My homemade $10 GO 720 mount

[Goodbye]

Well today I went out and about looking for stuff to mount my GO 720 better in my car (we're doing a long trip soon and I didn't want the charger cable draped all across the dash). I had the idea of just getting a small piece of plastic or metal, using some mounting tape to adhere it to the dash, and sticking the suction cup on.

After about an hour of cruising around I came across a plastics place, and the guy let me have an offcut of black perspex for $2, which he cut down to a size slightly larger than the suction cup.

I also picked up a roll of 3M heavy duty, industrial strength mounting tape (which happened to be the most expensive part!).

I sanded the corners of the perspex so they are slightly rounded, and mounted it in the best position.

Because the perspex is flat and the dash slightly curved, I had to "engineer" a small piece of styrofoam into an adequate shape, paint it black with a permanent marker, and stick it under the front of the mount.

It's not as clean as some of the setups I've seen here, but it does the job for me!

Here are some pics...

 

[Genius of Love]

Looks good! But don't you still have the power cord coming up over the dash?

Oh, and how did you get your steering wheel tricked out on the passenger side of the car??? I'm kidding, I'm kidding...

 

[roaderbi]

Looks good! But don't you still have the power cord coming up over the dash?

Oh, and how did you get your steering wheel tricked out on the passenger side of the car??? I'm kidding, I'm kidding...

Looks good but ditto on the question - power cord.

The steering wheel one is easy, here is the real picture...

 

[Goodbye]

Looks good! But don't you still have the power cord coming up over the dash?

Oh, and how did you get your steering wheel tricked out on the passenger side of the car??? I'm kidding, I'm kidding...

And yes the power cord will still be visible, but it won't be draped across all the dials like it used to be.

 

[Genius of Love]

Goodbye -- here in the USA, auto parts stores sell simple cigarette lighter power adapters that clip onto the existing power wires (behind the dash) to add additional ports (they actually tap into the cords themselves to power the new adapter).

I plan to do this to hard wire my TT1's cord and run it inside the dash right up to the pillar in the corner of the windshield (for your car, this would be the extreme right as you sit behind the wheel...)

I'm just waiting for the temperatures to get above 10F (-12C).

Of course, you'd need to move your new mounting plate to the right-hand side of your dash.

 

[SShadow]

They actually sell ones with the taps included? Hmm... Going to have to do a seach of my local auto parts stores......

 

[Robm]

Is that how everyone else is tapping in to power behind the dash or are there other methods.

 

[Genius of Love]

They actually sell ones with the taps included? Hmm... Going to have to do a seach of my local auto parts stores......

I *ONLY* found this at Pep Boys. AutoZone and Advance Auto Parts didn't have it. YMMV.

If you want, I can take a picture of it/provide the make and part number.

 

[SShadow]

Sure, if it's not any trouble. I don't want you hauling apart your dash to take pics...
I was going to manually wire it - hauling out the soldering gun, slicing the end off a 12volt accessory extension I originally bought for my 3 year old's portable DVD player... But if I can find a nice and easy all-in-on solution that'll save me time - that would be most excellent!

 

[Genius of Love]

Sure, if it's not any trouble. I don't want you hauling apart your dash to take pics...

No trouble at all... I haven't installed it yet -- too cold outside.

BELL Model #39062-8, I only ever found it at Pep Boys (here in the USA anyway...) I plan to hide this "in" my dash and use the Cigarette Power adapter from the TT1 to plug into the BELL all the time...

 

[SShadow]

That's exactly what I want to do. Right now I have the charging cord coiled up in my ashtray and running up the front of my dash being held in place with clips backed with 3M doublesided tape. Ugly, but it works for the moment... When it gets warmer (like you) I plan on hauling the front off my center console and running it behind... Just got to figure out where I am going to bring the wire back out... I've mounted my GPS on a vent mount system... It's a little different than having it on the windshield, where I could have run it through a cap that would originally have had a temperature sensor (which didn't come on my trim model for my Santa Fe).

 

[chad122]

good idea

Hardwireing is great, just make sure you use an adapter , you cannot just run the mini-usb cables from the tomtom directly to your car's 12v wiring. Keep the charger intact and just run a dual cig. lighter adapter like one that was shown.

 

[TomTomWooter]

I was about to post a similar home-made mount.
I found a Hot Spots convex mirror at Walmart for $2. It includes sticky tape, but the tape isn't that good, so you'll have to buy the 3M tape.
Its a good quality mirror to which you can stick the suction cup of your original mount.