geno05
Guest
I'd seen a mount on ebay for $90 that was a curved plate mounted on top of the dash with two bolts, but wanted something less obtrusive, and cheaper. So I removed the dash cover to see what room I had. I cut a piece of 1/8" thick aluminum, 3/4" wide x 4" long. I then beat it into roughly the same radius as the top of the dash. Then I drilled a 13/64" hole dead center from both directions and tapped it for a 1/4x20 bolt. Test fitting the plate under the dash, there are a couple of plastic stiffeners that I needed to clear, so I used a grinder and notched the plates to clear them. Then I set the plate in place and marked my dash from underneath and drilled a 1/4" hole. (no going back now) I put a 1/4x20 by 5/8" stainless screw through the plate with red loctite, so it's never coming off. I then took some flexible marine epoxy I had left from when I had a boat and smeared that all over the top of the plate and pushed the bolt up through the hole. I put a 1/4" stainless washer over the bolt and screwed on the ram ball. It's rock solid. I have a short Ram coupler and universal X bracket for my phone, and if I ever bite the bullet for a Nuvi 390LN I'm sure it'll work with that too.
Anyway, it's less obtrusive than anything I've seen made for this purpose, and it's up in plain sight. I've got the 12v outlet in my left storage box, and a cheap retractable cord for my phone, so if I use it for my GPS it won't suck my phone dead in an hour. Altogether I have $10 in the Ram Ball and $18 in the X Mount, both off ebay. Everything else I had laying around my garage, so it was cheap.
Gene
Anyway, it's less obtrusive than anything I've seen made for this purpose, and it's up in plain sight. I've got the 12v outlet in my left storage box, and a cheap retractable cord for my phone, so if I use it for my GPS it won't suck my phone dead in an hour. Altogether I have $10 in the Ram Ball and $18 in the X Mount, both off ebay. Everything else I had laying around my garage, so it was cheap.
Gene
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