Well, we have had our Garmin RV 785 GPS for about 5 months now. We have used it both in the State of Oklahoma and California (San Francisco and Yosemite area).
It comes with the GPS, the window mount, a 12V charger that plugs into your cigarette lighter and a standard USB cord to connect to the device and plug into your computer while you are doing your trip planning.
Here are the things we Love about it:
1. The warnings that it gives you about steep turns and steep grades is spot on.
2. When you have it synced to your phone, it will give you reports of accidents, which was a big help in San Francisco!
3. The up ahead feature, will show you what is coming up and changes as you travel…so you can see places to fuel, food, rest stops, etc…There are so many features you can select, if you like turn by turn it has that, if you like cities ahead it has that, if you like to see the traffic it has that…so on the right side of the screen you can see pretty much whatever you want to see.
4. It will not let you route to a road that your rig will not go down. Even when you try to make it, it will keep re-routing it….which could be a pain if you are insistent, but it can also save you. You can switch it to just a normal vehicle or change the size of your rig and it will route accordingly.
5. It is easy to setup and get going. Was literally using it within minutes after turning it on.
6. The video capability is really nice, to be able to take video while going down the road.
7. A couple of times we have second guessed it and we were sorry, so we now listen to what it is telling us, unless it is just obvious it is not correct – see one of my don’t likes below.
8. The best feature of all…..it saved us when we went to Yosemite. It does not rely on cell service! There is literally NO cell service near Yosemite and little to none in the park…..I’m not sure what we would have done if we had not had this device during our drive from San Francisco to Yosemite. Our cell phones were useless, thus our Google Maps and Maps on our phones were useless. I was never so glad we decided to throw it in the bag at the last minute and use it in the rental car.
Here are the things I don’t like so much about it:
1. Twice it has totally told us the wrong thing to do. One instance we were getting off a high way and it told us to turn right and go down a ½ mile and make a U-turn, the street was a divided street, however there was an intersection at the exit, so no need to go down then make a U-Turn. It was obvious it was wrong, so we easily corrected and went on. Both times, they were minor things and by being aware of the intersection it was rather obvious it was wrong.
2. The route shaping feature works, but it takes a bit to get used to it and how to use it. Not sure how they could make it any easier, but something you need to play with before hand.
Overall Star Rating: 5 out of 5.
Would we buy it again: Yes
We are looking forward to using in on our next adventure to the Grand Canyon and Utah!
Here is the unboxing of the GPS.