# GPS That Will Allow Me To Map My Own Route



## gpurtz (May 25, 2011)

I'm looking for a GPS that will allow me to map my own route, not the typical routes that are pre-programmed.  I realize this probably is a combination of device + software.  Any recommendations?
Thanks, Gary


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## carl2591 (May 25, 2011)

when you find one let me know as well.. for local areas they are a pain, they want to go the long way it seems to me. . 

for area's you are not familiar with how can you know the way to go short of going on line to google and mapping it. 

good luck.


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## laurac260 (May 25, 2011)

My GPS is a woman, and occasionally I think she suffers from PMS.  Why else would she deliberately send me the long way, ever so often, just to piss me off???


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## carl2591 (May 25, 2011)

laurac260 said:


> My GPS is a woman, and occasionally I think she suffers from PMS.  Why else would she deliberately send me the long way, ever so often, just to piss me off???



too funny ,,, too funny,,, but dam tru....


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## dioxide45 (May 25, 2011)

I know that some GPS units will learn routes you take. So if it has you going one way and you go off course it will recalculate. After a while it will learn the course you like to take and just begin directing you that way.


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## Sea Six (May 25, 2011)

If you're mapping your own route, why do you need a GPS?  I guess I don't understand what you're trying to do.  I can easily get my Garmin NUVI to take me any way I want to go by breaking the route into smaller pieces, and setting intermediate locations as destinations.


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## tompalm (May 26, 2011)

With my Garmin, you can put in your destination and then program a stop on the way to the destination.  Also, you can program fastest, shortest, or other options to get there. I think they all have that feature, but it is kind of a pain to go into the software setup and change it.


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## Talent312 (May 26, 2011)

There was a time when I was so particular about routes that I...
-- used software on a laptop (Delorme's Street Atlas or MS Streets+Trips),
-- had it map routes with my preferred streets and waypoints, and
-- attached a GPS to the laptop which I put in the seat beside me.

Nowadays, when the GPS-lady annoys me, I just use the mute feature.
_If only we could do that to real people who annoy us._


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## wackymother (May 26, 2011)

I have a Garmin 265WT--very basic. I can go to Mapquest, get directions, move the blue line to get the route just the way I want it, and then download that routing to the Garmin using the second cable that came with the Garmin (not the one for the car, the other one). I haven't done this, but I'm pretty sure it can be done. 

Also, Mapquest and Google maps will let you send a route to your cell phone, and if you have an iPhone or a Droid with a navigation app, it should then follow that route. Someone with a good phone app will chime in here in a minute....


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## jlf58 (May 26, 2011)

If you know how to get there and know the route you want to take.
Sounds like you are a bit confused as to the purpose of a GPS  




gpurtz said:


> I'm looking for a GPS that will allow me to map my own route, not the typical routes that are pre-programmed.  I realize this probably is a combination of device + software.  Any recommendations?
> Thanks, Gary


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## laurac260 (May 26, 2011)

Fletch said:


> If you know how to get there and know the route you want to take.
> Sounds like you are a bit confused as to the purpose of a GPS



I could see where this could be useful, for instance, if you sort of know where you are going, and are certain of the route you DON'T want to take, for whatever reason.  There are times when I know say, the beginning and end of the route, but not the middle portion, or I know I don't want to take Interstate whatever because the traffic is a nightmare, etc.


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## "Roger" (May 26, 2011)

As TomPalm points out, with a Garmin, once you have chosen a destination, you can add a place as a stopping point between where you are and your destination.  I don't know if there is a limit as to how many via points you can add.

Also, with some of the newer Garmins you can program in different routes (as opposed to different destinations) that you want to save.  Thus, you could program from A to B and B to C and C to D. 

Finally, a few Garmins will allow you to say that you are interested in going to a set of destinations (A, B, C, D, and E) and then it will choose the fastest way to get to all of them.  If B, C, and D are all in between A and E, I presume it will take you there in that order.


