Thanks for your wonderful show! The previous Garmin you used...it wasn't the RV 785 + TRAFFIC, was it? Like another viewer, I have a trip to Yosemite then Death Valley planned in a couple of months but am terrified of the windy roads. Solo traveler so I want to ensure I'm on the path of least resistance!
My wife and I just completed a 5,200 mile round trip from Florida to out West and back towing our Montana fiver. We used our new RV890 exclusively for route planning and navigation and it did an excellent job. We’ve used Garmin GPS units for around 20 years and the RV890 is far and away the best unit so far. We agree with your review and highly recommend the RV890 GPS.
I've used it now for 2 years, about 12,000 miles of Towing. It is very good. You still need to be alert and review the routes it will select. It does have a quirk or two, if there's a Road paralleling and Interstate with a low bridge it will sometimes try to route you off and Interstate onto a secondary Road for a number of miles and then back on the interstate when there is no problem with the interstate. I definitely recommend this unit over any other brand.
I purchased the RV 890 about a month ago. Garmin is very proud of that thing... We used it on a cross country trip from our home base in Colorado to the birthplace of our camper in Sugarcreek, Ohio and back again. The 890 performed really well for the most part. The things I really like are the look ahead screens both for cities and towns and for services, Initially I had our whole route programmed into the unit, but gave up and just programmed in each days travel. I like the route planning option because it allows you to customize your trip. We were trying to stay on two lane highways and avoid all major Cities. The Garmin worked perfectly using that option. With the services screen up on the side we were able to locate fuel stops, rest/picnic areas, an restaurants. Very helpful,..... The only problem that I have had is with the voice directions working very sporadically... I still can’t figure out why it works sometimes and not others... It’s very helpful to have the Garmin tell you when a turn is coming up..
I have a Rand Mcnally RVND 7730 which appears like it might be an earlier version of this. I love it. Even my luddite wife has learned to love it. I usually turn off the voice and miss half the turns. I once ended up in Canada. When I got to the border crossing I told the guard that I missed a turn and asked if I could turn around. He said sure but first we should enjoy the Canadian side of the falls because it was a much better view. The missed turned led to a great day at Niagara Falls.
Garmin also has a backup camera that connects to the Garmin 890 wirelessly. I hooked it up the back-up light so when I put the vehicle in reverse the GPS switches to that view and back when put in drive. Great for hooking up the TT. I think the model is 135, not the 130. Check compatibility, the 130 is Bluetooth for the Garmin 790 and the 135 is wifi and works with the 890.
I've been wishing for these features ever since I got our first Garmin. Clearance, trailer restrictions, and propane restrictions were all things I wanted on the avoidances menu. BTW: I kept waiting for you to insert a clip of Robin Williams yelling at his GPS in _RV_ ... I think it was something like "You are not on any marked road" "I _know that_ Lola!"
Never have had any good luck with Garmin products personally. I’ve always preferred Rand McNally. I find the update process extremely easy and I don’t find myself going down roads, across bridges and/or threw tunnels I’m not supposed to. I also will say that I don’t ever rely on just a gps either. I plan all of my trips using a road atlas, google/bing/Apple Maps (etc), and gps in combination along with the personal knowledge I’ve gained from being a truck driver for 20+ years.
We had a sweet British woman's voice on our Garmin about 10 years ago and lost her on an update. We still want her back! Garmin's are great though, wouldn't travel without one.
You guys have been an inspiration for us going full time RV! We have been on the road now for two years and loving life… We also love your videos! I have a question about the Garmin 890 however. We purchased the Garmin 890 before heading out on our summer adventure and everything was going great. We love all the features including some that we didn’t expect… we’ll post on that another time. My question is, yesterday, as we were leaving CarlsBad NP headed to Texas Hill Country our Garmin immediately rerouted us stating a closed county road. Without hesitation we took the detour adding 100 miles to our already long trip. It then later said l-10 was closed and wanted to add another 200 miles to the route! I decided that there was no way l-10 could be completely closed so we continued on ignoring the reroute. As it was, there wasn’t even cones on I-10… it was completely clear. It also randomly tried to rout us off the hwy only to put us right back on . I do have all of the latest updates on both the Garmin and my phone. Have you ever had an experience with the Garmin like that? Or have you heard of that happening? Thanks for your great videos - Steve - aka OurRoadToCamelot
I have owned one for about 2 months now, the mapping logic still needs a lot of work! Even properly setup on trial runs (with the camper specs in, without the actual camper in tow thankfully) I will never trust it in rural areas ever!!! Issue #1 I asked it to take me from my house (only lived here a few weeks and didn't know the area) to a Lowe's in a city about 35 Miles away, I was going good until it took me down a road I was never in before it was going good until I had Goats, chickens and ducks in the road then there was a bridge made of large stones across a swamp!!! Ok maybe something happened to the road? Then I'm in a pasture with no visible continuation of the road I was on and it is very wet!!! If I had my camper behind me I would have been in serious trouble! I wouldn't have gone this far but a mile before this seemed to end I was committed and could never have turned a trailer around even if it was unhooked! I found a local and asked about this road it was an old moonshiners road 50-60 years ago basically long forgotten! Somehow Garmin thought it was a good idea to take a 35' camper down this road that's only on Garmin map? Google doesn't have it listed. Even today I have a trip planned I check both the Garmin and Google and will have to follow Google maps for over half the Trip or it will take me almost 80 Miles out of the way to my destination? No reason the Google route is bad for me, except to burn more Diesel than I should! Maybe Garmin has stock in US oil? Just kidding I hope! So yeah my experience with it is jaded it has serious issues, always check another map before trusting it or you might have an expensive recovery in your future if not you might spend a lot more for feeding your vehicle at the least.
Great review video. California does let you mount items on the bottom corners of the windshield. The time machine did at least send your jacket and shirt to the future. Thank you and have wonderful travels.
