mounting solution

I am just waiting for CSI to do a show about someone who dies after getting beaned in the head with their GPS and looses control of their vehicle. I am really surprised that there has not been an episode out there like this yet.
I can't tell you how many times my streetpilot has gone sailing across the dash and landed on the floor of the passenger side.
miss poi

EDIT by JM: Miss poi has a bad habit of taking corners more sharply that most normal folks

Forget the bean bag, one sharp left or right turn and the gps is history unless someone catchs it. I bought the garmin 7200 which is pretty big and heavy. It came with a quick disconect which glues down on the dash board. After two weeks I had to remove it and thought that it might have damaged the dash board but it didn,t leave a mark and it was not to easy to get off.After two days of working under the dash board (Wiring) I put the same mount back on. That was three weeks ago and it is still as strong as ever

Scooter2

do u think it is more dangerous than scubadiving or skydiving with a gps. lol

my bean bag works great on my c530. ive turned fast and have not lost it yet. ive not tried to roll it yet that would cause more damage than just the gps. lol

I too use the bean bag mount and have not found a problem with sharp turns. Had a break-skidder stop the other day and the GPS only moved about an inch, but toward the windshield. Feels like anything strong enough to make it move would be caused by an already damaging incident as opposed to the GPS causing the incident.

What I like the most about the bean bag mount is the ability to hide it under the seat. I'm afraid if I left a mounting base on the dashboard, thieves might assume the GPS is in the glovebox and break in to check.

i put mine under the seat also. works great

Jon used to put a baseball hat over his and then decided that that was going to start to be a hint that something valuable was under the hat so we keep it on the floor too.
miss poi

I tried the been bag when I bought my first GPS. It was the street pilot 2730 and I used it in my Honda S2000.I was not going fast but the car does make sharp turns,It handles like a gocart. The first turn off the expressway and it went sailing along the dash onto the floor thankfully it didn,t get damaged. As far as leaveing the GPS in the car I think your looking for trouble.I traval up to Brooklyn to see my Mom pretty often and I would never leave it in the car unless it was buit into the dash. When I park the car the GPS goes with me. My Wife made me a neat lille carry case that carrys the GPS and the pod it attaches to. The part thats glued on the dash stays, They can have it if they want it.
Scooter2

I put mine on the windshield as close to the top edge as possible and just above the mirror. It is mostly not visible from outside. Even the suction mount is not much visible because it is behind the tinted strip at the top and close to the mirror mount. It is out of sight and out of the sun and is as easy to see as is the mirror. The only real problem is the unit antenna is pretty well shielded by the roof so I use an external one with a piece of Velcro to hold it on the dash centered and near the bottom of the windshield. It's not really any more dangerous than the mirror and, I expect the mount would break away much easier than the mirror mount.

I have also mounted it to the glass (plastic) front of the radio but it obstructs the radio display and tends to vibrate a bit.

Has any one tried the new dash board mount from garmin it looks good and sounds like it will work but does any buddy know if it works.

Portable friction mount with non-skid material design keeps your Garmin unit securely in place with no hardware or adhesive mounting necessary. Weighty, non-skid mount design conforms to your dash's contour for a sleek look and solid fit. Fully portable for use in multiple vehicles. Includes 12-volt adapter cable.
Part No: 010-10613-00 http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=010%2D10613%2D00

have not tried it but sounds interesting. if anyone runs into it on another site let us know

i think the mounting problem has been one of the most frustrating when getting ur first gps. my first was a e-trex legend. i finally found a rubber insert for my cup holder that worked great. it was designed to fit a cell phone but works great on a hand held gps. found it a walmart or autozone, i cant remember.

Thanks for the link JD, that looks pretty cool.
You may be able to find one on ebay, you never know.
Miss Poi

Does the forum not support small jpg photos? I am new here and have not noticed any. e.g., photos of Mounting Solutions, or other. Not important, I thought maybe I overlooked it somewhere.

I asked Jon the same thing. The site is brand new and he's still fleshing it out, and it looks like it's coming along well. He will likely be giving us more info on that in the future.

Not sure if you guys are discussing a different mount than what I have. I've got one that's got a neoprene rubber backing on it, bought it at West Marine, and it sits on the rounded edge of my dash on my boat. It takes a beating there in rough weather on this lake and it's never slid more than a couple of inches. I don't know if it can be used for the larger GPS units or not, as I had my eTrex on it, but am trying it out this weekend with my Magellan on it.

Arkon makes some great mounts, you have to pair up the type of mounting pad with the pedestal you want, but they've got some great ideas. They have a very nice pedestal that sits in your coffee cup holder that works really well. I like that option, with the external antenna, as it gets my GPS unit off the dashboard, out of the sun, and out of direct site of "creeps".

You can find these at:
http://www.arkon.com/mountingpedestal.php?selFeat=single

There are online distributors that will sell these units cheaper than getting them directly from Arkon, I even found the cupholder mount for a nuvi on eBay for $29.

Has any body tried the E-Z Pass Velcro, it seems to hold pretty well.

