Best RV route advisor?

[SLOweather]

If you have an Android tablet, check out Offline Maps and Navigation. Much easier to see on a 10" screen than a phone or GPS screen. Also, on the road, we use Waze to advise us of traffic conditions and reroute us when needed.


One other Waze feature. You can share your trip with someone and they can watch your progress on their device, even a PC. I watched Waze reroute my cousin and his wife around a traffic jam in Santa Barbara live. (as long as you have coverage...)

[SLOweather]

SkyKing, and then HappiHenry said it:

2> Start with paper maps and/or Google Maps on a computer. Phone based Google Maps does not begin to offer a large enough screen to see the area to be traveled.

Unless we're going 200 miles to a place we're familiar with , I always start with a AAA paper map.

Here's my current process for your consideration.

We're planning a trip from San Luis Obispo CA to Moline IL and back next spring. I got a USA AAA map and taped it to my home office door. Then I got a pack of colored Post-it style signature arrows and started marking places we wanted to visit. (I useed to use highlighters, but they make a mess of the map, and the arrow can be moved or removed. And, you can write on them with a Sharpie.

After a while the route starts to define itself, and it became obvious that there are a couple of outlier spots that, due to time constraints, we won't be able to visit.





Now I can go to my files or back to AAA to get the state maps.


Then I start with a routing program like Street Atlas. I know SA is out of print,but I've been using it since it was first introduced.

This shows the trip in 6 current legs. You can see that some stops aren't on it.



Like most, SA can divide the leg up into hours or miles between stops. Then I can start finding places to stay, on-line or in books or wherever. I've never had the need to plan out gas stops. We start looking at half a tank or so.

BTW, for funsies, use as many different routing program as you can to do a basic route on the same 2 endpoints, and see how they differ. They all use different algorithms, I think. I've used SA, Waze, Off-line Maps and Navigation, and Furkot, among others.

[Skyhawker]

I just completted a 3 week tour of Utah using RVtripwizard, and it made me a believer. If you take the time to learn how to use it, RVtripwizard has all the options to give you what you need. You input height, width, length and weight. Fuel capacity and MPG. tell it how long or how far you want to drive, and it will give you driving radius. You can select the RV safe routing and it will route you on a route that will avoid low clearances, etc. tell it to show you all the campground options and what your preferences are (cost, # of stars, PPA, Good Sam, KOA, etc.) and it will. It links to all the info and you can read reviews, etc. Tell it to show you gas stations - by type (Love's, Flying J, etc.) and other POI and shopping. OR - TELL IT NOT TO SHOW YOU ANYTHING. Your choice. You can change the routing if you decide to. Once you plan the trip, you can print the routing. I'm using it to plan a trip for Sept/Oct from Las Vegas to Missouri following (in Reverse) the Santa Fe trail.

[brican]

How much is rvtripwizard? We use the Good Sam trip planner and like what it does. Rvtripwizard sounds more sophisticated.

[Skyhawker]

I just looked at their FAQs on their website (rvtripwizard.com). it states: "$39.00 US for a full year of usage. An unconditional 30 day full refund is available if you’re not 100% happy. We do not have automatic renewal." They also have a FREE demo. They send you a link to that. THey also have several Youtube video tutorials that explain the features and how to use them.

[Skyhawker]

Check out this link as well: The Best Trip Planning Apps And Websites For RVers And Campers

[pobstlmo]

Allstays is an RV app which shows Campgrounds, Fuel, RestStops, and most importantly it shows Bridge Heights on roads, and other stuff, fairly inexpensive, shows where you are in relation to foe example a Fuel station then will go to Google or Apple maps for directions.
I use it all the time, saved my roof lots!

[skyking]

Does Allstays show the prices of the campgrounds? It didn't when I tried it.
RVparky.com was good with prices and reviews, although many prices needed some updating

[My-Journey]

I can't swear that it is the "end-all, be-all" but I have been impressed with the Garmin 770 RV GPS. While I'm sure other RV based GPS systems have the same features, it is worth pointing out that when you first set up the 770 RV it asks for the height, length and weight of your vehicle. I never really thought that was particularly important until I encountered the following situation.

I recently planned out a route using Bing Maps and Google Maps. I like to use them because in addition to being pretty good route planners you can use the satellite view to actually "look" at the roads to see what you will be driving on. (They can also be handy to find campgrounds near your planned stopping points....and for preliminary camp site selection if you will be staying at a campground you haven't previously visited.)