My Big Garmin has a dash cam. The planned trip in my trip planning program can be blue toothed to the Garmin. Updates can be done on the unit WIFI to my hot spot or house WIFI. You don't need to hook it up like the smaller Garmins.
I've been using Garmin GPS units since the StreetPilot came out back in the 90s (I think). Once you understand how the routing software works, you can get them to take you almost anywhere on the roads you want to drive. I also use Garmin’s Base Camp software, which could stand a significant update, to create routes on my laptop and download them to the GPS. I upgraded to the Garmin RV 780 earlier this year before the world shut down, so I haven't had a chance to get much use of it. Hopefully soon. I chose the 780 because I didn't want the huge screen blocking the view. I also use a ProClip mount to mount it to the dash instead of the windshield, so the smaller screen is closer to me and works great.
About 4 years ago I switched from TomTom to Garmin buying the top of the line unit at the time. The voice activation was a major attraction. Well, Mine is either hard of hearing or stupid, and apparently no amount of overpronounciation or raising your voice will make her any better at hearing. Now that's understandable when two places sound similar but when you say McDonalds and she asks, "Did you say truck repair" you just rip her off of that handy dandy magnetic mount and enter the location old school.
The new voice activation seems to work better than the old. (The biggest problem seems to be the occasional accidental activation.) And that's something nice about the magnetic mount -- if your copilot wants to grab the GPS and do some typing, it's easy to pop off and on.
Long Long Honeymoon ah yes, the “Nobody asked you” accidental activation. The RV features would be a plus! Oh and I went to a sandbag mount so the unit only obscures hood visibility but not road.
We used to use a female British voice. We called the GPS Daphne after the Daphne from the TV show Frazier. I don't know how many time "shut up Daphne' was said when she said she was recalculating.
HI Sean, today we received our Garmin 890 and the road atlas you also mentioned. We love them both. Our travel season is fast approaching and we sure hope to see you out there somewhere.
Hey love your channel. Was wondering if you guys had done an update to the Garmin 890 GPS you did a year ago. If you have I must have somehow missed it.
If you are using Garmin Basecamp for planning routes or trips, you will have to turn off all propane information (i.e. 0 propane tanks) before you can upload to the 890. Garmin has had this problem for quiet awhile in other models. Also, if the route has a large number of points, be sure to let the upload go on for awhile. Sometimes you will have to unplug from the computer, power off the 890 and restart to complete the upload.
Great in-depth review! Garmin should just sell an Android app, that way the unique features, such as the campground directory, can be integrated into an existing device.
Nice review, I use Car Play in the RV. It works ok but can be frustrating. Great info to help me make the decision to add a real GPS. I agree with the comments that Garmin needs to ditch the cigarette lighter plug!
My old Garmin 760LM saved my ass in IL from going down a road with low power lines. Worth every penny in my opinion. Looks like it's dead now so I'll end probably end up picking this bad boy up.
Sean, my Subaru had a lot of glare on the screen too. I found an antiglare overlay that the company would cut to custom sizes. It didn’t cure the reflection problem entirely but it helped a lot. Google and you should be able to find it- I can’t remember the company
We stopped using dedicated GPS when the last one told me to right immediately when I was on the Tampa bay bridge. The other issue is that it takes the route it wants and not the route we want. I just find it easier to pre-plan my route on the laptop using google maps and uploading it to my wife's phone and my large tablet and it eliminates having us driving into the Marriot Centre in Miami with our 35' motorhome towing a car and not being able to move forward or backward thanks to our last and 3 rd Garmin.
We had a couple of weird routing situations with our last Garmin also. None with this one yet, but we typically now have a phone GPS going also ... the Garmin is the primary but Google offers a second opinion...
Yes, where Google Maps---generally---picks a logical route, my Rand RV GPS will almost always require that I lay in a bunch of waypoints to force it to the route I want. A colosssal waste of time. The Nav in my pickup is just as bad.
Google maps has acquired a nasty habit of rerouting me without asking ... it used to display a little popup when there was a faster route available but didn't change my routing if I didn't touch the popup. When initially planning a route, when it gives me alternatives I'll usually choose one of the slower ones since they're usually more scenic or avoid big highways. Now, I'll be driving along and realize the directions aren't quite right and discover that it decided I need to take the faster route and rerouted me without telling me. Since I'm solo this would be very bad while pulling my trailer as I'd have to pull over to figure out how to get back to my route. I'm seriously considering the Garmin if I could be sure that it wouldn't do that. I'd rather have to do the extra waypoints trick than find myself somewhere I couldn't easily get out of.
Thank you for the 890 review. The bigger screen should help considerably. No worry about windshield restrictions, because the navigator will use our unit as the primary when we get it and the in dash unit will be the driver reference. Nice lane change information and those graphics help a lot.
I think when your in that campground screen you just use voice command and say garmin "call campground" or garmin "call ( and give number to call). You might not need to say garmin, but I bet it is a voice command to call that campground since the number is not touchable. It looks like Gatmin fixed the issues with the 770. I bought the 660 though it doesnt have RV specifics on it. Great review!
I have used Google maps for a dozen years. Google is invasive in my personal travels. Few years ago it sent me a notification of how many cities and homedepot I have been to. If I eat fast food, a Wendy's spicy chicken is good, on more then one occasion google altered my route to do a Wendy's drive by. Paranoid, probably. But I have been following navigational units since, I trust your review, thanks.
Looking forward to future updates about the routing. I have to prior version and I agree, the routing can sometimes get "wonky". We normally double-check the route with our cell phone.
I sure love my 770. I really like what the new one has to offer. I have always been a Garmin fan. I have had at least a dozen of their GPS units since before GPS was cool! (Speaking of my ETrex Legend then Vista)
Just watched this video for a second time and I think this will be the GPS for us. Garmin just released model RV 1090, but at over $700.00 it's a little pricey, and the 10" screen may take up too much real estate on our dashboard.
