Has anyone come up with a way to stand your Tom Tom Sat Nav onto the dash board without damaging the dashboard? Due to the angle of the top of the dashboard the Tom Tom slips off and I can not get the suction required to hold on in the normal way due I suspect due to the surface finish.Ā
After writing the above I was doing something else on the car, and it came to me to fix it to the windscreen. Brought into the car and found that the bracket with suction pad wouldnāt bend to the angle required to be able to see the screen vertically, it was pointing down at an angle.
Walking back into house for coffee I wondered if the Sat Nav would work upside down if the bracket was at correct angle. So back to the car and I got the angle correct to be able to see the screen and the Sat Nav does work upside down.
Phew old age has some compensations but, deterioration of the grey matter isnāt one of them.Ā
I got fed up with my sat nav falling off the windscreen, and it also got in my eye-line. So the answer for me was to sacrifice the nearside heater vent. I fabricated a mount and the thing was done. Worked well all round Europe, nice and rigid and easy to see. Also means the passenger can manipulate it easily. Later I modded it for a TomTom
They actually come with smooth stable thin base that you can stick onto the dash board top. Itās just that I didnāt want to do that because once it is on it has to stay on due to the mess it leaves when taken of.
I have a basic Tom Tom āHomeā bought around 2003. I stuck the mount onto the windscreen ,and the car went into the dealer for a service. Afterwards, found a note on the passenger seat, together with the mount - removed from the windscreen. The note said āSorry to have removed this, but itās illegal to have anything in line of sight on the windscreen, so consider it a favourā
Tome Tom were offering an accessory mounting kit, so the base went onto the dashboard instead, and in the kit was a flexible mount (like a table lamp used for reading) and it bends in any direction, and stays there, so it was easy to adjust for viewing from the driving seat. Kit cost around as tenner, IIRC, and was well worth it.
There were other mounts included, including one for ventās, but they didnāt work on mine, so went for the flex mount instead. Itās been in use ever since. I remove it and the sat nav in one piece, so very little indication I have one hidden, when not in the car. Secret of mounting - wet the flexible base, or it wonāt stick, and keep the fixed base clean!
I think wherever it is when the roof is open you have a job to see or hear it. Where & how I have mounted it I donāt have wires in the way. But itās only my opinion.Ā
I have a Garmin but use mainly Google Maps as it gives you real time travel issue updates and diversion options.
I have a Sony Xplod unit and it Bluetoothās the phone through the unit muting whatever I am listening to when direction instructions come up. All through the car speakers so you always hear it.
I missed this, but as itās come up again, I would just point out that forward vision is part of the MOT test, and my feelings were he did do me a favour. Most cameras are designed ti fit under or behind the rear view mirror, and are so intended as to not block forward vision - which is after all, a safety requirement. Scoffing at the incident, or the mounting beggars belief - you donāt care? Sat Nav needs to be highly visible, if you intend to see it while driving, and stuck on the windscreen is certainly obscuring forward vision in a low sportscar. The law also covers this situation, rendering anyone to get a RTS notice that vision is obstructed. Any accident will certainly get more attention from anyone checking on an accident. The law is also now coming under intense pressure to change use of sat/navs, as another device which can impair or interfere with a drivers attention while driving, and in parts of Europe, you can get a ticket, and a fine for having a visible device mounted in the car.
We are NOT yet out of the EU, so be warned, the same can happen here. Even so, think well about forward vision before sticking anything in or on the windscreen. As it is, I have good forward vision, and a sat nav that I can see if I need to, without taking my eyes off the road ahead to look elsewhere.
And - the only reason I donāt use the dealer in future is nothing to do with this, itās labour cost, and a dealer who ceased to exist, a few years after I bought the car. Their service was first class, but few owners use a dealer after the warranty period.
Rear view mirrors are essential, as are sun visors, neither block forward vision, unless you are bothered by low flying aircraft. Unless you eyes are level with the header rail, removing these achieves nothing, except affecting your ability to see forward and backward at a lessor height. Following your misguided advice, I should remove the windscreen entirely, as a spattered windscreen affects forward vision worse than any other aid to safety -,except a sat nav mounted properly, out of immediate line of sight.
