RV GPS and the Magellion RoadMate RV GPS units.

[David472]

I have the Rand McNally 5510. We've had one summer of use, about 3,000 miles. I found it to be helpful in avoiding a couple construction zones, and in finding Points of Interest (primarily campgrounds, gas stations and Walmarts). Have not yet experienced a situation where height or weight restrictions were avoided, but it has warned us of dirt roads (leading up to a CG). I'm quite happy with these RV specific features. This is my first ever GPS, so I'm not versed on what limitations a general type GPS might have. I am glad I got this Rand McNally GPS though.

[tinlizzie23]

For what it's worth, we have a friend who had a Magellan unit (don't know the model), and told us to avoid that brand at all costs. They replaced their Magellan with a Garmin Nuvi 1490, and really like it. We now have a Garmin 1490, and are also very happy with it. No height or weight restrictions yet, but it is supposed to tell us if we encounter any.

[Boubou]

We have this rand mcnally 7710 and like it. I am pretty tech savy, this GPS has a lot of settings and it's a bit quirky. If you don't mind this, then it's definitely the unit for you. I love it! Lots of options and pretty accurate. Like all GPS, you should also rely on maps and common sense. I've also gone into POI factory and added more POI's.
It has the woodalls cg and I added sams and passport america. Very nice unit.

[Grumpytrkr]

I have the 7710, and so far, few problems. Having driven truck for a number of years, I always check the GPS turn by turn with my truckers atlas. It has found us museums and other POI's that we wouldn't of found on our own. Switching from "car" to "RV" mode is very easy. I like the large screen, but the blue tooth isn't the best. That doesn't bother me, becasue when the phone rings, I just hand it to the wife. I have a Garmin Truckers version, and I like the 7710 better because of the big screen. Another item that is very handy is the lane assist. When you need to switch from one interstate to another, it will tell you what lane to be in, and actually pop up on the screen how many lanes go to the interstate that you want to get on. This has kept me from switching lanes when I didn't need to. Good luck and safe travels.

[Rustic Eagle]

My Rand McNally 7710 GPS was delivered last week, and so far I like the user friendliness of the unit. Seems to be very accurate on the handful of destinations that I entered/traveled.

I'm still amazed how close the unit is on highway speed change notifications (how'd they do that)

Bob

[jloving]

We bought the 7710 in July and have loved it. It is very good GPS, great POI and yes I like the speed. I tend to use this instead of my speedometer.

Jim

[tnchuck100]

Question for those of you with the 7710:

Can you create routes on your PC and load them to the unit? Or is all routing required to be done in the GPS itself?

I currently have a Garmin Street Pilot III and MapSource on my PC. I do all my route planning on the PC then load the routes to the GPS unit. Unfortunately Garmin no longer provides map updates for this unit. I am looking for a replacement system with the same capability to plan routes on the PC and load them to the unit.

[Rustic Eagle]

Originally Posted by tnchuck100

Question for those of you with the 7710: Can you create routes on your PC and load them to the unit? Or is all routing required to be done in the GPS itself?....snip

Chuck,

I have only begun to dig into what the 7710 GPS can do, but I did find that the "Rand McNally Dock" (on-line link between PC and GPS) has an "Add your own POI" tab (select and transfer file) which gives you the following options: "POI", "Alert POI", and "POI Factory". Clicking on the "POI Factory" tab it does discuss the correct format to import to the Rand McNally GPS, manually creating a spreadsheet, etc..

Based on what I'm seeing I would say that POI files can be created off-line on the PC and loaded into the GPS, I'm not that well versed on the 7710 GPS to say that this also means "routes" can be created off-line (might just be a terminology thing).

Rand McNally GPS Support: 800-333-0136

Bob

[tnchuck100]

Points of Interest (POI) is not the same as routes. Routes consist of a start point, possible a series of via points, and a destination point. All of which are plotted on the PC routing software and the uploaded to the GPS device. This process transfers the way points and route information. A given in this process is the maps in the GPS are identical to the maps on the PC. ie: Rand McNally would have provided both.

I'll give them a call and pose the question directly to them. Thanks.

[norty1]

I have an old Garmin 2720 Street Pilot. It is a great unit but as mentioned hard to get updated maps. I will likely go to the Rand McNally product and am curious if my data where all my saved campsites are stored can be transferred to it? I have them backed up on data files on my laptop in the Mapsource database.

[Rustic Eagle]

Chuck, let us know what you find out.

Bob

[tnchuck100]

Well, I called 'em. The conversation was short and sweet.
Me: "Can the 7710 GPS accept routes created on a PC?"
Rand McNally: "No."
4 second pause
Me: "Thank you."
End of call

[matt1946]

I had a Tom Tom & gave it away for a Rand McNally 7710. The Rand has many great features such as showing you what lane to be in when making an exit etc. It also tell you the name of the road you are exiting on which Tom Tom did not. Only feature I do not like is the unavailability to get new voices as the male\female are not so good. all in all a great buy for the RV.

[Rustic Eagle]

Chuck, thanks for the follow-up.

Bob