Since I don't have a dedicated car GPS anymore I'll probably get one of these when I start RVing. $500 might sound expensive, but my dedicated BMW motorcycle GPS does a lot less for twice the price.
Absolutely!! Should have been the first thing mentioned. My husband & I have been literally Stranded bc we forgot about the remote areas(i.e. no reception in the Catskills in NY, unless you're in the cities, and not all of them, either). So, if you plan on going to the boondocks, you really need a Satellite GPS!
Great video and great product. Its about time. The only thing i have against it is the size. I have a garmin now that i have had since 2016. I think its 5 inches. Its simple to use. I would upgrade if the 890 was more compact. But all in all it is a great unit. Lots of great features.
I just travel by car, and even have a built in GPS. BUT updating the car GPS is expensive. So for a bit more than updating the car map once, I bought a Garmin with lifetime map updates. My first Garmin had uploadable voices and I had Yoda and several other fun ones. I also had a bunch of fun vehicles. Yes the Millennium Falcon, the Mystery Machine, Moms taxi. I need to go searching if they ever brought that back.
I was using Google Maps all the time but have now switched to a dedicated GPS for the same reasons you stated but went with the Garmin Overlander because I wanted the off road topo, IP5X dust rating, & drop capability. Overlander is $200 more but it also includes altimeter function along with all the RV features. I've been using the off road maps when UTV riding but when pulling my trailer I found that when I was spontaneously driving it was difficult finding a campground or RV park while (using a smart phone) navigating at the same time. Plus there are many times on the road when I don't have a cell signal and if I change my route in Google Maps, I loose capability to route or track my progress. The other difference I noticed is that the RV 890 only uses a GPS sensor, the Overlander uses: GPS, GLONASS, and GALLIEO but am not sure if there any advantages.
Hi! I always enjoy your videos. Thank you! I have an older model Garmin. It has an add on back up camera. I love it! Being bluetooth allows for a camera on a trailer. Safe travels!
At least in the west, there are many highways where there is no cell coverage.. hence, no phone mapping.. at least in our experience. A big plus for Garmin and other real GPS'
Purchased using your affiliate link - thank you for your great product review and all of your videos. We have learned a lot from your channel and had some good laughs :)
Iam new subscriber Arabic lady citizen I really got amazed when iread name of your channel is very awesome it’s couple married for many years enjoy to travel everywhere and life of adventures we as foreigners subscribers as overseas students enjoy to explore places unknown to us and make friendships with people from different countries to increase our cultural level improve our English language too if you please I add some main information about places you visited alright impossible for us to travel there ihope we became intimate friends from right now all of us suffering from corna virus it’s global crisis may god end this pandemic soon amen stay safe blessed best wishes to you your dearest ones
Before i understood the importance of an RV GPS, i let my cell phone take down a one lane road in West Virginia. Nowhere to turn around, ditches on both sides, ending with a bridge with a 12,000 pound limit. My exact weight. I cleared the bridge with an inch to spare. I carry the Garmin 890.
Be extremely cautious in West Virginia. Just two weeks ago it sent me into a farmers field. The trip before that it sent us on an ATV trail. Just glad the trailer wasn't attached!!!
Well I got a bar in deli 770 being a truck driver bout the best I ever had need a little common cuz it will lead u wrong but all in all it’s been damm good
I have a 2016 Ford F250. I bought an map update for the GPS last year, it does not show my five year old neighborhood, and is also sketchy for directions from SC to Orlando. Phone GPS is okay as long as you have a signal. Neither of these will route you away from RV inappropriate routes. Spring for a GPS.
Thank you... finally some reviews of the Garmin 890 GPS. I've been waiting for consumers to review it, not Garmin, they could be a little bias. I have the Rand Mc Nally Overdryve 7 Pro and I like it, but Rand Mc Nally is not updating their maps and its bugging me a lot. Their last map update for my GPS was about 3.5 years ago. Every time I connect the GPS to wifi to check for new maps, it tells me I have the current maps. NOT!!!!
Thank you - thank you. I purchased the product Garmin gps and I love it. I also have the sweater jackets you recommended a year ago, my husband says its his favorite. Thank for sharing your travels.
Minnesota also takes a dim view of windshield mounted devices. Experience has shown, however, that it’s another law the Minnesota State Patrol doesn’t enforce. When the image inverts, that must be for use in Australia, right?
I've been using the old extinct DeLome Street Atlas on a laptop. Great screen size but it is getting more and more frustrating. Of course the maps are getting more and more out of date. But the big issue is that it reacts slowly, it tells you to turn, you do but it does not know that you did and start throwing out "OFF ROUTE!!" orders. You try to correct your actually correct route and serious aggravation follows. So I'm going to have to break down and buy one of these and it's a case of getting the current model to minimize obsolescence down the road. The 785 isn't that much cheaper anyway. We are just getting started on Fulltiming so a good nav system is important to us. So thanks for your good RV related review.
I wish units like this would allow API integration to work with other products so I could have one central dashboard for information. IE, backup/observation camera, TPMS, trailer leveling info to be viewed on this one display and toggle between. For us, we have 3 screens to monitor, the GPS, the rear observation camera to see who's behind us before we switch lanes, and our Tireminder, tire pressure/temperature monitor, and our Level Mate Pro.
Awesome review, looks like our next upgrade, we have the 760 LMT, wish it had a way to set speed limit so it gives you an accurate arrival time, really annoying when your on an Interstate with an over 65 mph speed limit and just watching your arrival time grow and grow.
I bought a large Garmin but it was for Truckers and I would hate to be a trucker relying on this unit! When we were looking the RV Garmin didn't exist and I could not see the information easily! I wonder if Garmin will let me trade for it!