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## gpurtz (May 26, 2011)

Fletch said:


> If you know how to get there and know the route you want to take.
> Sounds like you are a bit confused as to the purpose of a GPS



It's really quite simple.  I'm planning a trip.  As the crow flies, it's 250 miles. As I intend to drive it, it's 350 miles.  There are certain scenic, off-the-beaten path roads I want to take that my GPS won't map because the route I'm taking is neither short nor fast.  I know I can plot numerous destination points, but I prefer to keep just one destination and have the ability to "tell" my GPS what roads I want to take.  Then my GPS can alert me to turns, etc.  BTW, I suspect people use GPSes for several purposes, some more "typical" than others.


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## Kozman (May 26, 2011)

I have a Garmin and I turn off the U-Turn option. So, when I decide to go on a certain route it will recalculate based on the new route.  I have another GPS that will absolutely nag you to death about making a U-turn even if you have that feature turned off.  She even seems to cop an attitude in her tone if I ignore her!  LOL!

My Garmin also has a Google search routing and I have had absolutely poor results with it.  Once I told it to go to Sam's Club via the Google search feature and it took me on the expressway and told me I had arrived when I passed Sam's on the E-Way with a ditch between us and the club!  You have arrived at your destination on the right!  Yeah, right!  I found you are better off using the Google search to find the address and then manually program it in.  That seems to work fine.  Another time using google it had me turning into a trailer park to find a gas station.  LOL!

Can't always live with them and can't live without them.  GPS's that is!


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## irinman2424 (Mar 31, 2014)

*GPS*

I am looking for a GPS or AP for my phone that I can select the way I want to go. Dealing with oversized loads that we are given the routes to take and the GPS wont allow us to program that. we are doing it the old school way of calculating the miles to the next turn between the turns and its a pain when driving and cant figure out if next turn is 2 miles 20 miles or 100 miles without pulling over and checking a map. I have been using google maps and about every hour or so it shuts down on me and then have to pull over and reset it only to do it again in another hour or so.


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## ouaifer (Apr 1, 2014)

_I have the Co-Pilot APP installed on both a laptop and a Nexus.  You can Edit any route and move the  "lines" just like you do on Google Maps and MapQuest.
_


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## SMHarman (Apr 1, 2014)

Google maps should not shut down like that. 
What OS is your phone on?
Consider a phone upgrade?

Any GPS allows waypoint destinations. Can you use those to build out the route. Instead of A/B it is a to b via c d e f. 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk


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## Passepartout (Apr 1, 2014)

SMHarman said:


> Any GPS allows waypoint destinations. Can you use those to build out the route. Instead of A/B it is a to b via c d e f.



Agreed. The most rudimentary GPS has this feature. 

[Noted that this was a first post resurrecting an old thread- Maybe 'drive-by?' ]


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## wackymother (Apr 1, 2014)

I completely understand wanting this feature on a GPS. We live in North Jersey and just last weekend, we had to take a trip to Staten Island. The shortest route is through Manhattan! But no one in their right mind would go that way. 

I was fussing with the GPS the whole way (my DH was driving), trying to coax it to take the Goethals Bridge to NJ rather than going up through lower Manhattan...or through Brooklyn and THEN Manhattan! In the end we just followed the signs. 

I knew I could do the thing with MapQuest where you select your route and then load it to your Garmin, but the Garmin is in the car, not by the computer. It's a lot of preplanning.


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## dioxide45 (Apr 1, 2014)

Passepartout said:


> Agreed. The most rudimentary GPS has this feature.
> 
> [Noted that this was a first post resurrecting an old thread- Maybe 'drive-by?' ]



Or we are getting setup to be spammed as the first post resurrecting a thread definitely has the signs of a shill.


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## MULTIZ321 (Apr 1, 2014)

dioxide45 said:


> Or we are getting setup to be spammed as the first post resurrecting a thread definitely has the signs of a shill.



Thanks for the heads up.  I missed that.


Richard


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## hvsteve1 (Apr 1, 2014)

So put your final destination and let it chart the course.  Then enter the places you want along the way and tell it these are part of the same route.  When you put them all in, the GPS will have mapped out the route you want.  Depending on the length of the trip, it may take ten or more stops on the route to get it the way you want.  Unless, that is, you want to take a bunch of back roads that run along the major highways.  The you're pretty much reduced to printing out a map.


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