tsmart

Each week i get to do a 150 mile trip...so rural with no other nearby roads or cross roads, and never any traffic. Lots of straight areas. Bought the car to do this drive 90% of the time. With this in mind, can i do something on the budget side? Interference would be non-existant.

Vet Interested

Define budget?

tsmart

$100-150

whiteboy

Budget?? Wait until you can get a used Valentine 1 on e bay for around $300.

zzjakect

I paid around $450 for escort wireless. Great out in rural areas. Paid for itself many times. But not really good in town. Too many false alerts. I had bad results with valentine, but it was an older model. Escort is only two years old.

Matthewstorm

TraceZ

Have you heard of a phone app called Waze? It's a navigation application that has gotten very popular. And I do mean VERY popular.

I've found there are typically a few hundred "Wazers" on the road around me.

Waze is "crowd sourced" software. That means that is collects data from every user that is connected to it. Your speed, What road you are on, etc. It then uses that data from all connected users to calculate the best route between point A and B.

It also allows its users to report road hazards. Like a truck stalled at the side of the road. It will then warn other drivers of the hazards.

It also facilitates reporting of the location of police.

When you input your route, it will tell you if there are any police reported anywhere along your route. It will also tell you of any hazards, construction, etc.

As you pass the location the police were reported, the application asks you to validate they are still there. If they have gone, you report that as well.

The more miles you log on the app, and the more accurate reports you make that other wazers verify, the more credibility the app assigns to your reports.

Check it out! Radar detectors are quickly becoming old technology.

MoeLarryCheese

This, only I went with an Escort Passport 9500ix. Got the detector used on Craigslist for about $150 and got the blendmount used here on the forum for $80. Mirrortaps are rather inexpensive but well worth it in aesthetic value. Extend your budget just a bit and do it right.

owc6

That is simply not true. Waze is one tool to find the cops before they find you, but it is very dependent on user input. In more rural areas (think road trips or any other place you might be outside a city) it is less than useful.

It also only warns you of cops that others have seen, not the cop that just set up shop.

If I have to choose between a RD and Waze, I will choose the RD every time.

Cherokee Nation

Rural and no traffic= No cops...You hope. You can buy a cheap RD with only the KA band...No need for the expensive ones that have a lot of options that you and myself will never use....

fireparamed

Vette_Fan

This is an OLD "ongoing" topic that never ends.

And honestly, nobody has found the best radar detector yet. None of them are fail-safe or that don't give false signals, or miss the ones they "should catch." I wanted to get the best system possible, including laser detector/laser jammer. Laser is more precise, accurate and on-the-spot when aimed at you. Hard to detect it before you've already been detected.

So finally, I just gave up on all these devices. I "try" to not speed....well, when I do, I do. It's hard to ride a sports bike and not speed. Those crotch rockets just take off. I don't know what I'm saying... just be careful. There isn't a perfect device, there are only devices that are "made belief" to give you a false sense of security, since you spent $500 on a top-notch device.

Maybe someone will chime in and tell us what REALLY works!

gliot1

Beware with your type of driving though........if you are on rural roads, alone a radar detector may not save you, if the cop is triggering! Radar detectors work on the premise that others are getting triggered or the radar is hot all the time!

RobLo

I've had a 9500ix for 5 years now, no problems and it works great. I've updated the Defender Database once (red light cameras), something you probably won't need. I paid $500 new, they're now down to $300. I know, a little out of your budget but well worth considering.

https://www.escortradar.com/passport9500ix/

Matthewstorm

Vet Interested

I will make this plain and simple. If you just depend on Waze you WILL get a ticket. Waze will NOT keep up with cops as they move around no matter how many "Wazers" are out there. And at night time you are dead meat. The detector, such as a Valentine or Uniden can pick up the radar signal and give you plenty of advanced warning. Wilbur the Wazer may not feel like reporting the cop on the off ramp lying in wait. Anyone saying a RD is old technology is only kidding themselves and has never used one. But, you can not beat Laser.

Husker C6

I live in a rural area and Waze is not useful at all around here, basically no users. Being rural the highways have little traffic which means one patrolman with a laser makes my V1 pretty useless if you are the only one he is targeting. Now if I am on the interstate with more traffic my V1 is great at warning me if that patrolman is targeting cars ahead of me. Waze and radar detectors are nice tools but the only sure bet is not to speed.

Knob Jockey

A V1 and WAZE is a helpful combination but they are just tools, not magic wands.

There are some tactics that are damn near impossible to overcome, so you still have to use some discretion and restraint.

Don't 'cheap out' on a detector. This is one technology where you really get what you pay for.

Welker1

I frequently travel an 80 mile stretch of I15 between Las Vegas & Mesquite; tried Waze and found it to be completely useless. In the 3 round trips I tried to use Waze, was not informed once of any of the dozen or so patrol vehicles I passed sitting in the medians.

RobLo

Only time I use WAZ is when I'm stuck in traffic, it seems when people are sitting in traffic they have plenty of time to update the app so at least I have an idea how far ahead the traffic jam is and I can plan alternate routes. EVERY other time I use the 9500ix, it does what it's supposed to do, tells me where the radar and red light cameras are. It also works on laser but I've found once laser locks on to you it's too late, if you're speeding your caught! Happened to me, I came around a bend on the parkway and got hit with laser by a LEO sitting on the side of the road, fortunately enough I wasn't speeding so no ticket.