What do you use and why?

Intplm.

Google maps? Waze? How do you get around? Have they gotten you lost? Did one work better than other?

SlamDunk

not waze. That app will send you fifty miles out of the way to save two minutes on a traffic jam. Used it to go thru washington and Baltimore both ways and,well, it got us thru but I had noidea where we were until I got back on 95. Google maps locally. A printout from mapquest on long hauls.

Intplm.

I was at a house with another tech. We were there in separate vehicles parked next to each other. When we left to the next job, we both set the same address at the same time. He said "see you there". We both were sent in different directions about fifteen minutes apart.

PC7060

google maps but visually verify the route. Especially when traveling overseas or remote areas.

Jamie Hall

Where it gets fun (at least for us country bumpkins with tractors) is when any of them sends you down a single track muddy dirt road. Sometimes it even comes out somewhere useful… otherwise sometimes we can pull you out. Sometimes we have to call the heavy wreckers…

hot_rod

Google maps, and I agree check over the route to make sure you end up where you intend to be.

I used a Garmin for years, I imagine they work well still?

Gaia GPS is my off-road and hiking navigation

ratio

I use my GPS (currently I forget what, not the Tom Tom) because I absolutely refuse to turn on GPS on my phone.

It'll send me through every holler between here & the river when I'm going out of town, & through resi neighborhoods from time to time, but it gets me there. I make up for poor routing by speeding. Had the average speed (as reported by the trip odometer) up to 45 mph for a while when I was working out of town.

Intplm.

I have been Literal sent in circles. Was once sent to a part of town that had the same "road" name but was a "street." Mean while… where are you?

EBEBRATT-Ed

I used to rely on maps in the old days but tossed most of them. Now I use my phone but on a recent trip to downtown Boston that quit when going under bridges and through tunnels so I put my old road atlas back in the truck.

Trouble is when you come out of a tunnel it take some time for the gps to re boot

Steamhead

Maps. Period.

STEAM DOCTOR

Probably depends on your location. Been using mostly Google maps and a bit of Waze, with just about zero issues. I'm in the New York City area. Truth be told, both have been pretty flawless. I just prefer Google maps but I would use Waze with zero issue.

SuperTech

I still use a Garmin. The one I use has commercial vehicle settings that keeps me from going on the parkways here in NY where vans and other commercial vehicles are not allowed. Google maps always tries to put me on the parkway.

DanHolohan

Have you tried this? It’s remarkable:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/apps/a28912218/three-words-coordinates/

Intplm.

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1847594#Comment_1847594

Hi Dan.

This won't load.^^^^^^ It's not in blue colored text. Popular mechanics technology app. Ill check it out.

Intplm.

Has anyone had this one said to them through the vehicle speaker?

"GPS SIGNAL LOST"!!

DanHolohan

google what3words. They divided the planet into small squares, each designated by three words. You can be in the deep woods and others will find you. My one-bedroom apartment has more than one square.

EdTheHeaterMan

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1847440#Comment_1847440

I bet you wish that AAA still provided those flip book maps with all the turns highlighted in Red.

We traveled from Philadelphia to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (Before DisneyWorld was built) with one of those map flip books. I don't ever think that I-95 was completed yet, But I was only 8 years old at the time!

EdTheHeaterMan

@DanHolohan I lust looked up ///Heating.help.com and it is a picture of your old home in Long Island

Grallert

Google for directions and Waze for traffic updates. I don't have any trouble with either.

mattmia2

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1847629#Comment_1847629

Maybe they do? has anyoen tried in the last 20 years?

EdTheHeaterMan

AAA still has the "Trip Kit". but you no longer go into the AAA location and just ask for it. It is all online and you can order the book to be sent to you by mail or download it and print it out on your printer. Still has the turn by turn directions and the points of interest along the way. I still like the old flip books!

SlamDunk

@EdTheHeaterMan Trip kits are the originals. Gives my co-pilot something to do.

mattmia2

triptik. there are probably still some mapquest directions under the seats in my car

SlamDunk

Right! Trip tiks….I knew I was wrong.

I was on a road trip with my roommate in 1984; we were horribly lost in Atlanta and we were confused because we both were excellent map readers. We were in a residential neighborhood with the map on the hood, overlooking an interstate in the distance that wasnt on the map. It was the first time we realized that maps had dates. This one was dated 1970. I asked him where in the heck he got the map from? He said we were driving his grandfather's car. A quick stop at a gas station and the world made sense again

HVACNUT

MapQuest. Print 22 pages for a 7 mile route.

Jamie Hall

The other thing to remember about these fancy apps is that while, in general, they work well enough in urban and suburban areas, they tend to get a little less useful in rural areas — and, of course, they become useless if you don't have a cell signal.

Not so much for driving around in the normal work and daily routine environment, but something to remember if you are going camping or hunting or fishing…

Intplm.

After reading much of this, I wish I could find my older paper maps. AAA here I come.

ChrisJ

I use Waze.

Because it has decent traffic and hazard reports.

I don't use paper maps because I don't have time to and they provide zero feedback on traffic and hazards. In fact, I think the last time I used a paper map was sometime around 2007 when I bought a Garmin.

Not to mention paper maps do not update.

ChrisJ

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1847802#Comment_1847802

Jamie,

GPS and cellular service are two completely different things.

Your drone locks onto GPS satellites, not cell towers.

Jamie Hall

Of course you are right, @ChrisJ — but the problem is that if you have no cell service, whatever map you are using won't update with your location, if it will load at all. Now there are ways around that — I know Google maps can be downloaded to your device, for instance, though I have no idea how — but you have to remember to do that.

For I imagine 99.9% of the population — not a problem. Not even a concern. But it's just something to keep in mind… And not always in distant wild country, either! There is a substantial chunk — about 10 miles — of the Appalachian Trail here in Connecticut which has no cell service, for instance. Never mind popular hot spots like Baxter State Park in Maine (Mount Katahdin) or much of the Green and White Mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire.

If you get mislaid knowing where you are from your trusty GPS is really nice — if you have a paper map to use as well to get you unlost!

But then, I ran into a party the other day who was cheerfully insisting, while watching the sun set, that north was always the direction they were looking, so why was the sun setting in the north? Sigh…

mattmia2

There really is no excuse for an application to not have a basic map of the US cached. Devices with 1/100 the the storage had the whole map 20 years ago. The GPS is really much more useful in rural areas where someone didn't think having signs with street names was important.