RV-safe trip planning & navigation

Chase the horizon — the RV-safe trip planner for your rig.

RV Compass plans routes around low bridges and weight limits, and warns you before propane-restricted tunnels, so the trip you plan is the trip your rig can actually drive.

Free to start. Sign up with email on the web, or with Apple, Google, or email in the iPhone app.

Chapter one · The problem

Your GPS thinks you drive a car.

A Class A rig runs twelve to thirteen feet tall and can weigh fifteen tons. Car navigation apps don't know that — and they'll route you straight at an 11′ 8″ underpass without blinking.

  • Low clearances that end trips — and peel roofs
  • Weight-limited bridges your rig has no business crossing
  • Tunnels where your propane tank isn't welcome, with no warning before you reach one

Your rig

Class A
Height
12′ 9″
✓ includes roof AC
Length
35′ 8″
Weight
24,500 lbs
Propane onboard
Yes

Used on every route. Every time.

Chapter two · Your rig

Tell us about your rig. Once.

Pick your make and model from a library of real presets — Thor, Tiffin, Winnebago, Jayco, Airstream, and more — or dial in your exact numbers. Height, width, length, weight, propane. We'll even nudge you to remember the roof AC.

From then on, every single route respects those numbers. Class A to campervan, fifth wheel to truck camper.

Chapter three · Honest ETAs

Every detour, explained.

Most apps hide why a route bends. RV Compass shows its work: every restriction that shaped your route is listed and tappable on the map, along with exactly how much time RV-safe routing added versus a car.

And when a leg falls back to car-grade or estimated routing, it's labeled — a badge on the leg, not a secret in the fine print.

Blue Ridge Loop · Day 2

4 hr 05 min · 212 mi

RV-SAFE

+14 min vs. a car — here's why:

  • Avoided 11′ 8″ underpass: NY Route 9A

  • Passed on a 7-ton bridge: County Rd 12

Propane caution

Harbor Tunnel restricts propane. You'll hear it 2 miles out: "Propane restriction in 2 miles. Check local rules."

RV-SAFE · Valhalla CAR · fallback EST · estimate

Chapter four · The whole journey

Plan the trip. And the trip home.

Everything between "someday" and "we're here" — stops, stays, fuel, elevation, and the return leg most planners forget.

AI Trip Builder that can't make places up

Describe the trip and get a complete, drivable plan. Every stop is a real, geocoded place; every mileage number comes from the actual routing engine. The AI proposes, you accept. It never touches your trip without a yes.

Two weeks, Moab to Glacier, scenic route — big-rig sites only.
Arches NP · 2 nights Flaming Gorge · 1 night Glacier West · 4 nights + 9 more stops
Accept plan Your trip changes only if you say yes

Return trips, built in

Every trip gets a return leg by default — mirror your stops home, drive straight back, or skip stops one by one.

Every kind of overnight

Campgrounds and RV parks with big-rig and pull-through filters, Love's RV hookup sites with a Book button, and overnight parking at Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Bass Pro and Cabela's, casinos, and Elks and Moose lodges, each marked call ahead.

"How far can we get?"

Daily-drive range rings show what's honestly reachable today, then list the campgrounds near each day's edge. You choose how far off route and how early to stop.

Know the cost before you go

Fuel from your rig's MPG and regional prices, tolls priced by your axle count, plus nightly rates. On the road, log fill-ups and expenses to see the real cost per mile and per night, and swap your guessed MPG for the one you measured.

Fuel range that knows the truck stops

Enter your tank size and refuel reserve, and the planner marks where you'll hit it and suggests truck stops and diesel near that point, one click to add. In Pro navigation, a fuel gauge counts down your range and names the next station before you run low.

Your clubs, on every park

Add KOA, Thousand Trails, Encore, Passport America, Good Sam, Elks, or Moose to My clubs. Parks that take them get a badge, and one filter shows only the places that accept your clubs. Free for everyone.

See the climbs coming

Elevation profiles for every route, so mountain passes are a plan — not a white-knuckle discovery.