I have a Garmin RV 770, and for the most part it's good. I use it paired to the BC-30 camera, which I have in the Airstream back window. It works, but the resolution is only 290 lines, which is terrible. Please Garmin, 720 P??? Also the data base for gas is unreliable if you're looking for a brand station. I'd say it's wrong 75% of the time. (Or it tells you to go back 50 miles!) You're better off with the highway signs. BTW, the BC-35 for this unit also has bad resolution but connects via wi-fi instead of bluetooth. I'm considering running two GPS's, one for routing, the other for detours and traffic.
I think all GPS units have problems with navigation at times because (as far as I know) they receive their data from municipalities that don't do good job as they should.
Thank you so much for this review. I am a huge Garmin fan. I'm on my third unit. I currently am using the 780 RV in my Class C RV. The only drawback I have off of mine is that the speaker is not loud enough for me to use as a hands-free phone. I know you're using yours in a truck, as opposed to the cab of a Class C but have you had any problems with being able to hear it when you're using it as hands-free phone. I've had to turn off the Bluetooth function because of it, and as a result do not get the traffic updates.
Have you sent suggestions to Garmin? You made really good points on the shortfalls of this unit. Great video. I shared it with my brother who is in the market for a new truck and wants to spend the boat load dealers charge for their navigation system. This unit makes more sense, plus you can transfer it to another vehicle.
Thanks Sean for an awesome review. I have a question about the trip planning function... can you plan out an entire trip with multiple stops at once? If yes, is there a limit to how many stops? Thanks again.
Thank you both for another great video. We are so frustrated already with the apps like Copilot that seem to take us the looooong way around and make it confusing as all heck. Going to try this to see if it’s better. What would we do without you guys??? You’re the best!
We currently have the Garmin 770 GPS. It very frequently provides wrong directions and cannot be trusted. An example would be directing us to the State Park office within a town instead of the park which is out of town.
We previously had the 760. This one is a big leap beyond our older unit.... more features and they are now a lot easier to use. I do wish Garmin would allow more firmware updates to the older models.... or even sell the software for Android tablets.
Nice, but $500 is a bit much for me. Also, I have had an older Garmin with lifetime updates that would not update. Garmin says the lifetime of their devices is only 3 years so they won't support it anymore. $500 for only 3 years of use is no good. I am still using the refrigerator my mother had in the 1960s.
Where did you hear this? I have a Garmin Nuvi 1260LMT that I'm guessing has to be 10 years old or more, anyway it's OLD, and I just updated it last week. Are you using Garmin Express?
Quick update about one of Sean's cons: no calling of phone numbers displayed by the RV890. I'm running an RV890 Hardware Version 5 with Software Version 3.4 (both the latest) connected to the Garmin Drive App (Version 4.16.20) on a new iPhone SE. If a window is displayed showing info with phone numbers, tapping the 3 menu bars at the top left of the screen will offer an option to call the displayed phone number. Note that if it is a list of phone numbers, only the first one is called.
Thanks Theo, I just updated my software today to the latest also. I will check it out. In the future I may do a detailed walkthrough of the RV 890. I think it would be an interesting and helpful video for a lot of people (including me! haha).
The latest firmware update on the RV770 seems like they might have fixed some of the navigation wonkyness... we just did 2 trips with our 770 and didn't experience any of the head scratchers. Watching your review, it looks like the 890 might just be a 770 with a bigger screen, many of the things look identical except for some new icons. Can you go into more detail on the differences between the 890 and the 770?
Awesome video as usual (we’re subscribed, and watch all your stuff). How does this unit do when (re)routing while there is no internet connectivity? Does it need a hot spot, etc. to function? How much data does it tend to use up?
I watch you guys all the time and have been a subscriber for a long time. I've seen so many videos on the 890. Most of them say it's not accurate in the directions it gives out. Are you still using it and how accurate is it?
Garmin RV 890: amzn.to/3hgIUK5
Thanks for your wonderful show! The previous Garmin you used...it wasn't the RV 785 + TRAFFIC, was it? Like another viewer, I have a trip to Yosemite then Death Valley planned in a couple of months but am terrified of the windy roads. Solo traveler so I want to ensure I'm on the path of least resistance!
My wife and I just completed a 5,200 mile round trip from Florida to out West and back towing our Montana fiver. We used our new RV890 exclusively for route planning and navigation and it did an excellent job. We’ve used Garmin GPS units for around 20 years and the RV890 is far and away the best unit so far. We agree with your review and highly recommend the RV890 GPS.
I've used it now for 2 years, about 12,000 miles of Towing. It is very good. You still need to be alert and review the routes it will select. It does have a quirk or two, if there's a Road paralleling and Interstate with a low bridge it will sometimes try to route you off and Interstate onto a secondary Road for a number of miles and then back on the interstate when there is no problem with the interstate. I definitely recommend this unit over any other brand.
I purchased the RV 890 about a month ago. Garmin is very proud of that thing... We used it on a cross country trip from our home base in Colorado to the birthplace of our camper in Sugarcreek, Ohio and back again. The 890 performed really well for the most part. The things I really like are the look ahead screens both for cities and towns and for services, Initially I had our whole route programmed into the unit, but gave up and just programmed in each days travel. I like the route planning option because it allows you to customize your trip. We were trying to stay on two lane highways and avoid all major Cities. The Garmin worked perfectly using that option. With the services screen up on the side we were able to locate fuel stops, rest/picnic areas, an restaurants. Very helpful,..... The only problem that I have had is with the voice directions working very sporadically... I still can’t figure out why it works sometimes and not others... It’s very helpful to have the Garmin tell you when a turn is coming up..
