The laws on speed camera detection in Europe have always been somewhat confusing. In our experience of speaking to customers, we have heard some horror stories and have always erred on the side of caution when giving out product advice. We know for sure that France has proved tricky for UK motorists with hefty fines and confiscation of devices. Stories exist of the Jean Damme stopping motorists and searching their vehicles regardless of whether they are using a camera detection device or not.

So that’s France, but what abut the rest of Europe?
Common knowledge suggests that the Swiss take a similar line to the French but in actual fact, it is illegal to use a GPS device to detect fixed speed cameras in Europe with only the UK and Hungary allowing motorists to use their GPS device to locate fixed cameras. Elsewhere, expect a fine of anywhere up to £2,634 (recently issued in Italy) and with 1 in 5 UK motorists being stopped by police, it’s not a risk worth taking.

The European motoring laws are not 100% clear so it is likely that any penalties are attributed to ignorance. With a large proportion of these fines being paid for on the spot in cash, the process is questionable at best. So what are we getting at?

With the summer fast approaching many of you will be heading abroad in your cars, caravans and motorhomes so as well as it being a great time to look at buying a new sat nav, it is certainly worth brushing up on local laws before you travel. Most navigation devices these days will display the current speed limit of roads you are travelling on which should be enough so make sure you know how to switch your speed camera alerts off completely.

Better safe than sorry!

Just before Christmas Snooper announced that they were going to offer free lifetime map updates on their Truckmate and Ventura ranges for the first time in their history. As you can imagine, the offer proved very popular and we saw a clear surge in sales of units which included free lifetime maps.

Due to popular demand, Snooper have now extended this offer to the S5000 Ventura Pro and the S6400 Ventura Pro.

The only difference between these two navigation devices is the screen size. Both the S5000 Ventura Pro and S6400 Ventura pro let you enter your vehicle dimensions and when a route is programmed, your vehicle size is taken into account and only caravan / motorhome friendly routes are given.

In the past, you would have had to pay to keep your Ventura up to date with a new map being released annually. This cost £85 for a single update and £130 for a lifetime subscription so free lifetime maps as standard on the S5000 Ventura Pro and S6400 Ventura Pro offers a substantial saving.

As with all Snooper Ventura navigation devices, the S5000 and S6400 come preloaded with official site data from the Caravan Club. You can select your destination by searching for Caravan Club sites and CL sites you know by name, location or by proximity to your current location. Ventura will then route you to your site, sending you only down verified caravan and motorhome friendly roads.

Combine the additional points of interest which run into their thousands and as with the maps and software, are completely free to update.

Snooper are without doubt the market leaders when it comes to specialist navigation. In our experience they have left TomTom and Garmin struggling with their equivalent specialist navigators.

Look for the Free Map Updates star on all Snoopers

It’s been a few weeks since the dust settled on a successful Spring Camping and Caravanning show but as the season approaches, Snooper have some good news.

They have allowed us to extend the FREE Lifetime Mapping offer on all Snooper Ventura products for a limited period as the season gets underway!
This means that you will be entitled to FREE maps as often as you like on the following devices;
Snooper Ventura Pro S2500
Snooper Ventura Pro S5000
Snooper Ventura Pro S6400
Snooper Ventura Pro S8000
Snooper Ventura Pro Sound DB8500
Snooper Ventura Pro AVNS9000

All Ventura products come preloaded with Caravan Club campsite data along with many other official site guides including Camping and Caravanning Club, ACSI, Bord Atlas and thousands of points of interest.

Map updates on the Ventura range would ordinarily cost you £85 a time so it really is worth taking advantage of FREE Lifetime maps on the Ventura range while it’s on!

One of the most common questions we received at the Spring Caravan and Camping Show last week related to the points of interest available for the Snooper Ventura range of Caravan sat nav.

Every single Snooper Ventura comes preloaded with thousands of POI’s and you will find caravan and motorhome specific POI’s preloaded under the “User POI” icon on the navigation menu. Obviously ALL Snooper Ventura systems come preloaded with POI’s from;
Caravan Club – CL sites and regular sites
Camping and Caravanning Club Sites
ACSI
Bord Atlas
Camper Stop
and many many more…

The list of resources doesn’t end there. Snooper have grown a database of additional points of interest from which you are able to download onto your Snooper Ventura at no additional cost. This means that you can remove points of interest that are not relevant to you and replace them with POI’s from across Europe that best suit your needs.

