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wedge sandals review Rand McNally TripMaker 7 Inch Lifetime
I have used Magellan GPSs in cars and Motorhomes for many years, when they came out with RV specific GPSs the default one for me was the Magellan, but after doing a little research I chose to buy the Rand McNally 7710 7 inch model. I have used the 7710 for about two years now, on 5-6 trips comprising something like 4 or 5 months on the road, in all areas of the country and Canada, we take long trips. In short, I am a power user of both Magellan and Rand McNally GPSs, but know nothing about Garmin.
I love the 7710 mostly for the size and features, the dash board screen provides a wealth of information such as current location, nearest cross street, and much more. The speed dash board shows your elevation, speed, sunrise and sunset time at your current location, there is a feature to tell you when to add fuel, and your average speed, both uphill and downhill. It also had three odometers for trip millage, total hours, total hours moving, and average speed. The map display also shows current speed and will alarm if you exceed the posted speed, you can turn off this alarm and adjust how much over the posted speed you need to be to trigger the alarm. Other alarms notify you of a change in the speed limit, turn coming up, and construction or road narrowing. Also avalable on the map is a display of the road you are currently on and by clicking on the road name you can change it to display the next cross street, now that is a nice feature, really helps when looking for a street and you need some warning to move over. Easily accessible points of interest right on the map display. The colors are also easily adjustable.
The display is easily readable in all but direct sunlight, direct sunlight on the screen, not just in the car, and Rand McNally makes a sun shield that I bought and that fixed the problem. I find the display very readable with the sun shield in all light conditions.
Maps and routing, this unit uses Navteq maps which I have found are not as good as the Magellan maps. One of my cars has a built in GPS which also uses the Navteq maps. They are OK, and we have always been able to find our way but the Magellan maps are just more detailed and complete. I have just updated the maps in the 7710 for our next trip so have high hopes that they have fix the issues. Before I got the Rand McNally I used the latest Magellan, for a car, in the Motorhome and had issues with the routing a few times, bridges that would not take my weight, underpasses that were too low, and roads that did not allow RV because of mountains or other issues. Since getting the 7710 I have had no problems with this kind of thing, none whatsoever. The RV weight, length, and height are adjustable and you can change the routing for either the RV or a car.
This is a great unit and I would not be without it on a Motorhome trip.
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Just got back from a 3,600 mile trip of the Southwest. The wealth of information and features this unit has is incredible! Rand McNally did this right. The construction zones, and most highway sharp turns were announced as programed. You can program it to select routes that prevents you making u-turns. Nice if you miss your turn with a 47 foot long combined travel trailer and truck like I do. Your speed and the speed limit are posted together on the screen (did find at times the speed limit posted higher, than displayed on the screen in transition areas, thus the announcement you are "speeding"). Mile markers are displayed on the screen, just in case you have an emergency and need to report your location. If you don't have the address for a campground to set a destination, list the "City" it is located in and go to "Campgrounds" and you should find the place you are looking for. Again if you don's have an address, but know the intersection, you can route a destination that way also.
MOUNTING THE UNIT - It is designed to mount to the inside windshield. I have it mounted on the extreme left side of my windshield (bottom edge of the GPS resting on the dash)of my Chevy 4x4 DuraMax Silverado. Although I am 6' tall, shorter people might have an issue with the large 7' screen partially blocking their view. This is an important matter to consider before purchasing this size unit.
So many features to discuss here, but when you get it, play with it and get to know how to use it to it's full potential. It is a great tool for RVing. Happy Travels!
Unit is very user friendly and features are outstanding. Took a "chance" on Rand McNally over brands I knew better and I am glad I did!
This gps is great love the size easy to navigate,just plug to your pc and it does the installation all by itself,great product thanks.
Does everything as advertized. I especially like the 7 inch touch screen feature. I have been practicing with it before our next RV road trip so I will be acquainted with it. While checking out the POI (points of interest) I noticed a recommendation to visit a restraunt about 50 miles from home that we are familar with, which I found rather interesting. I also was impressed with the Check List to be used by RVers when leaving a camp sight. Should prove to be very helpful.