I have a Rand Mcnally RVND 7730 which appears like it might be an earlier version of this. I love it. Even my luddite wife has learned to love it. I usually turn off the voice and miss half the turns. I once ended up in Canada. When I got to the border crossing I told the guard that I missed a turn and asked if I could turn around. He said sure but first we should enjoy the Canadian side of the falls because it was a much better view. The missed turned led to a great day at Niagara Falls.
We just purchased the Garmin 71EX which is 7", and we used it on our last trip. We love it!
"According to trip advisor." Good clarification.
Garmin also has a backup camera that connects to the Garmin 890 wirelessly. I hooked it up the back-up light so when I put the vehicle in reverse the GPS switches to that view and back when put in drive. Great for hooking up the TT. I think the model is 135, not the 130. Check compatibility, the 130 is Bluetooth for the Garmin 790 and the 135 is wifi and works with the 890.
I've been wishing for these features ever since I got our first Garmin. Clearance, trailer restrictions, and propane restrictions were all things I wanted on the avoidances menu. BTW: I kept waiting for you to insert a clip of Robin Williams yelling at his GPS in _RV_ ... I think it was something like "You are not on any marked road" "I _know that_ Lola!"
The only thing better than a new Loloho video is a new Loloho video while we're on the road (finally)!!!
Never have had any good luck with Garmin products personally. I’ve always preferred Rand McNally. I find the update process extremely easy and I don’t find myself going down roads, across bridges and/or threw tunnels I’m not supposed to. I also will say that I don’t ever rely on just a gps either. I plan all of my trips using a road atlas, google/bing/Apple Maps (etc), and gps in combination along with the personal knowledge I’ve gained from being a truck driver for 20+ years.
We did end up purchasing this unit and are loving it so far.
We had a sweet British woman's voice on our Garmin about 10 years ago and lost her on an update. We still want her back!
Garmin's are great though, wouldn't travel without one.
Yeah, I don't understand why they removed those voices! I'm trying to figure out if we can add them.
I have a garmin rv 785 and we love it my wife especially
Thumbs up for the blinker fluid!
Loved your trip to NH. I lived there for 7years and miss it now.
Keep ‘em coming!!! I am getting a lot of value from your channel as a new travel trailer owner and family camper.
You guys have been an inspiration for us going full time RV! We have been on the road now for two years and loving life… We also love your videos! I have a question about the Garmin 890 however. We purchased the Garmin 890 before heading out on our summer adventure and everything was going great. We love all the features including some that we didn’t expect… we’ll post on that another time. My question is, yesterday, as we were leaving CarlsBad NP headed to Texas Hill Country our Garmin immediately rerouted us stating a closed county road. Without hesitation we took the detour adding 100 miles to our already long trip. It then later said l-10 was closed and wanted to add another 200 miles to the route! I decided that there was no way l-10 could be completely closed so we continued on ignoring the reroute. As it was, there wasn’t even cones on I-10… it was completely clear. It also randomly tried to rout us off the hwy only to put us right back on . I do have all of the latest updates on both the Garmin and my phone. Have you ever had an experience with the Garmin like that? Or have you heard of that happening? Thanks for your great videos - Steve - aka OurRoadToCamelot
I have owned one for about 2 months now, the mapping logic still needs a lot of work! Even properly setup on trial runs (with the camper specs in, without the actual camper in tow thankfully) I will never trust it in rural areas ever!!! Issue #1 I asked it to take me from my house (only lived here a few weeks and didn't know the area) to a Lowe's in a city about 35 Miles away, I was going good until it took me down a road I was never in before it was going good until I had Goats, chickens and ducks in the road then there was a bridge made of large stones across a swamp!!! Ok maybe something happened to the road? Then I'm in a pasture with no visible continuation of the road I was on and it is very wet!!! If I had my camper behind me I would have been in serious trouble! I wouldn't have gone this far but a mile before this seemed to end I was committed and could never have turned a trailer around even if it was unhooked! I found a local and asked about this road it was an old moonshiners road 50-60 years ago basically long forgotten! Somehow Garmin thought it was a good idea to take a 35' camper down this road that's only on Garmin map? Google doesn't have it listed. Even today I have a trip planned I check both the Garmin and Google and will have to follow Google maps for over half the Trip or it will take me almost 80 Miles out of the way to my destination? No reason the Google route is bad for me, except to burn more Diesel than I should! Maybe Garmin has stock in US oil? Just kidding I hope! So yeah my experience with it is jaded it has serious issues, always check another map before trusting it or you might have an expensive recovery in your future if not you might spend a lot more for feeding your vehicle at the least.
I use the Garmin zumo xt on my motorcycle and love it very similar features, great Sean and Kristy effects!!
Great review video. California does let you mount items on the bottom corners of the windshield. The time machine did at least send your jacket and shirt to the future. Thank you and have wonderful travels.
Minnesota prohibits mounting GPS's on the dashboard.
My Big Garmin has a dash cam. The planned trip in my trip planning program can be blue toothed to the Garmin. Updates can be done on the unit WIFI to my hot spot or house WIFI. You don't need to hook it up like the smaller Garmins.
I've been using Garmin GPS units since the StreetPilot came out back in the 90s (I think). Once you understand how the routing software works, you can get them to take you almost anywhere on the roads you want to drive. I also use Garmin’s Base Camp software, which could stand a significant update, to create routes on my laptop and download them to the GPS.
I upgraded to the Garmin RV 780 earlier this year before the world shut down, so I haven't had a chance to get much use of it. Hopefully soon. I chose the 780 because I didn't want the huge screen blocking the view. I also use a ProClip mount to mount it to the dash instead of the windshield, so the smaller screen is closer to me and works great.
Ive always brought my iPad mini cellular. Seems to be the best for me.
That's great as long as you have cell coverage. We travel to many places (especially national parks) that do not have cell coverage.
