Best Place To Mount a GPS

34695 Views 39 Replies 30 Participants Last post by smurph, Nov 20, 2009

FJ Grover

Discussion Starter · Jan 30, 2008

Just wondering what location you find is the best place to mount a suction cup base type GPS. I was concerned about mounting it on the windshield because of the front curtain airbags.

Any suggestions?
Thanks

21 - 40 of 40 Posts

HOLLYWOOD

· #21 · Feb 10, 2008

I will post pictures of my tomtom hardwired and flush mounted to the silver panel to the left of the steering wheel - great location, super clean and unless you get right up to the car you won't see it in there (the temptation to steal a $199 nav unit is beyond me, but you gotta get yo' meth somehow, I suppose)

IMPORTANT: Some of these nav units aren't 12v, so if you hardwire them by removing the cigarette lighter plug, you might smoke them. I learned that the hard way. Fortunately it was replaced under warranty. If you are going to hardwire them, you should leave the cig plug and just mount it into an add a socket, tape it up so it won't ground out, then hardwire the add a socket.

NH_Joe

· #22 · Feb 10, 2008 (Edited)

HOLLYWOOD said:
IMPORTANT: Some of these nav units aren't 12v, so if you hardwire them by removing the cigarette lighter plug, you might smoke them. I learned that the hard way. Fortunately it was replaced under warranty. If you are going to hardwire them, you should leave the cig plug and just mount it into an add a socket, tape it up so it won't ground out, then hardwire the add a socket.

Excellent point. I checked the output with a multimeter and took a peek inside the cig plug and found nothing except solder connections, so I hardwired it to 12V. Your suggestion is the proper approach for someone who wants to play it safe.

Joe
________
Colorado dispensary

Matt

· #23 · Feb 10, 2008

I mounted my Nuvi 250W on the silver blank left of the steering wheel using the provided suction cup. It recieves signal fine but does reflect the image onto the driver side window, turning it to always use "night mode" helps this some, and can interfere with your view of the driver side view mirror at night escpecially with tinted windows. I ran the power chord from the outlet to towards the pedals and up into the dash then over to a hole above the fuse panel and up to the GPS. Some wiring is visible but it isn't in the way of anything that might be a safety issue.

HOLLYWOOD

· #24 · Feb 12, 2008

2

Ok, here are the pictures finally. It is admittedly not ideal for viewing, but not bad and since I use the voice prompts mostly anyways, it works great. Showed 16 homes yesterday and TomTom guided me to everyone just perfectly - its "Itinerary" feature works really well. Have had a bunch of more expensive nav units and this cheap little TomTom One is my fav. Ok, enough of the plug, here are the pics:

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TomasMas

· #25 · Feb 12, 2008

I have an older Garmin Street Pilot III and mounted on the driver's side dash just next to the pillar and the grab handle. It works great since its easy to see and easy to operate.
Tomas
Santa Fe

sunfusion07

· #26 · Feb 12, 2008

HOLLYWOOD said:
Ok, here are the pictures finally. It is admittedly not ideal for viewing, but not bad and since I use the voice prompts mostly anyways, it works great. Showed 16 homes yesterday and TomTom guided me to everyone just perfectly - its "Itinerary" feature works really well. Have had a bunch of more expensive nav units and this cheap little TomTom One is my fav. Ok, enough of the plug, here are the pics:

I thought you said it was flush-mounted? That is surface-mounted.

bone3412

· #27 · Feb 12, 2008

This is mine. Got this mount from Proclipusa.com, removed the suction cup from the window mount and attached it to the proclip mount w a couple bolts through holes I drilled in both. works great, dont have to look away from the road to see, and I ran the wires through the "hidden dash compartment" above the steering wheel. the Proclip mount attaches at the top of the air vent and then just behind the round part at the top of the dash.

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kokopelli

· #28 · Feb 12, 2008

Those look very nice.. I like the way you select the mounts by device and vehicle. Ron

bone3412 said:
This is mine. Got this mount from Proclipusa.com, removed the suction cup from the window mount and attached it to the proclip mount w a couple bolts through holes I drilled in both. works great, dont have to look away from the road to see, and I ran the wires through the "hidden dash compartment" above the steering wheel. the Proclip mount attaches at the top of the air vent and then just behind the round part at the top of the dash.

HOLLYWOOD

· #29 · Feb 13, 2008

sunfusion07 said:
I thought you said it was flush-mounted? That is surface-mounted.