We purchased the RVND 7710 for an upcoming trip of 3000 miles round trip, The unit works great. The screen is very large and bright and the voice is loud enough to clearly hear over the RV road noise. The large screen size makes it much easier to accurately use the touchscreen than smaller screens. There is also a stylus located on the windshield mount if needed for the touchscreen. The windshield mount is very heavy-duty and holds the unit firmly,
The unit was fairly easy to setup and input for our destination was easy. The POIs were accurate for fuel and dump stations. Calculating routes takes a little while but there is a lot of information due to the RV info that is being calculated. It is really useful to have the specific info of your RV being taken into consideration for routing. It syncs to the satellites faster than our Garmin did.
The only downside that I have is with the Dock software for MAc. It auto loads on computer startup and can take several tries to get it to close. I have not used the windows version of Dock.
We are extremely happy with the performance of the unit.
The Rand McNally TripMaker makes it so easy to find a place to camp!!! I was traveling through Tenn. and had picked a State Park that I was planning to stay at that night. I was too tired to continue down the road. Push a few buttons, picked a different State Park much closer! So simple! My garmen couldn't do that so easily!!!
I have used Magellan GPSs in cars and Motorhomes for many years, when they came out with RV specific GPSs the default one for me was the Magellan, but after doing a little research I chose to buy the Rand McNally 7710 7 inch model. I have used the 7710 for about two years now, on 5-6 trips comprising something like 4 or 5 months on the road, in all areas of the country and Canada, we take long trips. In short, I am a power user of both Magellan and Rand McNally GPSs, but know nothing about Garmin.
I love the 7710 mostly for the size and features, the dash board screen provides a wealth of information such as current location, nearest cross street, and much more. The speed dash board shows your elevation, speed, sunrise and sunset time at your current location, there is a feature to tell you when to add fuel, and your average speed, both uphill and downhill. It also had three odometers for trip millage, total hours, total hours moving, and average speed. The map display also shows current speed and will alarm if you exceed the posted speed, you can turn off this alarm and adjust how much over the posted speed you need to be to trigger the alarm. Other alarms notify you of a change in the speed limit, turn coming up, and construction or road narrowing. Also avalable on the map is a display of the road you are currently on and by clicking on the road name you can change it to display the next cross street, now that is a nice feature, really helps when looking for a street and you need some warning to move over. Easily accessible points of interest right on the map display. The colors are also easily adjustable.
The display is easily readable in all but direct sunlight, direct sunlight on the screen, not just in the car, and Rand McNally makes a sun shield that I bought and that fixed the problem. I find the display very readable with the sun shield in all light conditions.
Maps and routing, this unit uses Navteq maps which I have found are not as good as the Magellan maps. One of my cars has a built in GPS which also uses the Navteq maps. They are OK, and we have always been able to find our way but the Magellan maps are just more detailed and complete. I have just updated the maps in the 7710 for our next trip so have high hopes that they have fix the issues. Before I got the Rand McNally I used the latest Magellan, for a car, in the Motorhome and had issues with the routing a few times, bridges that would not take my weight, underpasses that were too low, and roads that did not allow RV because of mountains or other issues. Since getting the 7710 I have had no problems with this kind of thing, none whatsoever. The RV weight, length, and height are adjustable and you can change the routing for either the RV or a car.
This is a great unit and I would not be without it on a Motorhome trip.
I have just finished a 11oo mile trip. The GPS performed outstanding. It found all the addresses with ease. It is easy to program, campground information is easily retrieved, the screen is very readable and adjustable for it brightness.
I like the ability of being able to program a complete trip from my den.
Great GPS....
i checked out a lot of these and the rand mcnally 7710 was the best we have used it several
times and its great especially when we are driving our motorhome much better than just a regular
gps