First of all you will need the POI Updater Software which you can download by clicking this HERE

You are then free to browse Snooper‘s extensive list of POI’s HERE. Simply select your destination country and view all the points of interest for your chosen location. Snooper even offer a service whereby if you do not see your preferred POI listed there, they will do something about it. Similarly, if you have your own list of POI’s simply submit your list to Snooper in one of the following formats: .xls, .csv, .ov2, .asc, .gpx, .gdb, .axe

To provide you with a teaser of what you can expect to see from Snooper‘s POI database, here is what’s available in the UK at the time of writing;

Bank
Santander ATM UK
Santander Branches UK

Bar or Pub
Crown Carveries UK
JD Wetherspoon UK
Pub Stop UK
Sizzling Pubs UK

Car Park
Car Parks UK
Parking EU
Parking with Overnight Stay (Unverified) UK
Parking with Overnight Stay UK

Caravan and Motorhome Specific
ADAC Campingplaetze EU
ADAC Stellplaetze EU
Archies Sites EU
Archies Wifi EU
Camper Europe N EU
Camper Europe S EU
CamperContact EU
Camperplaatsen EU
Camping Cheques EU
Certified Locations UK
GPL EU
Handler National u International EU
LPG UK
Motorhome Parking Locations UK
Motorhome Pub Stopover UK
Preem EU
ProMobil EU
Stellplatz EU
The Camping and Caravanning Club UK
The Caravan Club – Certificated Locations UK
The Caravan Club – Club Sites UK

Home and Garden
Jewson Branches UK

Hotel
Premier Travel Inn UK

Others
Airport EU
BioMarsh UK
BT Exchanges UK
BT Openzone UK
Cliffords UK
Ferry Terminal EU
Ford Water Hazard UK
Free WiFi Hotspots UK
Gala Bingo UK
Keyline UK
London Congestion Charge UK
Parks and Gardens UK
Radar Key Toilets UK
RSPB Reserves UK
Scout Campsites UK
The Cloud UK
TNT UK
Toll EU
Travis Perkins UK
Virginmedia Cabinets UK
Wild Camp UK

Petrol Station
Adblue UK
BP HGV Services UK
BP Services UK
DKV EU
ESSO Geodaten von Truck Sites EU
ESSO Services (24hr) UK
ESSO Services (All) UK
ESSO Services (not 24hr) UK
Keyfuel Smart Sites UK
Keyfuels All Types UK
Keyfuels HGV Specific UK
LPG Forecourt UK
Shell EU
Shell UK
Tankpool24 EU
UK Fuels UK

Restaurant
Burger King UK
Dominos Pizza UK
Fish and Chips UK
Harvester UK
KFC UK
Little Chef UK
McDonalds UK
Pizza Hut UK
Subway UK
Toby Carvery UK

Shopping
American Golf UK
Halfords UK
Lloyds Pharmacy UK
Marks and Spencer UK
Sports Direct UK

Supermarket
Aldi UK
ASDA UK
Lidl UK
Morrisons UK
Nisa UK
Tesco UK

Tourist Attraction
Horse Racing Courses UK
National Trust UK
Zoos UK

Train Station
London Underground UK

Truck Specific
AdBlue Retail Sites from Air1 UK
AS Logistics Motorway Service Stations UK
AS Logistics Truck Layby UK
AS Logistics Truckstops EU
AS24 EU
Distribution Centres UK
Fuel Genie UK
Industrial Estate UK
Industrial Estates UK
Industrial Zones Parks Estates UK
NG Towers UK
Scania Service Stations EU
Stobart UK
Truck Parking Laybys UK
Truck Stop Cafe UK
Truckstops 09 UK
TSplus Cafe UK
TSplus Truckstops UK
UK Docks Ports UK
Volvo EU

We have a lot of enquiries into caravan and motorhome specific satellite navigation systems here at Sat Nav Warehouse. One of the common queries is how you are able to search for Caravan Club approved sites and whether the Snooper Ventura range will let you do this. Well, the answer is yes!

ALL Snooper Ventura devices including the S900, S2000, S5000, S7000, S6400, S8000 and flagship DB8500 Pro Sound come preloaded with coordinates for the Caravan Club approved sites. When you switch on your Ventura, tough the map to enter the menu. In the navigation menu, scroll to the right until you see the “User POI” icon.

Tap the icon and you will see a long list of points of interest and among the French Aires and Camping and caravanning Club listings, you will see “Caravan Club Certified Sites” and “Caravan Club Camp Sites UK”. This FREE preloaded feature will allow you to search for sites by name, current location or different location.

When you find the site you like, you are presented with the name, address and contact details for the Caravan Club site on your sat nav screen. Click  OK and Snooper Ventura will route you to your chosen Caravan Club site via comprehensive sat nav direction.

