Rand McNally RVND 7720

[markopolo]

I'm going try the Rand McNally RVND 7720 GPS for RV'ers

Choose your vehicle from 11 different RV types, including Class A, fifth wheel, and travel trailer. The RVND™ accounts for propane restrictions and even right- or left-hand turn preferences. Or switch to car mode for everyday use.

- Exits Quick View—RV parking and amenities at exits
- RV checklists—Prepare for trip departure, campsite setup, or create your own list
- Trails—Record a "bread crumb" path from the campsite, or a favorite shortcut

- Millions of points of interest
- Thousands of RV parks and campgrounds
- Woodall's® campground information, with searchable amenities
- Rand McNally Editor's Picks, including Best of the Road® adventures, trips, and getaways

You can buy it direct from them:
http://www.randmcnally.com/products/rvg ... /index.jsp

or try for the FMCA member discount here:
http://store.randmcnally.com/landing/fm ... FALL11FMCA

- Wi-Fi®—Connect to a wireless hotspot or mobile access point on your smartphone to receive live weather data.
- Weather—Dynamic weather data, including current and forecasted information for your current location, destination, and anywhere along your route. Choose from 10 different live map overlays to display important information for RVers, such as wind speed and precipitation.1
- Video input—For back-up or rear view cameras; compatible with a range of cameras for flexibility in display.
- Fuel log—Track fuel purchases, including where purchased, gallons and total cost, and organize by date or state.

I'm hoping to use the video input for back-up or rear view cameras (no rear windows in my van).

[markopolo]

I did get the Rand McNally RVND 7720 GPS.
The suction mount had a manufacturing flaw in it - smaller than a pinhole - but the suction wouldn't hold for a minute because of it. RM is sending a replacement. Not a good start considering one of my Garmin mounts has been in place for months.

This GPS is large. It would be small on a Class A dash and it is ok in my Class B van but it is really big in a car.
3/4 inch thick, 7 1/2" wide, 5" high, 7" diagonal screen, 1" wide power on button.

I like it because it is easy to see but DW is a bit embarrassed because it is so big. She'll use it the RV but I doubt she'll use it the car.

I'll post a review once the new mount arrives and I know if I'm going to keep it.

FYI - Walmart in the U.S. and Future Shop in Canada exclusively carry a Rand McNally RVND 7715 GPS. It has WiFi weather, backup camera input, lifetime maps also. It is a RVND 7720 with some Trip info missing as far as I can tell. I saw it for $299 at Future Shop.

http://www.randmcnally.com/products/rvg ... /index.jsp

I would have purchased the RVND 7715 had I known about it before. For those in Canada it costs considerably less than ordering the RVND 7720 direct from Rand McNally when you factor in Customs clearance and shipping etc.

[Mike]

I think Magellan also makes a big screen GPS unit. No idea about cost and performance. I don't see many around in passenger vehicles. Maybe truckers like them?

[markopolo]

I received the replacement suction mount for the RVND 7720 from Rand McNally. This one works. You can see a few air bubbles in the suction cup material but none of them permeated the surface.

I haven't used it much but wanted to post more info about it. As mentioned before......... it is big! Here's my 5 year old Garmin Nuvi 250 on top of the RVND 7720:



I will post more screen shots later.

[booster]

Originally Posted by markopolo

I received the replacement suction mount for the RVND 7720 from Rand McNally. This one works. You can see a few air bubbles in the suction cup material but none of them permeated the surface.

I haven't used it much but wanted to post more info about it. As mentioned before......... it is big! Here's my 5 year old Garmin Nuvi 250 on top of the RVND 7720:



I will post more screen shots later.

What seems to be my perpetual question. Can you directly load a route from a map and directions program like google or Streets and trips? Or issue with the stand alone GPS units has always been how hard they are to select you own route, which we do nearly every time we travel. Many of them also seem to have trouble if you miss, or skip, a programmed stop and will tell you to turn around for eternity unless you stop and go through all the hassle of removing the stop or marking it visited. We are still using Streets and Trips on the laptop, with the USB plug in GPS receiver. It works very well, and follows routes made on the laptop Streets and Trips perfectly, but is large so it you can't move it to the cars.

[markopolo]

I don't think this one will do exactly what you want.
Hmmm, maybe.......... I'm thinking as I type here.
You can build and save routes on the GPS using addresses or POI's. They're referred to as "Multi-Stop Trips". It can automatically optimize or you can manually re-do the order. You can "Skip Next Stop".

It can only import .csv files as POI's. I can use http://findthebestroute.com/RouteFinder.html to build a specific route and export that route to .csv and then import the .csv as POI's and build the route on the GPS.

It comes with a AC plug so you can build the route when sitting inside your house. The GPS sees the satellites from indoors no problem. My Garmin never has been able to do that.