Weather that finds you first

The forecast for each stop on the day you'll arrive, weather along each drive at the hour you'll be there, and NWS watches and warnings on the route. Wildfire perimeters and smoke show on the map, and arrival times read in local time when you cross a time zone. Tall rigs get a heads-up when gusts turn a mountain pass into a bad idea.

Scouted by RVers ahead of you

Community reports flag low bridges and hazards the map data missed — verified, then fed back into everyone's routing.

Plays nice with your Garmin

Import a route from RV Trip Wizard, Google Maps, or your Garmin. Print the itinerary and RV-safe turn-by-turn, or download a CSV or calendar file. With Pro, export GPX for your Garmin or Rand McNally and subscribe to a live calendar link.

Eyes on the road ahead

Speed traps, debris, construction, closures — reported live by RVers, tuned for rigs. Alerts expire on their own, and drivers passing by confirm "still there?" so stale reports clear themselves.

Roll the credits

End a trip and get the recap: your miles, your nights, your route rating — and any new patches you earned along the way, revealed at the finish.

Maintenance that reminds you

Log odometer and generator hours, start from a service schedule built for your rig type, and keep the receipt with every service record. A Monday email tells you when something is due, and the whole history prints for the shop.

Traffic ahead, and a detour your rig fits

Pro

While you navigate, RV Compass watches the road ahead for backups, tells you once per jam, and draws traffic under your route. When an RV-safe way around saves 10 minutes or more, it offers the detour. It only takes it if you tap.

Detours welcome

Need fuel, a dump station, or a campground for tonight? Browse what's ahead on the route, in order, with miles and time to each, and add it without leaving turn-by-turn navigation. The route just absorbs it.

New Rough roads · web and mobile

The map says smooth.
RVers know better.

Map data records what a road is paved with, not how it rides. So RVers flag the rough stretches from the cab, and drivers heading the same way hear about it first.

  • Tap Report, then Rough road where it starts, and Smooth again where it ends. No signal? The report sends once you're back in range.
  • Drivers behind you hear "Rough road ahead for about 12 miles," with a countdown until they're through.
  • Plan a trip on the web with Avoid rough roads on, and the route goes around them where it can. The route report shows what that cost in time and miles.
  • Drivers who pass it are asked "Still rough back there?" Reports nobody confirms age out after six months.

Reports run one way, so a westbound report warns westbound drivers. Add how rough it was and what's wrong later, from your trip recap or on the web. See how rough road reports work

Rough road · 12 mi Report to other drivers Rough road Rough road · 0 mi Cancel Smooth again Rough road saved: 12 mi. Other drivers will be warned. Rough road ahead · 0.8 mi · lasts 12 mi "Rough road ahead for about 12 miles." Rough road · 12 mi left Still rough back there? Still rough Smooth now Trip settings Avoid rough roads Routes around stretches other RVers reported as rough. Why this route Avoided 12 mi of reported rough road (+14 min, +6 mi)
  1. Flag it
  2. Warn the next rig
  3. Route around it
New Clearances and grades · web and mobile

Low bridge in 2 miles.
Your rig is 13′ 6″.

Every planned route is checked against the posted height and weight limits in OpenStreetMap, measured against your rig. Then the app says it out loud before you get there.

  • Anything your rig can't clear is flagged on the leg and on the map. Anything with less than a foot to spare is marked tight, so you can decide.
  • Turn on the Clearances layer to see every posted limit nearby, colored against your rig: red if it's too low or too heavy, amber if it's within a foot.
  • Pick a drive in the elevation panel to see its own profile and every steep grade on it: where it starts, how steep, how long, and how far it drops.
  • In Pro navigation you hear “Low clearance in 2 miles: 12 feet 6. Your rig is 13 feet 6.” Steep downgrades are called out a mile before they start.

Clearance data comes from OpenStreetMap, so the sign on the bridge always wins. Know your true height, roof AC included. See how clearance and grade warnings work

New Checklists · web and mobile

Build it once.
Run it every trip.

Setup and teardown lists that reset themselves. Check things off as you break camp, press All done, and the list is ready for the next morning. No copying, no rebuilding.