I am flattered that any one was paying such close attention, lol. I guess I called it flush mounted because the bracket is flush mounted as opposed to on any type of arm. I know what you are thinking, I guess I would have called that "recessed" mounted, but at any rate I could have done that but wouldn't cut up the panel that bad for a portable GPS.

smitb23

· #30 · Jun 23, 2008

i alo ahve this setup, but was wondering if you could go a little bit more in depth with the wiring setup. stll relatively to doing mods myself.

rons8888

· #31 · Jun 23, 2008

I take it those of you mounting the GPS above the mirror are not having any summer heat problems when you leave it in a parked car?

saaFJ

· #32 · Sep 13, 2008 (Edited)

2

I have mine mounted on the windshield and have the power hardwired to the fuse box using a fuse tap and tapped into a ignition keyed fuse so the power kills. I connected the GPS by purchasing a 12v outlet and used the the supplied power cord that come with the GPS. After removing the instrument cluster by popping off the back cover and removing the two nuts which hold it to the dash, I ran a line through the hole in the dash down from the top to the fuse box and then pulled the GPS power cord up through the hole. Using a dremmel I ground a hole on the back, inside, of the instrument cluster just big enough for the power cord to fit through. If anyone has any questions PM me.

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G

· #33 · Oct 6, 2008 (Edited)

5

here is my gps (TOMTOM) mount.
i didnt like it mounted on the winshield, as it was too far away for easy access and touchscreen entry, plus when charging the wire would drape over the dash. i also didnt want to put it on the dash as, for me, it cluttered the view and seemed a little too obstructive. i elected to use the front driver side cup holder. i removed the rubber insert and placed the adhesive disc into it. i use the tomtom goose neck mount and it works perfectly. the mount is made in germany and is of excellent quality. it has a suction cup and suction lever for strong suction. i zip tied the charger cable to the exact length to the cigaratte lighter port, which prevents the long cable from becoming a hassle when in use. the goosneck is adjustable to any angle, i have it perfect for data entry. i set up the tom tom for voice entry of both addresses and for calling people using the bluetooth feature and therefore is truly hands free. i dont really look at the screen while driving as the voice prompts are adequate to get me where im going. when valet parking i just remove the tomtom and slip it into back of the passenger seat's compartment. its really a great solution for those who dont want to have a complete in dash stereo/nav installed. i can remove the goose neck mount with just a flip of the lever to release the suction, then the rubber insert goes back in (over the thin adhesive disc) and you wouldnt know it was there.

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pa-juggalo

· #34 · Oct 6, 2008

2

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LandCruiserSteve

· #35 · Oct 7, 2008

pa-juggalo said:

Now, that's a nice clean install. :bigthumb: :bigthumb:

How is it attached??

(BTW, next time smile when you're in your own pics. :lol: :lol: )

TennesseeSquire

· #36 · Oct 7, 2008

pa-juggalo said:

x2, nice install

tukes mountain man

· #37 · Oct 30, 2008 (Edited)

2

Here's where I mounted mine......Using a ram mount...

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razzamanaz

· #38 · Oct 30, 2008

X3.......

Pa, How did you do this? Is the reception quick?

Psychlone

· #39 · Oct 30, 2008

7

Here's where I put my TomTom, a pretty obvious position to mount a small gps. It's perfect to see and operate, it's out of the worst sunlight and can not immediately be seen from outside. I have not had any problems acquiring satellite connections from this position either.

The OEM TomTom mounting leaves all the cables lying around. The holder I got from Carcomm (CNM-167) takes care of both the power, computer connection, audio, and TMS antenna for traffic messaging.

Getting the cables out of the way required a little bit of drilling but that's all.

------------

Then on the right-hand side of the dashboard I have an offroad navigation setup based on a scavenged Thinkpad X40. Below it is shown running Google Earth full-screen. The plate is aluminum bent to spec at a metal workshop.

On the right side I put in three USB ports for keyboard and memory sticks. There is a red on/off button that very quickly takes the PC in or out of sleep mode.

When I want to use the keyboard to set up the system I just plug in a small Thinkpad keyboard to one of the USB ports and off you go. The Thinkpad TrackPoint is brilliant to use even when driving on rough terrain where it is absolutely impossible to use a touchpad or mouse.

View from the driver's side. The wires are run behind the dash. This includes the powersupply that goes to the 2nd battery, the gps antenna that goes up into the front window frame, and the audio aux connection so I can play MP3s over the FJammer. On the door you can see I've stuck the keyboard pouch so its out of the way when it's not used.

(The above is just abbreviated from the "build thread" I posted here)

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smurph

· #40 · Nov 20, 2009

NH_Joe said:
I saw Steve's original post about mounting his GPS to his rearview mirror and it inspired me to mount my nuvi 650 in the same place. I basically did some dremel and drill work on the nuvi suction cup mount and piggybacked it on the existing mirror mount with some longer bolts from Home Depot.

I cut the cigarette lighter plug off the power cord and hard wired the nuvi to the unused connector in the driver's side a-pillar. That connector provides ignition switched power and ground, so the nuvi starts up and shuts down with the car.

This is a great setup - it's out of the way but easily visible and within (my) reach. The amazing thing is that the reception is still great with just the built-in antenna on the nuvi!

Some photos:

Looks great! I was going to order some Ram Mounts and a seperate cradle but after seeing what you did, i'm gonna tear into the suction mount tomorrow and do what you did. I'll have to get more info on the power supply in the A pillar.

Good job!

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