Probably not exactly want you want. Here are the owner manuals for the 7720 and the 7715. Multi-Stop Trips instructions start on page 20.

RVND 7720 User manual
http://www.randmcnally.com/support/docu ... 120918.pdf

RVND 7715 User manual
http://www.randmcnally.com/support/docu ... 120918.pdf

[markopolo]

Walmart's that allow overnight parking are listed under Parking and Rest Areas



Backup camera icon appears when backup camera is plugged in. Tap the icon and the screen changes to display the backup camera. Tap the screen again to return to GPS screen.

[booster]

Originally Posted by markopolo

I don't think this one will do exactly what you want.
Hmmm, maybe.......... I'm thinking as I type here.
You can build and save routes on the GPS using addresses or POI's. They're referred to as "Multi-Stop Trips". It can automatically optimize or you can manually re-do the order. You can "Skip Next Stop".

It can only import .csv files as POI's. I can use http://findthebestroute.com/RouteFinder.html to build a specific route and export that route to .csv and then import the .csv as POI's and build the route on the GPS.

It comes with a AC plug so you can build the route when sitting inside your house. The GPS sees the satellites from indoors no problem. My Garmin never has been able to do that.

Probably not exactly want you want. Here are the owner manuals for the 7720 and the 7715. Multi-Stop Trips instructions start on page 20.

RVND 7720 User manual
http://www.randmcnally.com/support/docu ... 120918.pdf

RVND 7715 User manual
http://www.randmcnally.com/support/docu ... 120918.pdf

Importing the POIs or waypoints is what most of them do, I think. We had that on our TomTom, but the problem came in that after you import them, the GPS recalculates the route it wants based on the waypoints. That route may or may not be what you got when you used Google or Mapsource. I always had to go back into the GPS and check the entire route, turn by turn to see if it was what we wanted. We do also have to trace the route, or at least all the waypoints, on the Streets and Trips because it can't figure out which direction you are going on a divided highway. If you pick a waypoint on a 4 lane, and it happens to hit the opposite direction lane in the map program, it loops you up around the next ramp, back down through the point to the next ramp you already passed, and then back on route. If you notice that is what it is doing, you can just keep going and it will say missed waypoint a couple of times and then ignore it, but in busy traffic it is easy just to be following the instructions, and then you make a loop.

[markopolo]

I'm trying the new "Quick Reply Button" ............ I could not build routes with my basic Nuvi 250. I could add Via points but could not import a route so I'm new to routing.

I get it. I've had that problem trying to force a route with via points. It'll get me to the via points but not necessarily specifically on the route I was trying to force it to take. I haven't tried a "Multi-Stop Trip" with this GPS yet. I'll report back.

[markopolo]

I was hoping to use my existing wireless backup camera with the Rand McNally RVND 7720. The existing camera is 2.4Ghz and I saw a few 2.4Ghz receivers on eBay.
In the end I decided to buy a receiver with a camera and transmitter just in case the the frequency of my old camera and the new receiver didn't match. I got the 2.4G Wireless Backup Camera with a transmitter and a receiver for just under $30 on eBay to try. I didn't want to spend too much on this project because the old backup camera still works.

The existing camera and the new receiver did not work together so I'll have to install the new camera that came with the new receiver. I recently added a TV and WiFi antenna and decided to wait before caulking the entry hole for those wires just in case I had to add a power cable for the new wireless camera. I'm glad I waited

The RVND 7720 uses 2.5mm video jack in for a camera and a mini USB in to power the GPS.



I tested the camera indoors with the camera pointed out of a house window. The bright reflections you see in the photo are the camera LED's reflecting back from the window glass.





I'll report back after I try this in the van.

[markopolo]

The $30 wireless camera works but not great; the colors aren't right but it shows what is behind the van and lets me check on the bikes occasionally.



The large 7" screen is nice and it is probably worth buying a better camera for it.

I have two wireless backup cameras in my van and maybe that causes some interference. The other display screen is small, only 2 1/2 inches but it displays a better quality image:



It caught the reflection of my shirt.

[markopolo]

The Rand McNally Dock software just had an update. It now looks as though I'll be able sync with Good Sam's Road Trip Planner.
Previously I could only build trips on the GPS.

[markopolo]

I did another Dock Software update yesterday. Also, there was full map update available (around 4 gb ! ). That took half a day to download on my slow internet connection.

The GPS had a "Gave up waiting for the main navigation engine to initialize" error after the updates. Restarting, resetting & running full diagnostics didn't help. The error message kept coming back. I left the error message on the screen for several minutes while Googling it and the problem sorted itself out My guess is that it was trying to find satellites. It continues to work after turning it off then back on several times so I think it is fine. If you get that error after updating I suggest giving it a few minutes before tapping the OK on the error message.

The amount of POI data in the unit is impressive. It lists every business around here.

You have to re-enter the details of your RV after the update or maybe because I reset it. Make sure to check the length, height, weight, amount of propane on board etc. so your route will be appropriate.

