If you plan to take a serious RV road trip, a GPS is a “must own” device.
We recently bought our second portable GPS unit. Our GPS is a Garmin 2455LMT and after testing it for several weeks, we are pleased with it. Over the past few years, GPS prices have dropped and features have increased. That’s the cool thing about technology – it always gets better and cheaper.
The 2455LMT does the trick, with free maps & traffic to boot. (Click the pic for more info.)
GPS is now a stable and mature technology, and it has spread to smartphones. These days, many people are turning to smartphone apps to get their GPS fix. We chose this standalone unit instead for a few reasons.
We wanted a dedicated GPS unit that’s always available. A phone app occupies the phone in question, leaving one subject to interruptions, dying batteries, etc. The Garmin is always there for us, mounted on our tow vehicle windshield. Of course, if we want to take it with us in another vehicle or on a hike, we can easily do so.
The Garmin speaks directions in a loud clear voice – the same GPS voice we’ve been hearing for years on our previous model.
The 4.3” Garmin 2455LMT display is plenty large, bright, and easy to see in sunlight.
The mounting options are fine – no fiddling with weird phone mounts.
With this Garmin, we have free lifetime map and traffic updates. With roads constantly changing in North America, this is a nice feature.
As for the navigation itself, it’s what you’d expect. The new Garmin navigation boasts a few mild innovations. For example, when you approach a confusing highway exit, the desired path of navigation is more clearly displayed on screen. It’s a minor but welcome change.
You can now customize the on screen display to deliver the information you want. For example, it’s easy to check one’s current traveling speed and the highway speed limit on the screen. Elevation is also displayed, which is interesting when traveling through the Rocky Mountain region.
Garmin has improved the GPS interface menus. The menus are now easier to navigate, and we have the proper QWERTY keyboard that our previous model lacked.
As with all GPS units, sometimes the device gets things wrong. Once in Grand Teton National Park, our Garmin advised me to take a hard left – which literally would have meant steering straight off a steep cliff (yes, it would have gotten me to my “final destination” in a hurry). It always pays to do a reality check.
The “points of interest” database leaves something to be desired. The Garmin does a fine job finding Walmarts, but sometimes falls short when you ask for local restaurants. We sometimes find ourselves Googling the restaurant in question, and then manually entering the address into our Garmin.
There’s a strange pop up “review” system that automatically appears within the Garmin navigation menus. For example, let’s say you locate and visit a Walmart. The Garmin will later ask you to “review” Walmart on a scale on one to five stars. Sorry Garmin, but I really don’t feel the need to review every Walmart in North America. This is one “feature” I could live without.
But overall, we are very pleased with our Garmin 2455LMT GPS. In today’s world of technology, it’s easy to become blasé about these incredible devices. The GPS is one of the most revolutionary tools for travelers since the wheel. I continue to be amazed at the accuracy and usefulness of our GPS. Once you have traveled with a dedicated GPS, you won’t go roadtripping without one.