My cheap & easy nav mount

[Ari_OutbackWagon]

In installed my Magellan 3210 last night and thought I'd share.

 

Initially I was just going to mount it directly to the cubby door, but this ended up working better.

 

I took a hack saw and some sandpaper to the sucktion-cup ball mount, drilled a small hole in the cubby facia and mounted it with a screw/nut (it's extremly secure). I undid the cig-lighter from the ashtray, plugged in the adapter for the nav unit, tucked it below the radio and ran the cable through the HVAC vent. That way I didn't have to cut into it. The only thing I need to do now is adjust it to point down a little more as I'm getting a small reflection in the windshield.

 

Cost: $182 for the Nav.

Time: 1 hour.

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/mrmattson/navi1.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/mrmattson/navi2.jpg

 

The nav system itself is good, for the price. It's got 9 million POIs and it's really easy to use, however I would really like to see the street names better. This is my first nav, so depending on how much I like having one, I might upgrade to something else with Bluetooth in about a year.

 

http://www.thegpsstore.com/images/largeimages/Magellan-Maestro-3210-Portable-Auto-GPS.jpg

[f1anatic]

How is the signal compared to windshield mounting ?

Looks surprisingly good.

[Ari_OutbackWagon]

How is the signal compared to windshield mounting ?

Looks surprisingly good.

 

Signal is full strenght as it is probably 12" under the glass away from the roof. I hate wires and big bulky sucktion cup mounts, I think it turned out really nice. The largest plus is that it gives a completly un-obstructed view of the road, from my vantage point, I can see about an inch of dash over it.

[Ari_OutbackWagon]

Better pic...

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/mrmattson/navi3.jpg

[SpdLmtNA]

Quick question tho... how do you remove the vent/cubby area? Do you just pull on it? Is there a "safe" way of doing this?

[bosco]

how do you remove the GPS when it's not needed? any pics showing the actual ball w/o the GPS mounted? thanks bosco

[Ari_OutbackWagon]

Just open the cubby door and use brute force pulling from the door. When you put it back in, just make sure you align the vents or else it won't go in properly.

 

I don't think I'll ever have the need to remove it unless I park in a high crime area or use it in another car. Here's a pic of just the mount with the unit removed. I promise I'll buy a camera with my tax return

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/mrmattson/navi4.jpg

[bosco]

thanks. that mounts differently than my Nuvi now on to plan B. bosco

[Ari_OutbackWagon]

I see what you're saying, the arm on the Nuvi is one piece like this;

 

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/assets/review-nuvi680/garmin_nuvi_680_04.JPG

 

You could maybe hack the arm in half and put a self tapping screw into it from behind the benzel?

 

Mine has a joint near the unit and I just hacked the arm off...

 

http://www.gpslodge.com/pictures/MagellanMaestro3140Mount.jpg

[bosco]

i'll post some pics later b/c as we speak i'm working on modding my ProClip which used to hold my iPod. i'm going to mount only the Nuvi holder w/power cord to the front of the ProClip. thanks for the update. bosco

 

 

http://www.proclip.com

[wags528]

im gonna go with this for my tomtom

http://www.proclipusa.com/?sectionpath=144&pageid=8753&processor=content&pcategoryid=12930&categoryid=13018&year=2008&p_origin=144&p_sectionid=144&p_pageid=8901&p_processor=asp&p_asp_processor=product&p_action=proclipcategorysearch&p_ppagecategoryid=13872&p_pagecategoryid=14172&p_pcategoryid=12930&p_categoryid=13018&p_sitecategoryid=&p_year=2008&p_countryid=0&p_leftorright=

no dash modifications necessary

 

oops, didnt realize the guy above me posted a similar thing . . .

[Ari_OutbackWagon]

That's interesting, but too me it looks to bluky and it blocks the HVAC vent. I justify drilling the hole because I know I can easily find someone selling a used facia on here after doing a stereo mod.

[harman.khinda]

very trick, very clean

[Mr. Ed]

scocshe sells a $10 ac vent clip...i'll put up picks later. it can be easily modified as the slide connectors are the same as what most devices have on them.

 

and if I want to use ot for something else I can just remove my xm and use the slide holder that came with it.

 

 

I do kinda wish I had thought about running the cables through the vents...I put holes under the dash and plan on putting grommets there. Still needs the grommets and some finishing touches

 

Edit Pics: http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd179/00mred00/xmas08005.jpg