Is The Garmin RV GPS Something We Recommend That RVers Buy?

Garmin is a big name in the GPS world and the company has made a wide variety of GPS units and other products since 1989. In this post, we’re talking specifically about the Garmin RV GPS.

We were on the road full-time for more than 20 years, and during that time we used a lot of different navigating and trip-planning tools.

The most recently unit we had on our Newmar motorhome prior to selling it was a Garmin RV785 with a dash cam, (predecessor to the more current but very similar RV795). Did we love it? Did we hate it? Did we even use it?

Is a Garmin RV GPS unit fantastic and well worth buying or are there better (and cheaper) alternatives?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of navigating RV travels with the assistance of a Garmin RV GPS unit.

What Is a Garmin RV GPS?

Garmin’s RV GPS is a dedicated unit that mounts to your RV’s dash that’s designed to provide RV-specific navigation features.

Garmin offers several different RV-specific GPS units. They offer similar features, and we’ll provide some specific details about them below.

For now, here’s an overview of the various Garmin RV GPS units and how they differ. (Spoiler Alert: The primary differences are in screen size & resolution, and battery life… which isn’t actually that important since they’re all designed to be plugged into 12-volt power.)

Garmin RV 795

Garmin says this is the unit for you if you want a 7-inch (1024 x 600 pixels) display with custom routing and aerial views of your campground in an easy-to-use navigational package. This model will provide up to 30 minutes of battery life on its internal battery.

Garmin RV 795 with Dash Cam

Essentially the same unit as the model noted above but with a built-in dash cam and up to 1 hour of battery life. The features of both of these RV 795 units are discussed in more detail below.

Garmin RV 895

This model of the Garmin RV GPS has an 8-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) display in addition to the Garmin navigational features (noted in the next section). With this unit, you’ll get up to 2 hours of battery life.

Garmin RV 1090

This RV GPS unit will give you a 10-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) display, and up to 2 hours of battery life in addition to the features noted in the next section.

What Does a Garmin RV GPS Do?

Garmin’s dedicated RV GPS units offer a wide variety of features to help you navigate your travels. Again, we want to note that we had the Garmin RV 785 + dash cam which compares most closely to an updated model, the RV 795 + Dash Cam.

We’ll share the general features and claims of the Garmin RV GPS units with you here, and then we’ll talk about how ours performed based on our experience. Most people are familiar with what a GPS does in general, so let’s talk about what an RV-specific GPS from Garmin has to offer:

1. Custom Routing: You can customize your travel route based on the size and weight of your RV.
2. Warnings: The unit will give you advanced warnings for upcoming “events” such as sharp curves, low overpasses, railroad crossings, and steep grades.
3. Satellite Imagery: Garmin’s satellite imagery mode, known as “BirdsEye”, offers a satellite view of your campsite to help you navigate your way in.
4. Recommendations: A Garmin RV GPS will show you some of the most popular places along your travel route as well as recommended activities in the vicinity of your camping destination.
5. Campground Directory: Garmin RV-specific units offer a preloaded directory of RV parks and campgrounds as well as ratings from travelers who use TripAdvisor.
6. Wireless Updates: You can update Garmin’s software wirelessly to keep the maps up to date, meaning that you don’t need to connect the unit to a computer for updates. Garmin lets you know when a new update is available with a notification on your unit’s screen.
7. Speak-to-GPS: You can ask your GPS for directions by speaking aloud.
8. Bluetooth Technology: If you have a compatible smartphone, you can sync it with your Garmin RV GPS via Bluetooth for hands-free calling.
9. Choice of Screen Size: Garmin’s RV GPS units are offered in three different screen sizes – 7″, 8″, or 10″.
10. Optional Built-In Dash Cam: You can opt for your Garmin RV GPS to come with a built-in dash cam, but you’ll pay about $150 for that option. In our case, we opted for the unit with the dash cam. (One note about that… we couldn’t actually use our dashcam due to the slight downward angle of our dashboard. With the suction cup attached to one of those smooth discs you stick onto the dashboard, the mount on the GPS didn’t allow it to angle back far enough for the cam to see the road. The design of the suction cup arm makes it apparent that it was really intended to attach to a windshield. As with many RVs, the windshield on our 43′ diesel pusher was WAY too far away to make that a practical alternative. So we were unable to use the dash cam.)

Pros and Cons of a Garmin RV GPS

This section could also be entitled “What We Loved and Didn’t Love (Hated) About Our Garmin RV GPS.” In other words, this is going to be our take based on our real-life experience using a Garmin RV 785 with Dash Cam.

We’ll start with a long list of things we appreciated about our Garmin unit. Then we’ll share a short list of things we pretty much hated about it, followed by our thoughts on whether it’s been worth the expense, and if we’d buy it again…or not.

Pros/Love

Following are the benefits of our Garmin RV GPS unit and the things we loved about having it.

Keeps Other Devices Free

Having a dedicated GPS device kept our other devices (phone, tablet) free for other things.

Clear, Bright Screen

We found the screen clear and bright in virtually all conditions, making it easy to use. We had the 7” screen and we’ve found it to be big enough for us. We never regretted not getting a larger screen at all.

