Plastic Brackets for GPS?
 

Ram Mounting Systems - Products

It would seem the only people who make a solid looking GPS bracket are TT and i don't fancy handing over £60 to them for one (my trip budget has gone rather mental). Has anyone used the alternative which seems to be the above, i don't understand how they hold your GPS on when the rough gets tough 'n' bumpy.

Thinking of fabricating something of my own after purchasing a ram ball and a mount like the above.

I've tried a RAM-mount with a Touratech holder for the 276C for a day.

IMHO the mount was not up to the task, the GPS vibrated a lot and it moved around all the time. It might work better with a lighter GPS.

Mounts
 

There will be those that say I'm talking out of my arse, but...

The TT mount, although it uses rubber bobbins in the bracket, gives the GPS (276c), a damn good shaking.
TT say they "ruggedise" the GPS and its OK but who wants to pay TT prices for a GPS.

Make, or buy, a mount that is solid to the bars, or whatever you bolt it to. There will be virtually NO shake of the GPS
Rig up a power feed from the bike. Remove the battery from the GPS, put a piece of insulation tape over the battery terminals in the body of the GPS.

The GPS now weighs next to nothing!
Re-insert the battery if you want or keep it separate for use off bike.
Most of the damage that happens to your GPS on a bike is the battery connection pins vibrate loose.

What can harm your unit is a big G-force shock like the forks bottoming out. The may cause damage weather you have a TT rubber mount or not

John

I've been using Ram mounts for my Garmin 60cs and XDA PDA for years without a problem. There are signs of wear on the GPS case with all the friction, but no real damage. Reckon I've done 30K kms with the GPS and 10K kms with the PDA/mobile (which I also sometimes use for my ipod). I've used cheaper and they were crap. I'm sure you can get better (padded) mounts but I found it hard to justify a mount that costs 1/2 the price of the GPS. If you can afford it go for the good ones, if not and you need to compromise I recommend the Ram.

cheers
Brett

I use Ram mounts for my Garmin Street Pilot 111, which is a heavy (compared to some more modern units) and it has worked flawlessly:thumbup1:
You do have to make sure it's screwed up tight each time it is put on/removed though.


Trophymick

I have used a RAM mount on my GPSMAP76 for about 12 months now. This is on a 450EXC used for trail bike riding so fairly demanding terrain at times. I have also been over the bars a few times an other assorted crashes.

I have also put it on my 950 Adventure and seems okay on this aswell but I have only had it a short time.

The RAM mount seems to handle everything well and apart from some friction marks in the case from the holder the GPS has had no problems, the only thing I could fault the arms creep on the ball mounts over the course of a day's ride.

Just quickly...which of the permanant power cables do i need? They are £20-£30...is this correct and do they come with the TT kit?

I want to hardwire to my battery. I'm assuming i need the two little loop ends similar to that came on my heated grips? Upon searching the TT site i found these though, might be useful at £8.40 a pop:

Touratech UK Webshop

You can hardwire it to your battery but even better is it to hardwire it to your acc. output on the fusebox (if there is one on your bike)
This will switch the power on/off with the ignition key and it will have a fuse.
If you hardwire to the battery, always use a fuse !

Then i can straight wire it using any stripped cable (i.e. if i have one with a ciggy lighter socket i can just cut the lighter but off...) and solder this to the ports on the fuse box?

i use the garmin bike cradle held in a RAM mounting on the bike, for my quest. its always worked fine, no problems at all and mine isnt one of the "ruggedized" touratech quests.

if you read the blurb on the RAM website it is supposed to have a little movement through the rubber balls, to absorb shocks from the road.

my system has never actually come loose and moved once set, are you doing the thumbscrew up hard enough? its a tough peice of kit, give it a good graunch!

i dont know what their cradles are like but i would reccomend RAM mountings to anyone

I've used RAM cradles and arms/brackets with both my Garmin GPS45 and GPSII+ over fast and rugged terrain (Morocco, Spain and UK) and would echo the comments above - great quality (and value), but the cradle can mark the GPS casing slightly (I lined the cradle lips with gaff tape to help protect the casing, and make the fit really snug); and you need to nip the screw on the RAM arm up nice and tight to stop it coming loose, but yes, the rubber coating on the balls does help take the shock out. They work great!

I've also been using a RAM arm with my new Garmin 2610 together with the Garmin (plastic) cradle, but unfortunately because of the way it clips to the GPS, the pins on the adjustable back plate of the GPS unit itself have broken... however, I believe the RAM 2610 cradle fits around the case more completely (similar to the others) so this wouldn't happen?

As for the comments at the top, I too tried the Touratech MvG mount with my 2610, and it was excellent up to about 50mph, then it started to vibrate like a mad thing and you couldn't read the screen info... I 'd still like to give their standard version ago to see if it doesn't vibrate as much as it does hold the GPS very snugly, and at the same time doesn't seem to mark the casing, but I'd say RAM is the most cost effective way to go...

JennyMo xxx

OMG, are you really going to spend £8.40 on a bit of velcro?

Sorry. It was sarcasm. I can't believe its even legal to sell little bits of velcro for that much cash.

The Touratech mount/s don't come with a powerlead, you need to buy that seperately... I think TT sell them, but you might want to try an on-line shop/ebay seller etc as they can be a little cheaper...

I use GPS warehouse for a lot of RAM bits and cables etc - they do their own versions of some Garmin cables which are slightly cheaper, although if you look at the US websites, alot of this stuff is dollars for pounds...

JennyMo xxx

You can, but check what capacity fuse you are using - the Garmin cables I have only have/need a 1amp fuse, so you might need to replace it with one if you have a spare slot in your fuse box.

xxx