The Garmin RV 895 offers so much more than a high end, factory installed Navigation System. If you can place it to the left of your steering wheel or to your wind shield , it is in your line of view. You have unlimited information about possible destinations, cost of gas, food, barbers, stores, and most anything you can think of. The screen graphics are great, turn by turn , hazards, road blockages , and conditions of travel

Overall, I am extremely pleased. I have used RV-specific GPSs from Garmin for quite a few years, so this one continues the line of very good usability for an RV. This is larger than my previous models, and that makes it easier to see in my motorhome. It connects well with my iPhone, which adds to its functionality. There are just a couple of “heads up” for a perspective buyer, neither of which is a stopper. First, even with my years of Garmin experience, there was still a pretty steep learning curve. Even after a few trips, I have to think about how to get the device to do what I want. That will come, but don’t expect to take it out of the box and have it feel as comfortable as as an old pair of slippers, Second, it is Android based, which means a few features are not available on Mac operating systems. Just one example, with my Mac, I can’t look inside the 895 and see the file structure and just add new items to the appropriate folder. If you have a Windows-based computer, that should be no problem. For me in the Mac world, it’s not a real problem. I just use WiFi to send routes or waypoints to the 895. I only mention it because when I first got mine, it threw me for a bit of a loop not being able to get to the files on the 895 until Garmin support told me about the Android base, and the resulting limitations for Mac. No biggie. There is, as I said, an easy work-around, but I wanted other Mac users to know about this little quirk. Even with all of this, I am very glad I bought this and I recommended it to my son, who also drives an RV.

we use it on every trip because we have a very tall 5th wheel trailer at 13’ 7 1/4”. it works great most of the time, but sometimes it routes us odd ways for no apparent reason. i suggest double checking your route with regular GPS to insure it isn’t taking you out of your way for no reason. just do a sanity check on it. 👍

I bought the Garmin RV 795 because I have a 24' travel trailer and Google Maps is notorious for misrouting travelers into tight spaces. On a few trips it routed me incorrectly into places that were difficult to get out of in my pickup truck alone and would have been a nightmare with a travel trailer. So far, the RV 795 has only directed me on roads where a trailer can safely be towed.

You need a lot of information about your trailer and tow vehicle to set this up but the information is readily available online. You'll need to know the width, height, and weight of your trailer, the weight and length of your tow vehicle, and the total length of the trailer and tow vehicle. You can create profiles for multiple vehicles & combinations so it's easy to switch from towing a trailer to tow vehicle only.

The user interface takes a little getting used to but it's not terribly difficult. By default you cannot enter or change destination or settings while moving. That is good for the driver (eyes on the road, please!) but you can disable that so the passenger can make updates while the vehicle is in motion.

I used the enclosed suction cup to mount the RV 795 on my windshield just below the rearview mirror. I haven't had a problem with the device attached to the mount but I remove and hide it when parked and twice the mount fell off of the windshield. Only seems to happen when the RV 795 is not on the mount.

The Garmin makes it easy to find gas stations. It lists (most of) them in order of distance. The one thing to watch for is that the Garmin cannot tell you if a particular station has the space needed when towing a longer trailer. Best to follow the old rule of thumb when towing: start looking for a gas station when you get to half a tank. That will give you some slack if getting to, into, or out of the nearest gas station would be too difficult.

It also has a long list of Campgrounds, State Parks, and RV parks. Updating the info is easy although it can be a bit cumbersome. It updates over wifi. If you have a hotspot on your phone you can use that but it might take quite a while. It works well with home wifi IF you have a way to power the RV 795. I used a ham radio power supply with a cigarette lighter plug like the one that powers the RV 795 while traveling. It would be nice if Garmin sold a power supply specifically for use at home with their GPS systems.

The RV 795 give you a lot of information while you are traveling. In addition to directions, it will track your speed vs. the posted limit. Good for people with a lead foot! It also warns about upcoming sharp bends in the road. In my experience it was overly cautious about "sharp bend" warnings but I prefer that to being surprised. There are many other features such as satellite imagery that I've just begun to experiment with.

Overall, this is a very useful aid for traveling in a recreational vehicle, especially if you are towing.

This is a GPS for RV. Its "must have" feature is that it takes the height and length of the RV into account when planning a route. NO, IT DOES NOT DO THAT.

I have been using it for 3 weeks in my car, but with the specs for my RV. Multiple times it has taken me down a path that does not have vertical clearance for the 12' 5" tall RV. The car was fine, but the RV would have been turned into a convertible.

For me, that is a deal breaker. If I have to be responsible for figuring out if the recommended route has vertical clearance, then I can keep using Android Auto on my phone. It works, it does not require a 2nd device, I know how to use it and it is free.

In its defense, it does display an icon that indicates "GPS has no idea if this route is safe for the RV" The problem is that that icon pops up pretty much any time you are off the freeway or major road, making it pretty much useless.

The second fatal flaw is that this GPS requires a connection to a phone via BlueTooth to monitor traffic. The problem is that its own BlueTooth randomly turns off, so you never know when it is no longer monitoring traffic. You do find out once you get stuck in traffic, usually when it is too late to do something about it. It does have a tiny icon in the upper corner that indicates when BlueTooth is on, but the user can not spend all his time focusing on monitoring that icon.