[booster]

We finally got to update the maps and system in our 2597 Garmin, which we couldn't do because our ISP has a hard cap on the data per month of 15 gig. In the past, because the Garmin messes up the downloads repeatedly, and because we need to do multiple downloads to get it on the laptop, desktop, and GPS, we would go over and be put in the "naughty pool" until we could beg and get out. We just switched to 7mep fiber from the 1.5 we had, took the phone with (not VOIP), and now have no cap. We now get the 4.3+gig download in about 2 hours instead of all night.

We did have terrible problems with downloads, as we have in the past. The first one, into the desktop, was odd, but seemed to have worked, but we later found out we only really had gained the name of the new map, not the map itself. The laptop absolutely could not get the updated map and the Garmin download would repeated stop with a "problem" which was not disclosed. We finally found out through some forums that the newest Garmin communications require the computer to be running the NET 4.*.* update software. If it is not on the computer all weird things happen randomly, it appears. I went in and found the NET software updates, which are listed as "optional" with Microsoft. They would not be put on the laptop because of limited hard drive capacity. Put it on and it still wouldn't work and glitched out. I finally got it to do a complete download and install on the laptop by selecting the option of updating both the unit (had to be plugged in) and the laptop at the same time. Unfortunately, because of a stop/start thing it did for some reason, the GPS lost all its maps, even though the laptop was OK at that point. I put the reinstalled the NET software on the PC and it did fine on the download and install and we got the map name and information. It took 5, yes 5, tries before the download managed to make to the GPS, unit through the PC, before the map actually made it the unit. I think we are finally OK with all of them, but who knows at this point.

The forums are full of folks with updatable Garmin units, for all kinds of problems like this. Many of the very persistent eventually find a way around the problem, but there also seem to be a lot who wind up with out of date GPS units and give up. That is too bad, because the Garmin works very well for navigating and is the only one we have found that can be preprogrammed easily on the laptop to give an exact custom route. I don't know why Garmin hasn't been able to fix these update bugs, but the history would indicate a decade or more of issues.

By the end of all of this fiasco, we had downloaded around 40gig of data, and would have been in the "naughty pool" forever.

[markopolo]

Fun with updates ........ not!

Looks like I have two options for importing trips now. There's Good Sam Club Trip Import and Rand McNally Tripmaker http://tripmaker.randmcnally.com/
They might be the same but it looks like you don't have to a Good Sam member to import a trip now.

I haven't tried either option yet.

[booster]

It will be interesting to see how the Tripmaker things work. In the Garmin Basecamp program for the computer, it doesn't do much except give you a screen to select the start and finish points, which you can do easier elsewhere. Once they are chosen everything is the same, including the export to the GPS. I assume the Tripmakers you are looking at are online ones? Basecamp lives on the computer and allegedly has identical maps with the GPS so you don't get odd surprises, when we have tried to translate from an online program like Google maps, some very odd results showed up on the GPS.

It will also be very interesting to see how all the GPS stuff works out over time. The phones and tablets have some advantages, but big downsides in that they don't carry the entire mad, same with Google on the laptop. If you always had fast internet coverage when you travel, no big deal, but we often don't have that.

[markopolo]

Yes Tripmaker is online. I've just tried it. To create specific routing, you can drag the route where you want and it creates a series of waypoints. I don't find it that easy to work with though. It's missing the ability to just right click and add to route anywhere on the map. You should be able to add as start, end, stop etc like Streets and Trips. The map seems to be a lighter version than the GPS as it can't find my address and I can't just click on my house and add it as the starting point.

It might work better in more populous places (more data).

Satellite imagery at my location looks to be about 6 years old ............

[booster]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Yes Tripmaker is online. I've just tried it. To create specific routing, you can drag the route where you want and it creates a series of waypoints. I don't find it that easy to work with though. It's missing the ability to just right click and add to route anywhere on the map. You should be able to add as start, end, stop etc like Streets and Trips. The map seems to be a lighter version than the GPS as it can't find my address and I can't just click on my house and add it as the starting point.

It might work better in more populous places (more data).

Satellite imagery at my location looks to be about 6 years old ............

Once you get going with it, it will be interesting to see what it does when you transfer the route to the GPS. Most of the programs seem to just transfer the physically selected waypoints like start and finish, and not the drag and drop waypoints, and then the GPS calcs its own route, which will be different. If it does transfer all the points, you can still get a somewhat different route if the Trip Planner and GPS use different calculating between the points. Our Garmin appears to do the later, transferring all the waypoints, but calling the drag and drop ones via points so you don't have physically visit them, which can be a big thing if you have lots of drag and drop places. The GPS then calculates routes between each of the point. Both the trip planning and GPS seem to use the same calculating methods, and do use the same maps, so the routes have matched perfectly for us to this point.