  • Start from Motorhome Teardown, Hitch up, Dump station, or seven more templates. Then make it yours with sections and notes.
  • Flag the steps that can't be skipped. Press All done early and the open critical items are the first thing you see.
  • No signal at the dump station? Checking still works on your phone, and your checks sync when you're back in range.
  • Two devices on one account stay in step. One of you outside on the phone, one inside on the tablet, and every check shows up on both.
Walk-Around patch, awarded for finishing checklists

Share a list with a link or print one for the door. Every finished run counts toward the Walk-Around patch. See how checklists work

Plan on the couch. Navigate in the cab.

Trips sync across web and mobile, and both read the exact same computed route: same polyline, same maneuvers, same ETA. You can also start and edit a trip on your phone, browse campgrounds and fuel near you or along the route, and drop a stop in at the least detour. What you planned is what you drive, with a dual HUD showing your next stop and your final destination together.

Chapter five · Earn your stripes

Some badges you click.
These, you drive.

Seventeen embroidered mission patches, three tracks. And here's the part that matters: Road patches are earned on the road. Most are GPS-verified, mile by mile. The newest, Walk-Around, counts the checklists you finish before the wheels turn. RV Compass knows the difference between planning a trip and actually taking one.

Road · GPS-verified Planner Community
  • Collect Shakedown Cruise again with every rig you break in — and chase the monthly patches all year
  • The Long Haul is a living record of your longest driving day — it re-engraves every time you beat it
Shakedown Cruise patch — first trip complete Thirteen-Six patch — cleared a tight bridge the safe way Boomerang patch — completed a mirrored return trip Road Vet gold patch — a veteran of many verified miles
The Long Haul patch — longest driving day personal record Personal record · re-engraves

Five of seventeen. The rest are waiting on the road.

The Wanderfams

/u/wanderfam

Public
Miles
12,408
Nights
86
States
14
+ 9 more patches

Meet the neighbors

Scan from the next campsite over

Chapter six · Show your stripes

A public profile. On your terms.

Travel stats, your badge wall, your rig, your trip photos — on a page worth sharing, with a QR code made for campground introductions. And because trust is the whole point of RV Compass, privacy works the way it should:

  • Off by default. Your profile is private until you decide otherwise
  • Home stays home. Your home base and addresses are never shown
  • Maps keep secrets. Shared trip maps are intentionally zoomed out, with the start and end of every route removed
  • Invisible to search engines unless you opt in

Chapter seven · Your year on the road

Every mile you drive, counted.

RV Compass keeps a record of each drive you navigate, rated or not, so your stats come from the miles you actually drove, not the ones you planned.

  • Lifetime stats: miles, hours behind the wheel, nights out, states, and trips.
  • Year in Review: miles by month, your top stay, your longest drive, the states that were new this year, and the patches you earned.
  • Places visited: the states you've driven and the parks you stayed at, with nights. The shaded states map is Pro.
  • Route recording is opt-in. Turn it on and your driven line shows on the trip map and fills in the states you crossed. Delete every saved route in one tap.

Log fill-ups and expenses along the way and every trip shows its real cost per mile and per night. Driven routes export as GPX with Pro.

Under the hood

The same routing engine Tesla trusts.

RV Compass runs on Valhalla, the open-source routing engine behind Tesla's in-car navigation. We host it ourselves and tune it for rigs, not sedans: clearance data and weight limits are first-class citizens, not afterthoughts, and propane rigs get a warning before every restricted tunnel on the route.

The engine
Valhalla — proven at Tesla scale
The hosting
Self-hosted, no black box
The tuning
Built around RV restrictions

Good questions

Asked on every forum.
Answered here.

How is RV Compass different from Google Maps or Apple Maps?

Car navigation apps don't know how tall, heavy, or long your rig is, so they'll happily route you under an 11-foot bridge. RV Compass routes around low clearances, weight-limited bridges, and narrow roads using your rig's actual dimensions, warns you before propane-restricted tunnels, and shows you exactly which constraints shaped the route.

What kinds of RVs does RV Compass support?