After I had my route planned out "perfectly" I loaded in the necessary waypoints in my GPS but no matter how many intermediate waypoints I added to try to force it to follow the route I wanted, it wouldn't go that way. I was really upset with the "stupid" GPS. Then I went to the streetside view in Google and "traveled" down the road that my GPS wouldn't take me on...sure enough, even though it was a nice road, I came to a bridge with a weight rating that was not rated high enough for the weight of my RV!

After I apologized to my GPS and thanked it for not letting me go the way I thought was best, I easily found another way around that section of the route. It gave me a much deeper sense of trust in the Garmin 770 RV.

Bottom Line:
1) If you use a GPS, make sure it is one that is designed for RV use.
2) Use whatever planning tools you like, but if your RV GPS doesn't like your route, pay attention...it may be smarter than you think.

[rckmtn12]

I like this one https://www.rvtripwizard.com/ . I verify every trip with google maps. My wife says I am anal because I pull up every Flying J to see where the pumps are located and the best way in/out. I use the rand mcnally GPS on the road along with the waze app for traffic alerts.

[Buddy’s RV]

Dang ! I have one of those too . The " told you so " feature really gets me !

[Techieluv]

I hate and don’t use regular car GPS.

We use an iPad (easier on the eyes than smaller phones) thethered via personal hotspot to our phones (to get WiFi on iPad).

We use RV Trip Wizard. We also use Siri and google maps.

I hate paper maps since I like being told exactly when to turn and also like seeing the entire route ahead of time so I can see where food stops are, where gas stops are, and other features a paper map just can’t provide such as when there’s construction up ahead (which is provided on the iPad/iPhone using their maps). We’ve been spared some pretty big delays using the apps due to construction or traffic congestion, which also shows up on the apps (no idea how they know this stuff lol).

I’ve plotted preliminary trip routes using Furkot on my Mac and IPad, but it takes a bit of getting used to to fully enjoy the features.

We’ve traveled cross country and back (BC Canada to NYC to Florida to New Orleans to Vegas to Seattle) a few times.

I recommend stopping in Chicago though to see the Bean lol it’s really cool.

[akeagle]

Maybe it started with my military experience, but practical experience definitely taught me that Murphy's Law being what it is, having a backup is a must.

We have a great Rand McNally Overdryve GPS that does lots of tricks, but it's certainly not infallible. While we usually follow the GPS routing while driving, that routing was planned in detail usually the day before using a good road atlas, Next Exit, and campground directories as well as an app or two on the smart phone such as Pilot/Flying J for fuel stop info.

While on the road the DW frequently consults those publications and the Weather Channel for any necessary fine tuning. Thus my recommendation is to have multiple sources - even it they're redundant - and use them wisely.

[Techieluv]

Done cross country road trips a few times with the family. We used RV Trip Wizard to chart our trip. First time we used Furkot and RV Trip Wizard to be safe.

We use google map on our phones or iPads the rest of the time. Traveled pretty much every state and only twice did we not know where to go - back country tennessee where there was no internet and remote area of Nevada for a few hours.

Paper maps can’t show road construction work, tunnel clearances, where to boondock, what’s available on some roads like gas stations or places to eat. I’d never use a map. Even in Tennessee we didn’t buy one.... we just asked people for directions instead.

[Goodspike]

This is sort of a supplement to help you fine tune your route.

https://www.mountaindirectory.com/ebooks/

Basically it gives pass information. My wife hates passes and in her first motorhome trip I took her over a doozy just east of Craters of the Moon in Idaho. It turns out if I'd gone just a bit out of my way it wouldn't have been nearly as bad. So now I check routes against this.

[Goodspike]

I haven't used RV Trip Wizard, but it seems similar to AAA TripTik Travel Planner, which is free if you have AAA. It too is on-line.

https://triptik.aaa.com/

[SmilingSimon]

Depends on your Objective, if lovely sites then go ask landscape photographers, if Hiking a desire, then most/any NP is a good location.

USA/murca is a big country, so plan to narrow down or prioritze the where you are willing to go.

IMO, the WHEN is as important too, 95/100 degree weather not so good for hiking, spring is bestest for landscape beauty, but weather to me is VERY important for the thing you wish.

As most large cities have, zoos and museums can be fabulous on a cloudy day or even rainy, such as SLC and other places.

Have fun but DISCOVER !!