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My wife and I prefer to avoid the interstates and travel at a more leisurely pace whenever possible. 

 

Years ago we discovered a pretty neat feature on our old TomTom GPS - by setting "maximum planning speed" for 45 mph, we discovered a wealth of back roads and small towns we would have otherwise missed.  

 

Unfortunately, TomTom quit supporting our unit so we started looking for a replacement that had the same feature.  Around that time, TomTom decided to remove maximum speed from their entry-level units and now only has it on their RV and truck units (read more $$).   Garmin also has it in their RV and truck offerings, but they're pretty expensive, as well.  We've been looking (albeit not too hard) for a cost-effective solution ever since. 

 

A few years ago, we started searching for apps and found that CoPilot GPS had maximum speed (and offline maps), so we bought it for $10 with lifetime map updates, IIRC.  Then CoPilot decided to move the feature to their truckers app which is only available via subscription.  So we still own our original non-subscription copy and use it sometimes for off-line route planning when we don't have a cell signal, but we really miss the slow routes it used to give us.

 

I tried Sygic a little over month ago, but it failed to load the maps during install on my Pixel phone, so I was unable to test it out.  I contacted Sygic and was told "we are aware of the problem".  So, in the hope that they'd fixed it, I tried again last week and got "your free trial has expired". That being not very helpful, I wrote off Sygic.

 

Then, just yesterday, I found MapFactor Navigator.  It has maximum speed in the vehicle profiles and is free when used with Open Street Maps.  Or for $18 each you can buy TomTom car maps for the US, Canada, and Mexico or for around $50 each TomTom truck and RV maps (not that our Toyota MHs need to worry overmuch about most of the things semis and Class A RVs do).  It's ad supported, but you can turn ads off for $2.  Other "premium" features available for a few bucks each include heads-up display, online search, and alternative routes.

 

The jury's still out, but it seems to do what we want during testing.  I find the interface a bit kludgey, but expect that will improve as I get used to it.

 

I was wondering if anyone else out there uses "maximum speed" like we do, and, if so, what software and/or hardware you use?

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I wish we had more time to enjoy the journey like you described, because these old rigs really come into their own when cruising down low-traffic, country roads! Unfortunately, we're just not in that phase of life yet, where that's a consistent possibility :)

 

But, to address your conundrum: the current version of Google Maps does offer the "bicycle" routing option (yes, haha) which kind of does what you describe: keeps you off the interstates and puts you on local roads with some state highways. There is also the option to download maps on that platform if there's a danger of losing your cell-data service en route, and it does a pretty good job of intelligently re-routing in heavy-traffic scenarios (when connected to data).

 

Some folks don't like the privacy concerns involved with a Google or online/cloud navigation solution. Which is fine, but thought it was worth mentioning in this discussion.

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Ctgriffi,

 

I haven't tried Gmaps in bicycle mode - great idea! I already use Maps, anyway, but never thought about using bicycle mode. I'll mess around with it and see how it fits. Thanks for the tip.

 

And Google already knows all about me - been using Gmail since early in the "invitation only" phase, and I have a Pixel phone. Ah, well.

 

 

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Some big city friends visited in Jan. They programed the shortest route in their Garmin after they left. It routed them through Yellowstone!!

In Jan. Yellowstone is "open" then, but snowmobiles only. They spent a 1/2 day backtracking to a open Hwy.

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