All of them: Class A, B, and C motorhomes, travel trailers, fifth wheels, truck campers, and campervans. A rig wizard with presets for popular makes and models — Thor, Tiffin, Winnebago, Jayco, Airstream, and more — gets you set up in about a minute, including a nudge to account for roof AC height.

What is RV-safe routing?

Every route is computed against your rig profile (height, width, length, and weight), so low bridges, weight-limited bridges, and restricted roads are avoided before you ever see the route. If you carry propane, the route report and the app warn you before any propane-restricted tunnel on the way. RV Compass runs on Valhalla, the same open-source routing engine Tesla uses for its in-car navigation, self-hosted and tuned for RVs.

Can I use RV Compass with my Garmin or Rand McNally GPS?

Yes. With Pro, any trip exports as a GPX file that loads into Garmin, Rand McNally, and other dedicated GPS hardware, so you can plan in RV Compass and navigate on the device you already trust. Printing the itinerary and RV-safe turn-by-turn directions, and downloading a CSV or calendar file, are free.

Does RV Compass have setup and teardown checklists?

Yes. Start from a template like Departure, Arrival, Hitch up, Dump station, or Motorhome Teardown, or start blank, then add your own sections, notes, and critical items. Check things off, press All done, and the list resets itself for next time. On your phone, checking works with no signal and syncs later, and two devices on the same account see each other's checks live.

Does RV Compass warn you about rough roads?

Yes. While navigating, tap Report, then Rough road where a rough stretch starts and Smooth again where it ends. Drivers heading the same way hear a warning before they reach it and see the miles left until they're through. On the web planner, reported stretches show on your route. Turn on Avoid rough roads for a trip and the route goes around them where it can, and the route report shows what that costs in time and miles.

Do I have to drive to earn badges?

For most Road badges, yes. They're GPS-verified, earned by actually driving the trip, not by tapping a button. The exception is Walk-Around, which counts the checklists you finish before the wheels turn. Planner and Community badges reward great trip planning and helping other RVers, so there's a track for every kind of traveler. Seventeen patches are available. One of them, Charter Member, went to people who had an account before September 1, 2026, and it can't be earned anymore.

Is my profile public?

Only if you turn it on. Public profiles are off by default, your home base and addresses are never shown, and shared trip maps are intentionally zoomed out with the start and end of every route removed. Search engines are blocked unless you opt in.

Where can I get RV Compass, and what does it cost?

RV Compass is on the web at travel.rvcompass.app and on iPhone in the App Store. The free plan covers 1 active trip and 1 rig. Pro is $6.99 a month or $49 a year, with a 14-day free trial, and adds unlimited trips and rigs, turn-by-turn GPS navigation in the app, the AI Trip Builder, GPX export, and a live calendar link for each trip. It follows our fair-billing promise: clear prices, renewal reminders, and one-click cancel.

How do I sign in?

In the iPhone app, you can sign in with Apple, Google, or email. On the web, you sign in with email and a password. It's one account either way, so your trips and rigs show up in both places. If you made your account with Apple or Google in the app, tap Forgot password on the web to set a password.

Does RV Compass avoid low bridges and tunnels automatically?

Low bridges, yes. Once you've set your rig's height, weight, and length, every route is computed to avoid low clearances, weight-limited bridges, and narrow roads before you ever see it, and RV Compass lists each restriction that shaped the route. Propane-restricted tunnels work differently: RV Compass warns you before them instead of routing around them. Each one shows in the route report as a propane caution, and in the cab the app says it out loud before you reach it, so you can shut the valve or take the posted detour.

Can I plan a trip on my computer and navigate from my phone?

Yes. Your trips sync across the web planner and the mobile app, and both read the exact same computed route: same roads, same maneuvers, same ETA. Plan on a big screen at home, then navigate turn-by-turn in the cab without re-entering a thing. You can also create and edit trips right on your phone.

The horizon is waiting.

RV Compass is on the web and on iPhone. Plan on the web, navigate in the cab. Same route, same honest ETA.

One account works on the web and in the app. Your trips sync between them.

Download on the App Store or plan free on the web