I had my first Garmin mounted on velcro, and it didn't last the first summer. It got gooey and finally came off, leaving a big gooey mess...lol...

That won’t happen to the E-Z Pass Velcro, I’ve seen it happen with others. Mine has been on for years and looks like the first day, but again don't know if it's any good with GPS units due to the weight. It won’t hurt to try.

Try Marine Velcro, it's the same as the EZ-Pass stuff. In my previous life I used to mount a police light on my dash. It had a magnetic base so I added velcro (soft side) to my dash and the hard side to the bottom of a soup can lid. I could attach the light's magnet to the can and it stayed put.
My Garmin 340 came with a dash mount which is a metal disk with sticky tape. I'm going to attach velcro to the sticky and do the same thing using the classier metal disk.

Try Marine Velcro, it's the same as the EZ-Pass stuff.

Sorry for the double post.

for my boat I'm just going to modify the mount on my Garmin bean bag. I like the neoprene backing, and don't want anything stuck to my boat. Going to get me an external antenna for the car, then use the cup-holder mount, that way it's not so much up in public display, and with the amount of travel I do I don't have to worry about state laws somewhere that prohibit something on the windshield or dash.

Yeah im worried that the window mount will fall off the window and i will lose my expensive gps. The position of it isn't that big of a deal. I thought about using the adhesive disk somewhere but i don't want it to leave sticky stuff if i decide to take it off.

The magellan mount, the one that came with it, has one of the best suction cups I've seen so far. I've had it up for two weeks now, from 75 and sunny (which probably means 110 inside the closed car) to last nights 27, and it's still hanging in there.

I have tried the dash mount, Part No: 010-10747-02 from Garmin located at http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=010%2D10747%2D02

It came with a permanent and a temporary adhesive disk. The temporary one didn't hold the unit for very long. The permanent one is very strong and has not let me down yet. When I remove the gps from the mount, it just looks like an average radar detector mount. I usually take the gps out of the vehicle if I'm parked in any public areas anyway. Mostly I'm in the country and hope I don't have to worry about crime too much. Most people around here probably wouldn't know what it was anyway. Maybe I'm just too naive and trusting.

Jeepin04

I have a new Garmin C320 that I haven't taken out the box yet. I just read the thread and am wondering what's wrong with the windshield mount? Should I expect the unit to fall off the windshield? I'm not one to affix permanent items to my dashboard. I don't even put bumper stickers on my car.

What's wrong with the windshield mount?

The windsheild mount worked very good for my c550. It seemed to far away for me to be able to comfortably use it when I had put it on the windsheild of my Jeep. And yes I did read the warning about using it while driving. I connect the unit to my bluetooth phone so I can use it as a hands free device. I wanted to be able to operate the buttons without have to reach very far. I had also moved it closer so people could hear me better on the microphone.

Jeepin04

the windshield mount tends to let go with temp change. it never worked for me in Oklahoma. ill stick with my beanbag mount works great and the mount and the unit fit in a cheap camera case i bought at walmart

I mounted my adhesive disk right near the radio that is level with the seats and now i don't get very good reception. I hear good things about the beanbag mount but everyone is sold out of the thing.

The adhesive disk is not something I want to try on my car
I've been looking at this mount but it looks a tad big
for my dash

[IMG]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3130/graminmounteo8.jpg[/IMG]

Humm..... Sorry guys, I guess the site doesn't support Images. It can be found on the Garmin site under
friction mounts.

not yet it doesn't, but you can post the url to the photo

The new windshield suction cup mount on the C550 is extremely effective. My old C330 used to fall off all the time.

I tried to pull the C550 off the other day. It's been attached for 3 months and I actually had to pry it off with the blade of my Leatherman. Even when it was halfway off, I had to keep prying.

I wasn't aware that the newer Garmins were coming with updated Suction mounts. Are the new c340's coming with this redesigned mount or is it the same old mount.

I know there is another post on mounts but I thought it would be better if I started a new one because I think this mount is the answer to what a lot of people are looking in a vent mount. It has a ball end and you attach you existing cradle mount(the part that clips into your Nuvi) into this mount.It will work with any Nuvi. Here is a link to it.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ ...

What do you think?

I like it a lot but I wish it solved the problem for us C3 and C5 users.... It would be nice to have a vent mount for us.

Here is one that will mount a Garmin C series to the
Vent but it looks awful.

Garmin Vent Mount

My Garmin i3 would occasionally lose it's suction grip on the windshield. I found the problem to be more me than it. Try mounting the base by holding onto the unlocked lever ONLY (with both hands if needed). Then, very FIRMLY, push the lever toward the glass. Lock the lever while still pressing the lever very FIRMLY toward glass. You should notice more force is required to lock the lever because this method squeezes out as much air as possible resulting in greater suction. I have not had the base lose its grip since mounting this way, even during Atlanta's hot summer. Respond with your results.

Any one know where you can purchase a Bean Bag Mount for the Garmin C series?

i got mine at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/102-0...