@@kristymichael Google Maps allows for offline use if you download them first
About 4 years ago I switched from TomTom to Garmin buying the top of the line unit at the time. The voice activation was a major attraction. Well, Mine is either hard of hearing or stupid, and apparently no amount of overpronounciation or raising your voice will make her any better at hearing. Now that's understandable when two places sound similar but when you say McDonalds and she asks, "Did you say truck repair" you just rip her off of that handy dandy magnetic mount and enter the location old school.
The new voice activation seems to work better than the old. (The biggest problem seems to be the occasional accidental activation.) And that's something nice about the magnetic mount -- if your copilot wants to grab the GPS and do some typing, it's easy to pop off and on.
Long Long Honeymoon ah yes, the “Nobody asked you” accidental activation.
The RV features would be a plus!
Oh and I went to a sandbag mount so the unit only obscures hood visibility but not road.
We used to use a female British voice. We called the GPS Daphne after the Daphne from the TV show Frazier. I don't know how many time "shut up Daphne' was said when she said she was recalculating.
Best show ever!great post
HI Sean, today we received our Garmin 890 and the road atlas you also mentioned. We love them both. Our travel season is fast approaching and we sure hope to see you out there somewhere.
I installed the Tech Armor screen protector on my iPad Mini and it is anti-glare and anti-Fingerprint...works great..Give it a try for the RV890.
Thanks we will definitely check it out!
@@LongLongHoneymoon Of course it was purchased at Amazon
Hey love your channel. Was wondering if you guys had done an update to the Garmin 890 GPS you did a year ago. If you have I must have somehow missed it.
If you are using Garmin Basecamp for planning routes or trips, you will have to turn off all propane information (i.e. 0 propane tanks) before you can upload to the 890. Garmin has had this problem for quiet awhile in other models. Also, if the route has a large number of points, be sure to let the upload go on for awhile. Sometimes you will have to unplug from the computer, power off the 890 and restart to complete the upload.
Great in-depth review! Garmin should just sell an Android app, that way the unique features, such as the campground directory, can be integrated into an existing device.
I appreciate your company to manufacture it
Nice review, I use Car Play in the RV. It works ok but can be frustrating. Great info to help me make the decision to add a real GPS. I agree with the comments that Garmin needs to ditch the cigarette lighter plug!
The Sean Michael time machine is awesome.
I'm trying to figure out a way to transport my younger hair, skin, and knees onto my current body. Stay tuned.
@@LongLongHoneymoon
You need a fiber optic connection for human tissue 🤓👍
My old Garmin 760LM saved my ass in IL from going down a road with low power lines. Worth every penny in my opinion. Looks like it's dead now so I'll end probably end up picking this bad boy up.
Sean, my Subaru had a lot of glare on the screen too. I found an antiglare overlay that the company would cut to custom sizes. It didn’t cure the reflection problem entirely but it helped a lot. Google and you should be able to find it- I can’t remember the company
We stopped using dedicated GPS when the last one told me to right immediately when I was on the Tampa bay bridge. The other issue is that it takes the route it wants and not the route we want. I just find it easier to pre-plan my route on the laptop using google maps and uploading it to my wife's phone and my large tablet and it eliminates having us driving into the Marriot Centre in Miami with our 35' motorhome towing a car and not being able to move forward or backward thanks to our last and 3 rd Garmin.
We had a couple of weird routing situations with our last Garmin also. None with this one yet, but we typically now have a phone GPS going also ... the Garmin is the primary but Google offers a second opinion...
Yes, where Google Maps---generally---picks a logical route, my Rand RV GPS will almost always require that I lay in a bunch of waypoints to force it to the route I want. A colosssal waste of time. The Nav in my pickup is just as bad.
Google maps has acquired a nasty habit of rerouting me without asking ... it used to display a little popup when there was a faster route available but didn't change my routing if I didn't touch the popup. When initially planning a route, when it gives me alternatives I'll usually choose one of the slower ones since they're usually more scenic or avoid big highways. Now, I'll be driving along and realize the directions aren't quite right and discover that it decided I need to take the faster route and rerouted me without telling me. Since I'm solo this would be very bad while pulling my trailer as I'd have to pull over to figure out how to get back to my route. I'm seriously considering the Garmin if I could be sure that it wouldn't do that. I'd rather have to do the extra waypoints trick than find myself somewhere I couldn't easily get out of.
Thank you for the 890 review. The bigger screen should help considerably. No worry about windshield restrictions, because the navigator will use our unit as the primary when we get it and the in dash unit will be the driver reference. Nice lane change information and those graphics help a lot.
I think when your in that campground screen you just use voice command and say garmin "call campground" or garmin "call ( and give number to call). You might not need to say garmin, but I bet it is a voice command to call that campground since the number is not touchable. It looks like Gatmin fixed the issues with the 770. I bought the 660 though it doesnt have RV specifics on it. Great review!
I have used Google maps for a dozen years. Google is invasive in my personal travels. Few years ago it sent me a notification of how many cities and homedepot I have been to. If I eat fast food, a Wendy's spicy chicken is good, on more then one occasion google altered my route to do a Wendy's drive by. Paranoid, probably. But I have been following navigational units since, I trust your review, thanks.
Looking forward to future updates about the routing. I have to prior version and I agree, the routing can sometimes get "wonky". We normally double-check the route with our cell phone.
That was a great information and a very useful tool to have. Pricy though, keep us posted how well you enjoy it after several trips
I sure love my 770. I really like what the new one has to offer. I have always been a Garmin fan. I have had at least a dozen of their GPS units since before GPS was cool! (Speaking of my ETrex Legend then Vista)
We love our RV 890
Just watched this video for a second time and I think this will be the GPS for us. Garmin just released model RV 1090, but at over $700.00 it's a little pricey, and the 10" screen may take up too much real estate on our dashboard.
This definitely seems to be the "Cadillac" of RV GPS'. Great video as always!
