GarminDezl OTR500, 5.5-inch GPS Truck Navigator, Custom Truck Routing and Load-to-Dock Guidance, 010-02603-00

This Garmin Dezl OTR500 Is one badass little unit. It's easy to update and I always check for updates when when we arrive at our destination when traveling in our Motor Coach. Screen size is just right, GPS has been accurate, it shows how fast your speed is and I believe this is a good value for the money.

After almost a year of using this, I have come to a final conclusion that this thing sucks! Not the unit itself, but Garmin and their 'programmers' who program this thing with SUPPOSED truck routes! It AVOIDS routes that trucks ARE ALLOWED to use, and sends you down roads that trucks ARE NOT supposed to use! I use this in the northeast, mainly NY and PA, and it's all but useless outside of main interstates! I don't know why it's so hard to accurately program a GPS with truck routes but apparently it's beyond the capabilities of the geniuses at Garmin. I mean if you can't trust the leader in GPS navigation, who CAN you trust? I've had even worse results with Rand McNally. Is it that they just don't care about the northeast? Or is it this way across the whole country? I have completely lost faith in Garmin, this wasn't cheap and now I'm stuck with it. Gee, sure looks pretty though... I left my original review below, which was initially positive, but having used this for a while now, Garmin has shown their true colors, even with the latest updates!Below is my original review. I do NOT feel this way anymore.Let's face it, trucker GPS's primary purpose is to make money for the manufacturers. Hard truth but it is the truth. I have had many over the years including trucker navigation software for my laptop. Most have been horrible, even if using for a car! I recently used CoPilot for my cell phone, and though it seemed almost ok, it was not very easy to use and lacked many features you'd expect to be available. In 2014 I bought a Rand McNally tablet truck GPS and was highly disappointed. Then I tried a Garmin Dezl 770 with marginally acceptable results, basically it was good enough to remind me of a turn coming up on the route that I had to 'build' to the point of just not using it anymore, the mount sucked (couldn't be tightened, wouldn't stay straight), another disappointment. I had no idea what direction to go for my next trucker GPS and did a lot of research and read and watched many reviews on the OTR Series tablet GPS units for trucks.Most people are still saying avoid the Rand McNally's, they're still junk both in quality and functionality, which really surprises me since they publish the Bible of a truckers atlas. Apparently the atlas division doesn't speak to the GPS division...So after MUCH intense research well into the night, I decided to take a chance on the Dezl OTR1000 model.The good: almost everything! You can now FINALLY update the thing without hooking it up to a computer! Magnetic mount (stroooong too), can use in portrait or landscape, the mount is heavy duty, well made, the unit is quite loud (many complained about this so they must have fixed the issue), the screen is amazing and it processes routes quicker than any GPS I've ever used. There's just too much to add. It works, got it this morning and spent all day (it's now 2:30 am) running it through my tests. It actually knows where to go! So far so good. I'll update this review in a month or so after I've actually used it in the truck. I love how you can send directions (I use actual coordinates copied from Google Maps) directly to the GPS in seconds.The bad: it runs Android 6...really? 6? This means good luck finding any apps that will even download onto it. And WHAT GPS DOESN'T COME WITH A CALCULATOR? Most of us aren't mathematicians but we don't have to be, but come on man, we DO use numbers daily.Overall, at this point, I'm very happy with it and I think it actually knows where my truck should or should not be. I'll update this later. For now, while pricey and no, I don't think any piece of plastic is worth that kind of money, I would recommend this.

great for truck travel

It has worked for a little over a year now and it's still currently working but I think I'm going to be buying a new one soon as this one has low memory and tends to lag/slow down on occasion. The voice that announces street names has never really worked eventually it starts cutting in and out or just says turn left/right ect and stops talking midway. Garmin told me the SD card doesn't help with the devices performance because you can't copy anything to it such as saved addresses or map software ect which defeats the whole purpose of an SD card. They offered to replace it with a refurbished one but in order to have one shipped to my address right away I'd have to pay in the some of $250 then wait for them to receive mine back to get $125 back or something like that yes it was a cheaper option but I learned a long time ago refurbished devices do not work any better than the used one you sent back or at least that has always been my experience. All in all this GPS works good for truckers but don't let your guard down from other resources road Atlas, truck stop pocket book ect it will help you find parking but it doesn't always know every rest area/truck stop and for some reason it never shows up saved locations on the up ahead which I'll never understand I saved it for a reason why do I manually have to look to see if it's nearby when I can't remember the area?

Was only last 2 years

The size is perfect for us. Easy to set up.

I am not the type who complains about everything, but Garmin is the only product to bring out the worst in me. They have so many things that can easily be fixed, but they refuse to do so no matter how many emails I send their support staff. They always reply to submit my suggestions to an idea form in which nothing is ever changed. This time I decided to post a review here for potential buyers to be aware of the flaws. I had the Garmin 465t when it was new, then years later upgraded to the Dezl 570 which lasted a long time, and now I am using this "downgraded" OTR500 newer version.Pros:Hardware is always excellent with their modelsCons:The verbal command used to be "Voice Command" which you could also change to activate voice control. Now you cannot, it only responds by saying "OK Garmin" which a lot of my songs and podcasts trigger. When it does, a bright white bar on the screen shines in your face on a dark night. I once disabled the voice command, but its useful to say the address than typing it in when I am in a hurry to get in my truck and go while someone else is waiting to get into the dock and there is no room for me to pull to the side.Garmin for many years used to say the name of the street and exit number you had to turn on even if it butchered the name. Now it just says "Turn left, turn right". That explains why I see so many vehicles now stop in the middle of the road in downtown areas that have a ton of roads that are side by side. You have no idea which one to turn on unless you look at the Garmin screen which is a safety hazard. Because of this I also use my Google Maps which tells you the name of the street. Garmin used to say "In 500 feet, take exit 231 on the right to Maple street" Now it just says "Turn right".I use Custom POIs and for some reason their alert volume is turned way down compared to every other sound effect on the device. I told their support team to please released an update to fix this and they ask me to record a video proving that I am telling the truth. Their customer support is horrible. I mainly use the Garmin for Custom POIs to warn me about sharp curves, false "no truck" roads and such that the Garmin doesn't let you know about.I asked for years the ability to edit the address on the Garmin device since a lot of times the address is on the other side of the building so when I save the favorite at the road for the truck entrance, it usually just reads "Alley". I have to export the GPX and edit the address on my PC then transfer it back to my Garmin. A simple Address edit on the Garmin would solve this and I am a former programmer so I know how easily this can be done. It would also be nice when saving a favorite that I can choose which category I want it saved into instead of having to save it, back out into the main menu, find it, then edit, and change the category.I never use their Garmin app integration since it requires basically ALL of your phone's permissions. I never seen an app that required access to every single thing on your phone. Some people complain about this for minor permissions which don't bother me, but their app want 100% access no telling what hackers or they will do with all of your contacts, media files, emails, phone calls, etc.The most annoying thing which must be a bug is that Garmin used to save where you have your map zoom setting. Now if you click anywhere on the screen to view an overhead view, when you return to the navigation screen everything is zoomed way out into airplane view lol. You cannot see anything but a tiny squiggly line. What were they thinking? Do they even do research and development on their products? Do they ask a trucker to test these features out? it doesn't seem like it.They are very little trucker GPS brands so that is probably why they really don't care since they have a monopoly in this specialized market so they throw out subpar downgraded versions and expect us to just except it. I plan to switch to another brand after this.