The third big problem with the GPS is an impossibly bad user interface. The UI is not intuitive and likely lacks some basic features. I say "likely" because I have not been able to find those features, but the UI is so complicated that I cannot be sure if they are there and I have not been able to figure them out.

The fourth problem is address lookup. Sometimes it will find an address, other times it will not locate the exact same address. Maybe I was doing something subtly different, but the bottom line is that address lookup, as experienced by this experienced computer user, is does not work reliably.

The fifth really annoying feature is that the GPS is eager to take over your phone calls, even when you tell it not to. The incoming call indication will continue to blare on the GPS while you wait for it to go to voice mail. But you cannot disconnect it from the phone because you need it connected to the phone for the traffic.

The sixth annoying issue is slow screen refresh. Especially when you are turning, the screen will go blank, then redraw the screen over a couple of seconds, then go blank/redraw..... Thankfully it redraws starting at the point where the vehicle is drawn, so you always have enough awareness of the immediate vicinity for this to not be a safety issue, but it is super annoying.

After listing all the problems, I should add that it does have several nice features. But they are not worth the $700 price tag when the GPS does not provide RV safe navigation.

The screen is large, really bright and easy to see during the day.

The rendered image of the upcoming exit is a very nice touch and is surprisingly realistic in terms of what the sign actually says.

Showing the elevation and warning for steep climbs and sharp turns is very helpful.

Ability to easily look up services and distance to several upcoming exits is quite helpful.

The on-screen button to locate nearby gas stations or services is useful.

The magnetic mounting base is really slick. The magnet is strong enough that it will mount correctly as long as you get the GPS even close to the base.

Bottom line: This is a nice GPS, but not fit for purpose for the specialized task it is supposed to be marketed for. Maybe they can fix most of the problems in an upcoming update, but my 30-day return window is closing, so mine is going back.

It's not perfect when using it in the RV mode but it's still the best GPS I've used. It's easier to use the app to key in addresses and send to GPS than enter directly into the GPS. Good guidance for turns and lane choices to use.

A few things about this device are wonderful — the ability to input destinations on my phone is both clever and surprisingly useful; the data integration with the phone works without any configuration and flawlessly providing real time traffic etc. The touchscreen is intuitive, responsive, and easily configurable. I LOVE the ability to set my top speed and height, and it reliably routed me around several low bridges during our trip.

But at the same time this device is a trip back into a time when Garmin was the big name in dash units and the technology would route you into a farm field if you weren’t careful.

Within minutes of setting it up, the device got incredibly confused by a Diverging Diamond highway exit and tried to route me around in circles. Later it got confused and assumed that an address on a frontage road was actually on i90, costing us almost 25min driving back and forth between exits. The next day it helpfully suggested that I take a right turn into a recently plowed farm field!

So on the one hand it’s a really useful piece of technology and I love that I don’t need to roast my phone in the window. And on the other, keep on your toes, Garmin is still trying to kill you.

This Garmin has a large, beautiful screen, and because of its size, it is very easy to touch and move the map while driving. However I did find I had trouble finding a suitable location to mount it using the supplied suction cup mount. For your reference, I placed this in a class B Sprinter RV and ended up using the most forward location on the driver side door, in such a way as to not block my side view mirrors. It just barely worked. Barely. As you can imagine, opening the drivers' door was now limited to the range of the power cable which I had connected above and behind the drivers' seat (routed along the top of the door, through the grab handle, and into a cigarette outlet above and behind my seat.)

Pros:

*Large screen, good audio volume for directions (Garmin was about 20"/ 51cm away from my head).

*I really appreciated the customization for the vehicle height, weight, length, and width. We avoided all routes with low clearance bridges!!

*The magnetic/charging suction cup mount was sturdy and held the unit firmly in place.

* Easy sharing of GPX files over WiFi: I planned a route on an iPad using the InRoute app (which also has vehicle size customization), and was able to send over the GPX file to the Garmin very easily when I had Wifi service. The route stored in the "Route Planner" tab is easy to find and select for navigating.

*The ability to add all sorts of map information along the route: Fuel, "trendy places", campgrounds, places to stay, eat, etc.

Cons:

*The size of the Garmin itself! The entire body measures 11" / 28cm diagonal.

*Those of you new to Garmin products, as I am, may find the learning curve for inputting info a little less than intuitive.

*Complete user manual is online.

*Cost.

If you have enough space for a dash mount -without blocking your view out the windshield- this may be the unit for you. Personally, I will be returning this and selecting a smaller unit which still allows for setting vehicle height etc, parameters.

Safe travels!

Perfecto !!

Fonctionne à merveille

Facile d’opération, très belle carte ,facile à lire ,je ne regrette pas mon achat

Like the screen and most features (e.g. the break scheduler is nice), but really odd routing for custom routes. If the custom route folds back on itself (e.g. delivery runs), it keeps track of which flags are done so far, but sometimes it sees a known road and just forgets all about what flags are done/upcoming, and just jumps ahead/back to another point in the custom route that uses the same road.

Also occasionally avoids some weight-restricted roads even if you choose 'Car' profile.

There is no way to report these type of issues from the unit, and I often forget to go online after my trip, so who knows if Garmin is even aware of these issues. Since there's a paired app for live traffic, it seems there should also be a "report an issue" feature.

works great