Mounting a Garmin V GPS receiver.

[Just Frank]

This may be too little plebian of a question for this forum but I can’t see where else to post it.

I would like to mount my Garmin V GPS receiver under the radio. It looks like there is a space between the bottom of the, stock, radio’s face plate and the “hole”. I am thinking about cutting a sheet of 0.040” aluminum, and bending it in a break to make a bracket for the Garmin and then sliding it under the radio. With the addition off a knurled screw it should be easy to remove the Garmin and put it in the glove compartment while parked.

Two questions:

Can anyone think of why this might be a stupid idea?

Do the radio’s knobs just pull off? I’ve tried pulling them but they don’t seem to want to come off. Maybe I’m being too gentile while pulling on them. I would like to see how deep the "hole" is, and see if there is any thing in the way. Also I might decide to mount the Al to the bottom of the radio somehow.

Frank.

[dloop]

ple·be·ian adj. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of commoners.

I had to look that one up

[Just Frank]

According to Webster's Third, Plebian is also an accepted spelling.

Frank.

[Rick]

http://www.geoff.shepherd.com/insight/stereo.html

[Just Frank]

Thanks Rick. Although the third picture didn't show up, I think the others and the text should be enough.

Frank.

[rmnelson]

I know that this is not exactly the question that Frank asked, but here is my solution for mounting the GPS V. I puzzled about the same idea of bending up a mount, but didn't want to drill holes in the radio face plate. So I settled for the ProClip mount http://www.proclipusa.com. This puts the V in a perfect spot for you to glance at it without looking down under the radio. I used a Garmin base mount glued to the ProClip to hold the V in position.

The downside is the exposed wires, but I cable-tied them together and they run right down a seam in the dash panels and are not a big deal. The antenna is under the dash cable-tied to a cross bar where it works perfectly; I get an average of 8 satellites most of the time. (Make sure you don't mess with or block the pax side airbag when doing anything under the dash.) I powered from a tap on an unused "key on" spade on the driver's side fuse panel. The ProClip has sticky on it, but it is under some tape; I left the tape in place so I can quickly remove the whole thing. The wires roll up and stuff behind the gearshift trim and the V goes into the glove box.

Here is a pix of the whole thing. The little screen in front of the radio keypad is my Parrot; I don't even own a tape cassette so blocking the port is not a big deal. All the radio buttons are still easily reachable.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rmnelson2/GarminV.jpg

[jbrasure]

That's exactly how I mounted my Garmin 2720. It's a great location, because you don't have to take your eyes far off the road to see it. You can also do basic operations with your right hand without even removing it entirely from the steering wheel.

By the way, I would highly recommend Garmin products. I've used nav systems from Nissan, Mazda, and Honda. I think the Garmin beats them all.

James