I bought the 3-legged spider Garmin sells. It's ugly, and those three legs seize more territory than you'd guess from the pictures of it. It won't even fit on the dash of my '98 Toyota Avalon, a relatively spacious car.

But I didn't buy it for the spider. I bought it for the cradle. It's a standard cradle of the same design as the windshield mount uses, but it has a smaller base. And that base fits and functions perfectly with the dashboard mount that came with my Garmin eMap.

If this forum supported photos, I'd make everything clear in one snapshot. Suffice to say, maybe, that the dashboard mount of the discontinued eMap is available as such on eBay and precisely accepts the base of the cradle supplied with Garmin's ugly spider.

As I write this note, several eBay sellers are offering the eMap's dashboard mount. For example, search for this auction: Item #280065118528 by iqraelectronics. There's a good photo there. That mount accepts the ugly spider's cradle.

The combo is working very well on the dash of my Prius. SO well,in fact, that I suspect this rig may have been Garmin's first design for the StreetPilot line. Anyone know about that?

This comment has been moved here.

Started new discussion thread "concerns about theft".

Maddy, I don't know if your dash is the same configuration as mine or not, but, I have an '02 Avalon, and mine sits on the dash beside the speedometer. It's hard to explain, but I open the antenna and it sets on the dash under the overhang, and have two clear plastic "Bumpers" (self stick that go on the bottom of VCR's, Stereos) on either side of it to prevent sliding, and one in front so it won't slide forward. The antenna opens and locks itself up under the dash overhang. I'll post a pic. (as soon as the option is available). I have found that with the antenna hidden, and completely under the thickness of the dash (a good inch, or inch and half) I still get as strong of signal as if it was in the open. I don't think the location of these are as critical as some may think. With the antenna locking it in place, it can't fly forward.

I just ordered a vent mount from the user "mfauls" on ebay. I didn't get it yet, but people in other forums (or maybe even a different discussion on this forum) gave these vent mounts a pretty good review. I'll post again after I get it.

I use the Garmin rubberized friction mount (aka 3-legged spider) mentioned above by JD12386 and Maddys_pal, and I love it. I simply looked up the part number on the Garmin site (under c340 accessories), then ordered it from Amazon.

I drive a Honda CR-V (which is just a Civic in disguise) and the mount fits very well on the dash. I drive a little too fast sometimes, but the mount has never moved at all. Of course, a collision would make it move, but it seems like it would take a serious rear-end collision to make it fly in the direction of me or my passenger(s), and then it would probably just hit a deployed airbag, right?

Just before pulling into any parking spot (so nobody will see me doing it), I grab the entire unit (mount and c340) and place it under my seat. Works perfectly. As I said, I love it.

i do the same thing with my c530 and beanbag mount. a crash would make me move also with or without the mount lol.

What is the advantage to using ashtray over windshield? I think it's safer to be on the windshield because I don't ever look down?

Steven

I am a new C330 owner, and found out the hard way a couple weeks ago that change in temp. does a number on the window mount. I had it mounted in the window of my hunting truck and the cold snap hit us here in Iowa. Went from the 50's to 0 in a week. The mount let loose and I can't get it to stick to the window any more. I tried it on a piece of glass that I have in the house and it doesn't stick to that either. It lets loose after about 2-3 mins.

Any suggestions?

IZZYAZ,

You can use a warm towel to clean the suction cup. It will softer the rubber and make it flexible. Put a bit of water when you suck will help too.

I read on gpspassions forums about a guy that had his Mio on the regular windshield mount, had the car nice and toasty and then parked at a rest stop. Got out of the car and wandered around for about an hour, came back to the car and it was so cold out that the sudden change from heated interior to cold car caused the suction cup to let go. It bounced off his dashboard and the Mio hit is stick shift lever head on, cracking the screen. The replacement was quoted to him at $150, and for $199 you can buy a new Mio so kind of easy decision there.

EDIT - Weather finally warmed up here in NC, so I took the Mio on it's Garmin bean bag mount and tested it on my boat. Results at http://hugginsnet.com/ilovemymio/index.php?topic=91.0

Was a good test, up to 25 knot winds, seas shipping at 6' with 8' swells, breaking over the bow of my 27 footer. The Mio never budged an inch. Now the only question is renaming it: Garmio or Miomin???

I'm renting a Chevy HHR this week that has a perfect solution for my c320.

In the center top of the dash, there's a shallow storage compartment.

http://www.chevrolet.com/i/pic/hhr/2007/photogallery/int_gal...

With the cover flipped up, it's just shallow enough to hold the c320 in place just by sitting it there. The compartment's cover shields the screen so there's no glare and the sun can't bake the unit. The best part is that all I have to do is power off the until, close the compartment lid, and there's no indication that there was ever a GPS in the car.

The only problem is that, since I only have the suction cup mount, I have to run the unit off of batteries. I guess if I owned this car, I'd put some more effort into how to mount this with power.

It's a very strange looking vehicle but what a really convenient place for a GPS.