Can You Use Waze for RV Travel? Easy Explanation
Traveling in a recreational vehicle (RV) can be an exciting way to explore the open road. With an RV, you have the comforts of home while on the go. However, navigating a large vehicle comes with its own set of challenges. This leads to an important question – can you rely on Waze for RV travel?
.Waze shines when it comes to real-time traffic updates, accident alerts, and avoiding rush hour madness. But for your RV voyage, it’s more like a helpful sidekick, not a captain at the helm.
However, there are some definite limitations of Waze for RVs that you need to consider.
What are the Limitations of Waze for RVs
While Waze is great for everyday commuting and road trips in passenger cars, using it to navigate a large RV has some significant downsides.
1. No Rv-Specific Settings
Waze has no settings for inputting important RV specifications like length, height, weight, and whether you’re towing a trailer or vehicle. Without these details, Waze can’t provide routing and warnings tailored to the unique needs of RV drivers.
For example, Waze may inadvertently route you down roads with low bridges or weight and propane restrictions. It also can’t take tight turns and narrow roads into account.
2. Focuses On Speed Over Safety
The Waze algorithm emphasizes faster arrival times and shortcuts. This works well for commuters in a hurry but can be problematic for lumbering RVs.
Waze may route your RV down winding back roads and difficult shortcuts that are unsafe for large vehicles. Their app is all about speed rather than caution.
3. Limited Offline Functionality
Connectivity can be spotty in remote camping areas. Waze’s real-time traffic updates rely on constant access to cellular data networks.
Without this connectivity, you lose out on receiving crucial hazard alerts and road closure information in rural regions. Waze offers no offline maps like other navigation apps.
So, Will Waze Be Ideal for Your RV?
Given the limitations above, Waze isn’t the most RV-friendly navigation app choice. You risk route problems, accidents, and fines by relying solely on Waze.
While Waze can supplement your travels with nice-to-have traffic info, it shouldn’t be your primary RV navigating tool. For safe and smooth travels, consider these Waze alternatives for RV travel instead.
Alternatives to Waze for RV Travel
Specialized RV GPS apps take the size and unique needs of motorhomes into account for routing and warnings. They also work offline with preloaded campground and amenity data.
- RV Trip Wizard
This app is designed specifically for RVs. Route planning considers your actual vehicle height, weight, length, and propane restrictions.
You can set alerts for low clearances, steep grades, and hazardous roads to avoid. It has a toolbox for tracking maintenance schedules too.
The app includes details on 14,000 RV parks and campgrounds. You can filter spots by amenities and reserve sites right in the app.
With RV Trip Wizard, you get RV-friendly routing with handy tools for trip planning, roadside assistance, and campground lookups. Online route planning lets you design trips from your desktop too.
- Copilot Truck GPS
While made for professional truckers, Copilot Truck is also handy for RVers needing safer, optimized routing and offline access.
This GPS app has truck-specific routing to avoid small roads and provide height and weight warnings. You also get alerts for upcoming weigh stations, rest stops, and mechanical and medical service points.
Copilot Truck offers offline maps of North America and Europe so you can navigate areas with no cell reception. There are also hazard warnings submitted by other truckers.
The interface is easy to use while driving a large vehicle. You get voice prompts, hands-free calling, and compatibility with backup cameras too.
- Google Maps
Google Maps has an option to enable truck routes and avoid paths unsuitable for large vehicles. While not RV-specific, it can supplement other navigation apps.
Enable truck route preferences on Google Maps to steer clear of narrow streets, overpasses, difficult turns, and roads with weight, propane, or tunnel restrictions.
You can also download offline map areas for trips into rural areas with no connectivity. This ensures access to maps without cell service.
However, Google Maps lacks specialized RV park and amenity listings. The truck route preference also isn’t as tailored to RVs as Copilot Truck or RV Trip Wizard. But it makes a handy free supplement.
Tips for Using Waze with RVs
While Waze has downsides for RV travel, you can utilize the app judiciously as an extra navigational tool:
Use For General Traffic Updates And Accident Alerts
Enable Waze while traveling for supplemental alerts about congestion, construction, police checkpoints, and crashes along your route. Just don’t rely on it alone for routing decisions.
Be Cautious With Suggested Routes
Scrutinize any Waze-suggested shortcuts carefully before traversing them in a large RV. Compare routes with a specialized RV GPS app to avoid mishaps.
Plan Your Route Beforehand
Use a dedicated RV app like RV Trip Wizard to plan safe routes ahead of time. Program the route into your RV GPS. Then use Waze sparingly on the go for extra traffic color commentary.
In Summary
Waze certainly brings nice-to-have benefits like traffic avoidance and hazard condition alerts. However, the lack of RV-specific route planning makes it unreliable as your motorhome’s primary GPS.
For safe travels, invest in a specialized app made for RVers instead. But by all means, turn on Waze as well for its crowd-sourced warnings and congestion updates. Just don’t depend on it alone to chart your camper course!
With the right balance of technology, you can plot an epic journey across the continent in your home on wheels. So get out on the open road and make some memories with the help of RV-friendly GPS. Drive safely – and enjoy the destinations you discover along the way even more! Let me know if you have any other questions about planning the navigation for your next overlanding excursion.