Arizona also prohibits anything on your windshield, I was pulled over!
Since I don't have a dedicated car GPS anymore I'll probably get one of these when I start RVing. $500 might sound expensive, but my dedicated BMW motorcycle GPS does a lot less for twice the price.
the number one reason for a dedicated GPS is it will work when you have no phone reception.
Absolutely!! Should have been the first thing mentioned. My husband & I have been literally Stranded bc we forgot about the remote areas(i.e. no reception in the Catskills in NY, unless you're in the cities, and not all of them, either). So, if you plan on going to the boondocks, you really need a Satellite GPS!
One word for you.... OSMAND
They’re using the touch screen tech and features over from their fishing graphs. Looks good.
Great video and great product. Its about time. The only thing i have against it is the size. I have a garmin now that i have had since 2016. I think its 5 inches. Its simple to use. I would upgrade if the 890 was more compact. But all in all it is a great unit. Lots of great features.
I just travel by car, and even have a built in GPS. BUT updating the car GPS is expensive. So for a bit more than updating the car map once, I bought a Garmin with lifetime map updates.
My first Garmin had uploadable voices and I had Yoda and several other fun ones. I also had a bunch of fun vehicles. Yes the Millennium Falcon, the Mystery Machine, Moms taxi. I need to go searching if they ever brought that back.
I was using Google Maps all the time but have now switched to a dedicated GPS for the same reasons you stated but went with the Garmin Overlander because I wanted the off road topo, IP5X dust rating, & drop capability. Overlander is $200 more but it also includes altimeter function along with all the RV features. I've been using the off road maps when UTV riding but when pulling my trailer I found that when I was spontaneously driving it was difficult finding a campground or RV park while (using a smart phone) navigating at the same time. Plus there are many times on the road when I don't have a cell signal and if I change my route in Google Maps, I loose capability to route or track my progress. The other difference I noticed is that the RV 890 only uses a GPS sensor, the Overlander uses: GPS, GLONASS, and GALLIEO but am not sure if there any advantages.
Sean, great review. We got the RV 785 mainly for the “Dash Cam” feature.
Hi! I always enjoy your videos. Thank you! I have an older model Garmin. It has an add on back up camera. I love it! Being bluetooth allows for a camera on a trailer. Safe travels!
At least in the west, there are many highways where there is no cell coverage.. hence, no phone mapping.. at least in our experience. A big plus for Garmin and other real GPS'
I ordered a bullet mount. It's a mount that sits in that void on the dash
Purchased using your affiliate link - thank you for your great product review and all of your videos. We have learned a lot from your channel and had some good laughs :)
Iam new subscriber Arabic lady citizen I really got amazed when iread name of your channel is very awesome it’s couple married for many years enjoy to travel everywhere and life of adventures we as foreigners subscribers as overseas students enjoy to explore places unknown to us and make friendships with people from different countries to increase our cultural level improve our English language too if you please I add some main information about places you visited alright impossible for us to travel there ihope we became intimate friends from right now all of us suffering from corna virus it’s global crisis may god end this pandemic soon amen stay safe blessed best wishes to you your dearest ones
Before i understood the importance of an RV GPS, i let my cell phone take down a one lane road in West Virginia. Nowhere to turn around, ditches on both sides, ending with a bridge with a 12,000 pound limit. My exact weight. I cleared the bridge with an inch to spare. I carry the Garmin 890.
Be extremely cautious in West Virginia. Just two weeks ago it sent me into a farmers field. The trip before that it sent us on an ATV trail. Just glad the trailer wasn't attached!!!
Well I got a bar in deli 770 being a truck driver bout the best I ever had need a little common cuz it will lead u wrong but all in all it’s been damm good
Thank you for the review! Without hesitation, I order this unit! Tested the new unit out over the weekend--wonderful!
I have a 2016 Ford F250. I bought an map update for the GPS last year, it does not show my five year old neighborhood, and is also sketchy for directions from SC to Orlando. Phone GPS is okay as long as you have a signal. Neither of these will route you away from RV inappropriate routes. Spring for a GPS.
You lost me at, "Of course, it's always listening." ;-) What a nice GPS! Seriously tempted.
Thank you... finally some reviews of the Garmin 890 GPS. I've been waiting for consumers to review it, not Garmin, they could be a little bias. I have the Rand Mc Nally Overdryve 7 Pro and I like it, but Rand Mc Nally is not updating their maps and its bugging me a lot. Their last map update for my GPS was about 3.5 years ago. Every time I connect the GPS to wifi to check for new maps, it tells me I have the current maps. NOT!!!!
We liked Miss Moneypenny on our old garmin. Thanks for the review!
Thank you - thank you. I purchased the product Garmin gps and I love it. I also have the sweater jackets you recommended a year ago, my husband says its his favorite. Thank for sharing your travels.
Love the educational video and your great sense of humor 😀 😄 👏
Minnesota also takes a dim view of windshield mounted devices. Experience has shown, however, that it’s another law the Minnesota State Patrol doesn’t enforce. When the image inverts, that must be for use in Australia, right?
Great review. It would be nice if the unit would include Campendium and Harvest Host links.
It would but can't you link to those apps via bluetooth?
I've been using the old extinct DeLome Street Atlas on a laptop. Great screen size but it is getting more and more frustrating. Of course the maps are getting more and more out of date. But the big issue is that it reacts slowly, it tells you to turn, you do but it does not know that you did and start throwing out "OFF ROUTE!!" orders. You try to correct your actually correct route and serious aggravation follows.
So I'm going to have to break down and buy one of these and it's a case of getting the current model to minimize obsolescence down the road. The 785 isn't that much cheaper anyway.
We are just getting started on Fulltiming so a good nav system is important to us.
So thanks for your good RV related review.
Thank you for all of your videos. They have been extremely helpful as my wife and I have started traveling with our new (used) Airstream.