Have a look at the video below for more information;

Having retailed all kinds of satellite navigation for the last five years, we have come to accept that whichever brand you decide to purchase, there is a tiny chance that there may be a fault. It’s simply the nature of consumer electronics. How you measure a brand however is their willingness to respond and rectify any mistakes.

Of late, despite growing problems with TomTom Truck devices, TomTom have a stance that they will not offer any support directly to customers experiencing difficulties with their Truck products. This makes rectifying any issues longwinded, unprofessional and unnecessarily time consuming for the customer, who is the person to lose out in all of this.

Compare this stance to say, Snooper who are the market leader in Truck Sat Nav products. We have very few issues with the Truckmate range of products however when issues arise, they’re dealt with swiftly and in a professional manner.

As the new year started, there was an unknown bug lying in wait to attack TomTom which knocked out the GPS signal on their TomTom Pro 7100 and 7150 units due to the leap year of all things. We were inundated with customers returning their devices for updates to rectify the problem.

More recently, TomTom issued a map update to Truck users which rather annoyingly wiped all truck mapping, leaving TomTom users in a potentially perilous position. Once again, TomTom units came flooding in and we duly updated and returned them to customers at no charge.

All this while reliable partner Snooper goes from strength to strength with two new releases this month. Why do we think this is? Well, Snooper are the market leader in Truck Sat Nav, they focus on getting things right and are at the and of the phone to listen to customer queries. It’s only natural that as a retailer, we want to promote the most reliable products because it makes the whole experience more enjoyable for us and for you, the customer.

We have had the nod to say that the long awaited TomTom Go Live Camper and Caravan is now shipping. TomTom Camper and Caravan will let you enter in your vehicle details and route to your destination avoiding low bridges, narrow lanes and only down roads suitable for towing a caravan or driving a Motorhome.

Furthermore, you will benefit from 12 months FREE TomTom LIVE services giving you access to Google search, live speed cameras and even see what the weather is doing at your destination. You can view the full spec of the new TomTom GO Live Camper and Caravan and place your order HERE

There is nothing more frustrating than buying a new sat nav only to see it superseded with new mapping making it instantly out of date! Thankfully, we are pleased to announce that Snooper are now offering a 30-day latest map guarantee.

If you buy your Snooper Syrius, Snooper Truckmate or Snooper Ventura from us here at Sat Nav Warehouse and there is a new map available within 30 days of purchase, you can download it for FREE. Downloads are carried out through the Snooper website and update your device in a short space of time to include road changes, restrictions and any other features that may have been added to your device since purchase.

TomTom remain tight lipped about price and availability of the NEW TomTom Go LIVE Camper & Caravan device.

Last week you will have seen that TomTom announced the imminent arrival of their answer to the Snooper Ventura caravan and motorhome sat nav. The TomTom Go LIVE Camper & Caravan is set to be released this spring / summer and will boast all the benefits of a regular in-car TomTom with LIVE services, but with dedicated routing options for larger vehicles.

We have been inundated with requests for information and even taken some back orders with a small deposit from keen customers. The situation at the moment is that nobody other than TomTom know when this device will be released.

We will keep you updated through the website and guarantee that Sat Nav Warehouse will be among the first to have stock. Register for our newsletter here and we’ll make sure you know the minute it’s released.

For now, we still have in stock the popular Snooper Ventura range of caravan and motorhome specific GPS products which can be viewed here.

NOW SHIPPING: ORDER HERE

Normally the market leaders and innovators, TomTom have played catch up of late with innovations in motoring sat nav. More specifically, Snooper have pioneered the way for satellite navigation that allows a user to be routed based on their vehicle dimensions. First into the Truck and HGV market with Snooper Truckmate, it was a runaway success. The caravan and camping market soon saw the benefits and Snooper released a brand called Ventura, which utilised the same principles of size calculation, but added more relevant points of interest such as campsites and motorhome rest areas.

TomTom are the undisputed kings of the in-car sat nav, for now, but they have always tried to catch up with Snooper when it comes to truck and caravan nav.

Apparently that’s all about to change with the release of TomTom‘s Go LIVE Camper and Caravan product which is listed as “coming soon”. TomTom claim that it will be loaded with relevant points of interest for camping, caravanning and motorhome owners but we’ll wait and see as to whether they can topple the mighty Snooper Ventura!

Needless to say, we will be among the first to have the TomTom Camper and Caravan product when it launches later this year. In the meantime, we’d recommend taking a look at the Snooper Ventura range…