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So I have been searching for the right phone mount that suits my use for a few months. This is my first car with CarPlay - it's great, but that changed my needs from a mount since I hardly need the phone while driving, but want it to be handy for maps and when I get out of the vehicle. I thought I would post this for those of you who, like me, just aren't into the BYOD and clogging up the upper dash for daily driving.
In my 4Runner, I have the old faithful suction cut mount which I was able to keep low and out of sight lines but nicely tucked behind the A-Pillar. The angles just wouldn't let that happen here with the placement of the inspection sticker in VA and the dash protrusion without getting in my line of sight. I had a Spigen magsafe charger (HERE) I really liked it and it worked off of a 17mm ball as opposed to some systems with larger diameters out there, which was limiting some other options coming from the BYOD. I tried a magsafe in the tray in front of the shifter - didnt like the access and it wouldn't stick to the mat. Tried the same in the center console and hated production of opening up the center console when I wanted my phone. Looked at center dash options, grab handle options and even thought to 3d print something similar to the Course Motorsports options but that lays flat, to say out of the way of the lower controls. Nothing seemed quite right because I didn't want to put the phone on top of the dash, taking up tray space or making a grab handle useless and stick way out into the passenger side. I also hate vent mounts or putting the phone right in front of AC or heat.
Finally, Proclip to the rescue... mostly.
I ended up starting with Proclip Angled Dash mount (HERE) that looked super sleek and less obtrusive than the one that hangs over the entire dash just to put your phone in front of vents. Since this is AMPS compatible I doubled it with an AMPS 17mm ball from Tackform (HERE), which let me use my previous magsafe charger.
Once everything arrived, I realized that this combination left the phone sticking WAAAY off the dash.
So, I just trimmed off the protruding, flat plate that ProClip felt was necessary to give use the right angle on the device, drilled a couple of holes at the AMPs location and got something that was almost 2 inches closer to the dash. In my case, the ball gives a lot of range of motion to angle this however needed for either driver or passenger.
After that, running the USB-C down to the power via the holes in the dash. I actually took out the glove box, center handle and popped the lowest dash trim off to try to fish this thing through by hand. In the end, all that was needed was the handle and the lowest trim. I just ended up feeding cable into the hole until gravity took it precisely where I wanted to go by dumb luck. I have a 90 deg adapter to clean it up and Bob's your uncle. I'm sure I could have tapped this in somewhere, but its not a priority for me at the moment.
In the end, the mount is both out of the way, but handy enough to grab while exiting or to use it quickly to pick a song or manipulate navigation.
In my 4Runner, I have the old faithful suction cut mount which I was able to keep low and out of sight lines but nicely tucked behind the A-Pillar. The angles just wouldn't let that happen here with the placement of the inspection sticker in VA and the dash protrusion without getting in my line of sight. I had a Spigen magsafe charger (HERE) I really liked it and it worked off of a 17mm ball as opposed to some systems with larger diameters out there, which was limiting some other options coming from the BYOD. I tried a magsafe in the tray in front of the shifter - didnt like the access and it wouldn't stick to the mat. Tried the same in the center console and hated production of opening up the center console when I wanted my phone. Looked at center dash options, grab handle options and even thought to 3d print something similar to the Course Motorsports options but that lays flat, to say out of the way of the lower controls. Nothing seemed quite right because I didn't want to put the phone on top of the dash, taking up tray space or making a grab handle useless and stick way out into the passenger side. I also hate vent mounts or putting the phone right in front of AC or heat.
Finally, Proclip to the rescue... mostly.
I ended up starting with Proclip Angled Dash mount (HERE) that looked super sleek and less obtrusive than the one that hangs over the entire dash just to put your phone in front of vents. Since this is AMPS compatible I doubled it with an AMPS 17mm ball from Tackform (HERE), which let me use my previous magsafe charger.
Once everything arrived, I realized that this combination left the phone sticking WAAAY off the dash.
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After that, running the USB-C down to the power via the holes in the dash. I actually took out the glove box, center handle and popped the lowest dash trim off to try to fish this thing through by hand. In the end, all that was needed was the handle and the lowest trim. I just ended up feeding cable into the hole until gravity took it precisely where I wanted to go by dumb luck. I have a 90 deg adapter to clean it up and Bob's your uncle. I'm sure I could have tapped this in somewhere, but its not a priority for me at the moment.
|
|
|
In the end, the mount is both out of the way, but handy enough to grab while exiting or to use it quickly to pick a song or manipulate navigation.
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