GPS

[alisonb]

What do you call your GPS or don't you believe in giving electronic devicses a name? Mine got a new name after today....it used to be 'bag' or 'nagbag', now it's just plain B with an itch. It's best I go back to maps :shock:

 

[dun]

People that are coming here for the first time if they have a GPS if it's someone we want to see I tell them to turn it off and followmy directions. For others I let the GPS rout them 20 miles out of the way and down some really horrible gravel roads.

 

[alisonb]

Best not make an enemy of you

 

[Alan]

We have a Garmen and like it fairly well. "Greta" is a big help when we travel to different cities, but she will lead us a stray in rural areas. I alway that they should make a GPS that the voice has some attitude, instead of saying "recalculating" should say something like "hey jerk! You missed your turn! One more time and I'm shutting down!"

 

[M5farm]

I got a call from my corp office this week because the invoices require a physical address to charge the right tax rate. here is the address we had:
231n 10mi r at 3rd lt then L at DE 1st hse on lft
Newton AL

we have gps in our trucks but it easier to get directions from the contractor.

 

[cow pollinater]

I made the mistake of letting my wife convince me that her navigation system would put us right where we needed to be ONE time... Now I'm back to researching everything out ahead of time. I can handle travel as long as I know where I'm going before I get there. If someone else is telling me where to go my stress level goes through the roof because there is a 90% chance that they/it don't have a @#$%^&* clue what they're talking about and it's my a$$ that's stranded in the middle of the road waiting while they sit there and try to figure out where we're supposed to be.

 

[john250]

I will NOT own a device which talks to me. Remember HAL. GPS is a miracle. The people who try to layer talking maps on top of GPS are about as reliable as weather liars in Indiana.

 

[slick4591]

I find it interesting when I'm traveling on an 8 lane divided highway and the voice tells me to turn left in 1/4 mile.

 

[Jogeephus]

I was driving a big truck to a company Friday and the GPS told me to turn and when I did the road turned into not much more than a path but I knew it was a road because of all the signs saying NO TRUCKS. I just new I was in for a ticket but I was going to use the GPS to try and weasil out of it because once I made the turn there was no backing up.

 

[chippie]

My husband and I travel daily for his job. A GPS is very helpful in cities. However I will say that he will look up directions at google or yahoo maps and prints them, plus we run with two GPS's (different brands). Some days, they both will have the same directions, other days one will send you the longest way possible.

I have a gps on my phone. It is the most reliable because it is always current on maps, plus it will give traffic alerts.

I like using one when I travel, even if I know where I am going, because it will give me an idea of the arrival time.

ETA: What is exciting is when it loses the satellite signal when you don't have a clue how to get where you are going.

 

[alisonb]

ETA: What is exciting is when it loses the satellite signal when you don't have a clue how to get where you are going.

:lol:

The most irritating is the constant drone of instructions otherwise it is pretty accurate. I was late for a meeting in a unfamiliar city and had a whole lot of things going on in my mind. My bakkie(truck) which is usually a smooth ride seemed very bumpy and hit every possible pothole that there was. It was chilly so I had the heater on, then realised that i was almost cooking :lol: . All turned out well in the end though.

 

[greybeard]

I've never needed or wanted one, but the car I bought wife has one in it. Turned it on one day when coming back from my sister'splace, and it seemed to do fine except when we got to the dead end of the road that leads up to our place. Once we turned left onto my private road, the little arrow that represented us went haywire, just rotating in a circle, and the talkin box just kept saying "turn left--turn left--turn left".
There's a fence on the left all the way down.

 

[Ouachita]

My road is the same way. The local tax accessors office assigned a physical address to my home place back in 1996. But if anybody puts in a GPS, it gives them directions to a point over a mile away on the county road. My "maps" app on my iPhone directs me to that same point and the instructions say to "exit your vehicle and walk the remaining 1.1 miles to your destination". Or something real close to that. Haven't tried it in a while.

 

[Ouachita]

I prefer a good ole Rand McNally atlas. I also memorize the entire trip before I turn the key. I'm wierd like that

 

[greybeard]

I prefer a good ole Rand McNally atlas. I also memorize the entire trip before I turn the key. I'm wierd like that

I have one in my truck as well. I might have to pull over a couple of times and look at it, but it doesn't talk back to me.

We went to a family reunion a couple of years ago at a cousin's near Tyler Tx, and I'd been there about an hour when my sister called wanting directions to our cousin's home. I could hear her TomTom in the background squawking out directions, and my sister yelling at her husband not to chunk it out the window. Dunno how she did it, and maybe she had it set wrong but it was trying to get her to follow a bicycle path instead of the highway.

 

[Dega Moo]

I have a navigation system in my car, one on an iPhone and one on an iPad. All three come with "optional" voice direction which is easily turned off or muted. All three can warn me of pending traffic issues and construction on the route ahead. In a lot of rural areas that's not terrifically useful but when traveling can be very handy. The iPad app allows me to download the route and directions ahead of time and will use the cell signal to check on pending issues, but it still works when there's no cell signal. The iPad also allows me to download various voices or personalities. I can play music through the iPad and if using voice prompting it will mute the music as needed. I can plan my route using vehicle, bus or bicycle which may explain greybeard's cousin. I can ask for various route options - no toll roads, interstates only, shortest etc. Wish it would let me avoid hog feed lots but that will wait for an update.

My ex was using my car one day in St. Louis trying to pick her young daughter up at school. Now the ex hated the navigation system but on this day she was running very late and got caught in an epic traffic jam. Found herself turning Nav on and asking for a detour to the school. Even turned on the voice and got her there on time. That traffic jam was still pretty much stopped an hour later. Ex changed her mind about the Nav system but still hated the voice commands.

 

[Dega Moo]

Does anyone here not also grain farm some and use GPS in cab for field work?

 

[chippie]

greybeard,
I was in your neck of the woods yesterday. I hauled a horse to a friend who lives near Rye. You sure are green there. The pastures that I saw looked good. Much better than south of Houston.

 

[Ouachita]

Degamoo,
I think there are many that use GPS on the farm. I think Jed over in east Arkansas does. I love the technology. My experience with it is in aviation, and think that system is much more accurate for obvious reasons. I don't discount the usefulness of it in ground navigation, but it has been my personal experience if you are trying to go from Mena, AR to Anna, TX, use a paper map . I had previously driven the route to inspect a damaged aircraft, and did it 3.5 hours. When we went back to recover the aircraft, my buddy insisted on showing me how cool his GPS was. Well, 6 hours later, and after traveling through every small town in northeast Texas, and probably every farm road between New Boston and McKinney, I was not impressed :shock: Of course, it could have been the operator(s) :lol2: and that was 6 or 7 years ago

 

[dun]

I had a GPS for spraying. worked pretty good in a straight line and slight curves, didn;t work worth a darn on some strange angles in the fields and I hated having to sit for a minute after a trun for it to get the location right so I could make the next pass. Got a foam marker and it's a whole lot fater then the GPS was.