A Review of Garmin Camper 760 LMT-D Is it useful?

The Garmin Camper 760 LMT-D, a sat-nav designed for motorhomes and caravans. 

So when it was on sale at a reduced price a couple of years ago I just had to get it.

Dedicated camper sat-navs work in a similar way to LGV (HGV) lorry navigation systems in that you enter the size of your vehicle (height, length, weight, width) into the settings and when calculating your route the sat-nav takes this data into account. This should mean you avoid narrow lanes, unnecessary u-turns and low bridges. Of course these systems aren’t infallible so you should always defer to the actual roadsigns on your route to avoid any mishaps.

Features

• Lifetime maps
• Digital traffic information
• Customised routing
• Visual / audio guidance
• Trip planning
• Voice control
• Up ahead data

The sat nav has many tricks up it’s sleeve to make your life a little easier. It comes with free lifetime maps for the U.K. and Europe and this is a welcome feature. I still remember the past times where I have had to purchase updated maps for both in car and stand alone sat-navs. An expense that soon adds up.  There’s also digital traffic information, forewarning you of accidents, slow traffic and diversions that offers you alternative faster routes whilst taking this into account.

A warning ping and the sat-nav will indicate things such as strong winds, steep hills, narrow roads and sharp curves, useful when driving a large vehicle.

One of the features I do like is the photo realistic road signs that pop up on your screen as you are approaching your motorway junction. This provides a clear indication for the lane that you need to take and helps push aside any doubt you may have as to whether you’re taking the correct route. I’ve used this feature in Europe and the U.K and it works well.

Basecamp

Garmin provide a piece of software called Basecamp that you can use to plan in advance your routes then transfer it via usb cable to your sat -nav. I want to love this software after all it provides a way in which to create your very own iteniary showing distance, times, stopovers, your own notes, what’s not to love? Well unforunately I didn’t find it as inutitve and as user friendly as it could be, which is a shame because the concept is great. I found myself flicking between google maps, basecamp and other third party route planning software and using the best bits of all three.

Features

Another good feature is you can link your phone and sat-nav together via bluetooth which provides addtional features. You can answer your phone, search through your contacts all on the screen of your sat-nav. Don’t worry too much about taking your hands off the wheel because you can do it through voice control. This link also provides additional information such as the current weather at your destination.

Up ahead information provides a stream of upcoming points of interest such as services, toilets, shops, or whatever you’ve chosen to view.

The sat-nav can also be connected to a reversing camera, although I have a seperate screen on my dash for that so I haven’t used that feature but can see the benefits in reducing dashboard clutter!

Conclusion

There are very few things not to like about this sat-nav. I use it on all my motorhome journeys and despite my comments above about the Garmin basecamp, I do still pre-plan trips in many instances.

The device is let down slightly by the screens lack of responsiveness. This is more apparent now due to improvements in screen technology in other products since this units release. These minor points haven’t been enough to make me want to change the unit though and overall the features, the lifetime maps and the functionality of the device combined make this a very worthwhile sat-nav. 

Find out more at Garmin