Good Viewing Angle

The viewing angle on the screen is good as well, allowing both the driver and co-pilot/navigator to see it clearly.

User Friendly

The interface is generally very easy to use. We had no difficulty navigating the user interface.

Campground Database Is Great

The included database of RV Parks/campgrounds and other RV-related services makes finding your destination a snap.

We also loved that it’s all local to the device, so no internet connection is needed to use it.

RV-Specific Features Are Good (and Bad)

The “RV” features provide peace of mind that we wouldn’t encounter a low overpass or be overweight for a bridge… when it works. (More on that in the Cons/Hate section!)

Portability

It’s portable, so we could move it between the RV and the car anytime.

Also, when using it in the car, we could change the vehicle profile so it didn’t have to use an RV-safe route.

Ability to Set Maximum Travel Speed

The vehicle profiles in our Garmin RV GPS included the ability to set our maximum speed.

We found that this improved the accuracy of both the estimated travel time and the estimated time of arrival. This made our Garmin more accurate at predicting travel time than Google Maps or Apple Maps, both of which assume we’ll drive the speed limit.

This is particularly handy when traveling on high-speed limit roads. We generally take a pretty relaxed pace, and rarely set the cruise control above 60 MPH on the Interstate. But on a 75 MPH-speed-limit highway (common out west), other navigation systems assume we’ll be traveling at 75 MPH.

Our Garmin knew that we drive no more than 60 MPH the vast majority of the time, so its trip times were very accurate. That can be extra handy when we’re planning to be arriving not long before sunset. Google and Apple think those trips will be considerably faster than they actually are, and we’d end up arriving justafter sunset instead.

Battery Life

We always kept our GPS plugged into 12V power from the RV. But decent battery life means it doesn’t have to be plugged in all the time.

Good battery life is a desirable feature, so worthy of being in the “Pros” category.

Wireless Connectivity

We appreciated the fact that our Garmin GPS connected to WiFi, making map & software updates easy to complete.

In the past, older units required the user to connect the GPS to a computer with a USB cable for updates, so this is a significant improvement.

Cons/Hate

And now for the things we hated about our Garmin RV GPS — the things we would consider to be negative/undesirable.

Expensive

The Garmin RV-specific units are still expensive.

This is a negative for obvious reasons, but also because other options such as trip planning apps offer more features and guidance while still offering RV-safe routing (one of the main reasons to have an RV-specific GPS).

Garmin’s RV-Safe Routing Isn’t Great

We found that the RV-safe routing of our Garmin RV 785 sometimes generated routes that added as much as 50-100 miles to the total trip, which is frequently unnecessary.

It often routed us around roads it detected as having an issue when in reality they didn’t.

We experienced this first-hand many times when we ignored a longer, suggested route because we already knew the shorter route was fine (no low overpasses or low weight bridges). Sure enough, the route it was trying to avoid was perfectly okay.

For this reason, we always double-checked Google Maps before heading out of the way. Of course, Google won’t know about low-weight bridges and low overpasses. So if you do decide to ignore a suggested longer route from the Garmin, stay alert for height and weight limits (which you should be doing anyway!).

Would We Recommend a Garmin RV GPS?

Based on our experience using the Garmin RV 785 for several years, we wouldn’t recommend it as the sole source of navigation. Once we’d checked the routing against Google or Apple maps at the start of our trip to be sure we weren’t being routed way out of the way (that they basically agree with the Garmin), we loved it — large bright screen, clear directions, easy to follow. Fine.

But, what about when Google or Apple maps completely disagree with the Garmin by 50-100 miles or more? How do you know you’re going out of the way for a valid reason if you can’t rely on the Garmin to really know when there’s a reason to take you on a longer route? You can’t, which kind of defeats the purpose of RV-safe routing.

We think the CoPilot RV GPS app that you can use on a smartphone or tablet is a better choice. It has far fewer glitches with routing, has all the same RV-specific safety options, and is significantly less expensive to purchase at the outset.

We will note, however, that it does have an annual subscription, so that will add up over time. And it does tie up whatever device you’re using it on. You also need a mount for that device.

Is a Garmin RV GPS Worth It?

We don’t think that the Garmin is necessarily a waste of money. In fact, if you’re willing to put up with some of its limitations, it works quite well, and it has a great, easy-to-read display. We just couldn’t use its routing reliably without checking up on it first.

If your budget is tight and if you already have a phone or tablet that you can use as a dedicated navigation device when driving, why spend more than you need for an inferior routing experience?

Free alternatives like Google Maps and Apple Maps offer much better routing, but they lack any RV-specific features like vehicle height, weight, propane, etc.

However, if you already have a subscription to any of the RV Trip planners that include RV-safe GPS routing, you’re probably better off not spending the money on a Garmin.

What Are Some Good Alternatives to a Dedicated GPS Unit?

In addition to the CoPilot GPS app listed above, there are a couple of other excellent options to consider that also offer RV-specific features.

As a bonus, if you’re interested in either of them you can save money using the RVgeeks coupons provided.

RV Life PRO

RoadTrippers (formerly ToGo RV)

Have You Used a Garmin RV GPS?

If you’ve used a Garmin dedicated RV GPS unit, we’d love to hear about your experience. Drop us a comment below.

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