Charles Vorce molly and daisy
Great! Been pondering this purchase. I feel better about it now.
I wish units like this would allow API integration to work with other products so I could have one central dashboard for information. IE, backup/observation camera, TPMS, trailer leveling info to be viewed on this one display and toggle between. For us, we have 3 screens to monitor, the GPS, the rear observation camera to see who's behind us before we switch lanes, and our Tireminder, tire pressure/temperature monitor, and our Level Mate Pro.
I think I saw you guys heading south bound on I-55 in MS last Sunday afternoon. Thanks for the great review.
Awesome review, looks like our next upgrade, we have the 760 LMT, wish it had a way to set speed limit so it gives you an accurate arrival time, really annoying when your on an Interstate with an over 65 mph speed limit and just watching your arrival time grow and grow.
I bought a large Garmin but it was for Truckers and I would hate to be a trucker relying on this unit! When we were looking the RV Garmin didn't exist and I could not see the information easily! I wonder if Garmin will let me trade for it!
I have a Garmin RV 770, and for the most part it's good. I use it paired to the BC-30 camera, which I have in the Airstream back window. It works, but the resolution is only 290 lines, which is terrible. Please Garmin, 720 P??? Also the data base for gas is unreliable if you're looking for a brand station. I'd say it's wrong 75% of the time. (Or it tells you to go back 50 miles!) You're better off with the highway signs.
BTW, the BC-35 for this unit also has bad resolution but connects via wi-fi instead of bluetooth.
I'm considering running two GPS's, one for routing, the other for detours and traffic.
You know, we often do the same... The Garmin is our main, but we run the phone as a backup. It sometimes help to have 2 opinions...
I think all GPS units have problems with navigation at times because (as far as I know) they receive their data from municipalities that don't do good job as they should.
Love the flashback--you guys ROCK!
When I first started watching I was tripped out by how young you looked without a hat…lol
Thank you so much for this review. I am a huge Garmin fan. I'm on my third unit. I currently am using the 780 RV in my Class C RV. The only drawback I have off of mine is that the speaker is not loud enough for me to use as a hands-free phone. I know you're using yours in a truck, as opposed to the cab of a Class C but have you had any problems with being able to hear it when you're using it as hands-free phone. I've had to turn off the Bluetooth function because of it, and as a result do not get the traffic updates.
Always love your vids. Thanks for sharing. Keep us posted as you spend more time with it please.
Hey, you heard about them finding the black holes that merged!!!
Have you sent suggestions to Garmin? You made really good points on the shortfalls of this unit. Great video. I shared it with my brother who is in the market for a new truck and wants to spend the boat load dealers charge for their navigation system. This unit makes more sense, plus you can transfer it to another vehicle.
Thanks Sean for an awesome review. I have a question about the trip planning function... can you plan out an entire trip with multiple stops at once? If yes, is there a limit to how many stops? Thanks again.
Does it help select trailer friendly gas stations?
Thank you both for another great video. We are so frustrated already with the apps like Copilot that seem to take us the looooong way around and make it confusing as all heck. Going to try this to see if it’s better. What would we do without you guys??? You’re the best!
We currently have the Garmin 770 GPS. It very frequently provides wrong directions and cannot be trusted. An example would be directing us to the State Park office within a town instead of the park which is out of town.
Good review.....but.....how does it do for dispersed boondock areas such as Forest Service roads or other areas out of cell service?
Just ordered the Garmin. All sorts of fun stuff on it. And the Garmin is cheaper on your page
I think you will like it! It's something you will use every day. I think it's really cool. 😎
A lot of us have the 770. I wonder if some of those new features will be included in future updates? Lots of cool functions!
We previously had the 760. This one is a big leap beyond our older unit.... more features and they are now a lot easier to use. I do wish Garmin would allow more firmware updates to the older models.... or even sell the software for Android tablets.
Nice, but $500 is a bit much for me. Also, I have had an older Garmin with lifetime updates that would not update. Garmin says the lifetime of their devices is only 3 years so they won't support it anymore. $500 for only 3 years of use is no good. I am still using the refrigerator my mother had in the 1960s.
Where did you hear this? I have a Garmin Nuvi 1260LMT that I'm guessing has to be 10 years old or more, anyway it's OLD, and I just updated it last week. Are you using Garmin Express?
Quick update about one of Sean's cons: no calling of phone numbers displayed by the RV890.
I'm running an RV890 Hardware Version 5 with Software Version 3.4 (both the latest) connected to the Garmin Drive App (Version 4.16.20) on a new iPhone SE. If a window is displayed showing info with phone numbers, tapping the 3 menu bars at the top left of the screen will offer an option to call the displayed phone number. Note that if it is a list of phone numbers, only the first one is called.
Thanks Theo, I just updated my software today to the latest also. I will check it out. In the future I may do a detailed walkthrough of the RV 890. I think it would be an interesting and helpful video for a lot of people (including me! haha).
Great review and from some of your mapping I guess you are from Alabama. I'm in Pell City. But will be subscribing.
The latest firmware update on the RV770 seems like they might have fixed some of the navigation wonkyness... we just did 2 trips with our 770 and didn't experience any of the head scratchers.
Watching your review, it looks like the 890 might just be a 770 with a bigger screen, many of the things look identical except for some new icons. Can you go into more detail on the differences between the 890 and the 770?
Awesome video as usual (we’re subscribed, and watch all your stuff). How does this unit do when (re)routing while there is no internet connectivity? Does it need a hot spot, etc. to function? How much data does it tend to use up?
That’s funny I had to check the date on your video 😂
Great review, Sean. Love the timewarp. Lol.
I watch you guys all the time and have been a subscriber for a long time.
I've seen so many videos on the 890. Most of them say it's not accurate in the directions it gives out. Are you still using it and how accurate is it?