Cardinal RV Club

I am interested in buying the Trailer Life CDs that help with route planning, etc.. Has anyone used these? Are they helpful and worth the price?

I know that many people like them, but we were not impressed. We found them difficult to use and by the time we would locate a campground, we were past the exit. My son is very computer savvy, and he found them extremely irritating. We finally went back to the good old book.

I have stuck with the book for campgrounds, but use a Garmin Streetpilot GPS to find everything else and as a moving map/directions giver.

We do the same as Bruce does...with book and garmin street pilot.

Have any of you tried the Next Exit?

Trailer Life sent me an email about the 2007 edition and I was think of buying it.

I was going to check it out at the local Barnes & Noble (Library) bookstore first but they were out.

Can anyone give me a review. The e-mail listed a number of things you could find but not campgrounds are they listed?


Don

DON,

We bought the Next Exit before our first trip. We were impressed, especially my wife. It makes her job as navigator much easier. It shows a wealth of info, including RV Parks, though it's really used for all other services. We especially like the hi-lighting in red for all the RV accessible fuel stations, etc... But, the only negative is that it only can be used for Interstates.

What do you use on the Garmin, as your type vehicle and is there a reason, I figure the truck mode is best in that I figure it should keep me off small streets and low hanging limbs and etc. Do you use faster or shortest routes. Any other features you recommend while towing,

virgil wrote:What do you use on the Garmin, as your type vehicle and is there a reason, I figure the truck mode is best in that I figure it should keep me off small streets and low hanging limbs and etc. Do you use faster or shortest routes. Any other features you recommend while towing,

DO NOT rely on truck mode navigation keeping you off routes with limbs or small streets, and that is the voice of experience. Mine has repeatedly sent us into situations of backing up or turning around and I keep it in truck mode. I find it best to let it calculate a route and then check that route with a current road atlas. I also switch mine back and forth between faster and shorter route depending on the amount of time I have available and also sometimes it will give me the exact opposite of what is selected (ie the faster route is shorter or the shortest distance is actually longer). They are not perfect machines but I still like it and use it daily.

I just got the Magellan 4040 , just wanted a cheap one but this one lists campgrounds in the area , so I had to get it. Now I need a couple days off to try it out.
I figure it will take me till Branson to dial me into it . I guess I can ask a kid how it works . Truck Route something else to look for I wish they had a video on how they work.
O'YA the two programs Woodalls just jams the laptop(they sent me two revised versions still freezes up) and Trailer Life seems hard to use .I also use the book .
Happy Camping
Wayne

Actually I use all three (map, Street Pilot and TL CD). I use the Street Pilot for suggested routes, the map to confirm the route and the Trailer Life CD for campgrounds along the way. My GPS has gotten me in some tight situations and it has been known to take the long way (even when the “shortest route” was selected.

The Garmin has gotten me out of some "where am I " situations and I love it for that. I also love its tracking ability, however, it is still a dumb machine and needs some common sense guidance itself. Today mine tried to get me to turn left on a right only intersection, but it can't know every detail in the world.

Good Sam Is sending Me a camping cd for a trial. If I like it I can pay for it If not send it back. I dont see a downside. I will post my thoughts on it after I recive and try the program. I think this offer is there for Good Sam members. Keep on campin!

I find the TL very helpful when looking for a campground on the route. I normally use it during my planning stage, but I will use it on the trip if our route changes or my first choice is booked. I also find it helpful to zoom in and get street names to locate it on my Garmin. Finding campgrounds in the book is difficult if you don't know the name of every small town on the way. This gives you a picture that you can zoom in and out.

I don't use it for routing, it is not as versitale as other programs.

Well I got the trailer life cd and I like it. I have mapped our trip to Oregon this Summer. has some good features to it like printed maps and directions driving times to get aprox time to next camp spot. info on parks like the book, only you can see where there locations are on the map the book won't do that so It gets a good report from me.

Can anyone tell me what "the book" is and where to get it?

thanks,