Bracketron Universal Suction Sat Nav Mount ( Bean Bag )

john877 · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 16, 2007 Posts: 468

I just noticed this Bean bag mount is now available at Halfords and Amazon!!! until recently I believe the only option was to get one was from the states

I think the question regarding bean bag mounts for the Tomtom has been asked many times I would think it would fit the Tomtom range

Brickie64 · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 7:09 pm Post subject:

John,
I've liked the idea of the friction mount since using them on Garmin Street Pilot units in the USA where they give these as the standard car mount if you rent with National.
I've looked into this particular mount for the TT720 I have but I think there's a problem with the bracket fitting it properly.
If you turn the GO *20 series mount to stick on a horizontal surface, I think you'd find that the bottom of the device is actually BELOW the base of the mount. This means that the sides of the bean bag would foul on the GPS before the sucker gets anywhere near the disc inside the "doughnut".

I've toyed with the idea of modifying one of these bean bag mounts to fit the 720 but just can't seem to get enthusiastic enough to start butchering it.

Gav
_________________
"A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible"

Garmin Nuvi 3598 + GO 720 (+USA Map Card) + NavFree for iPhone in case all else fails ;-)

john877 · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 16, 2007 Posts: 468

Yes you are correct this was taken from the brackerton website

" May not be suitable for use with the TomTom Go 720 and Go 920/920T. Please Note: The stock windshield mounts provided with these units do not provide sufficient clearance height to the unit needed to work properly with the Nav-Mat. "

I suppose with a different tomtom mount which are available it may be okay.

Thanks for your advice I was off to get one Tuesday I may now see what they have to say about it before I buy

Darren · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 9:43 pm Post subject:

Arkon have a friction mount solution that will shortly be available with x20/x30 adapters.

We'll be receiving a review sample as soon as they are available from manufacture.

Seehere.
_________________
Darren Griffin

john877 · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 16, 2007 Posts: 468

Darren · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 2:59 pm Post subject:

john877 · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 16, 2007 Posts: 468

Darren · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject:

I've just received the new mounts including the friction mount. I'll test it over the next week or so but it does appear to be well designed. As it has a disc that will accept any suction type mount it can be easily used with any device that has a suction base.
_________________
Darren Griffin

spdgps · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 22

Darren,

What is the underside of the mount like - is it similar to a traditional non slip dash mat?

Is it rigid or does it bend slightly (in other words, if your dash is not completely flat, will it accomodate a slight curve)...?

Si.

Darren · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 9:58 am Post subject:

The underside is a suede like material with a high friction characteristic. It's very flexible and will easily accommodate a curved dash.

I tried it in my wife's Mercedes which has a narrow and very sloped dash and it stayed put remarkably well.
_________________
Darren Griffin

spdgps · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 22

Cheers Darren - look forward to your review.

TIA,

Simon.

NukeThemAll · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

I've just acquired one of these 'bean bag' Bracketron mounts and so far I've been impressed....I was looking at 2 things: the best way to move a SatNav between 2 cars; and eliminating the windscreen mount.

I had considered a Brodit clip for both cars but this would be both expensive and, for one car, the only clip available would place the unit in a less-than-ideal location.

So far, using the Bracketron has been very successful. The TT1 windscreen mount has more than sufficient height to allow the power cable to enter the unit with no fouling when attached to the Bracketron. If anything, a lower original TT mount would be even better because when used with the Bracketron the sat nav sits quite high and thus does 2 things; it can get in the sight line more than normal and the higher position exaggerates any movement of the unit. But.....

The Bracketron base does what it claims; it really, really doesn't move at all on the dash of either car, even on sharp corners/bumpy roads. Unless you have an unusual shape top to the dashboard it seems that it would be easy to find a good location which is fairly level.

The satnav unit does vibrate slightly more than a conventional mount or clip but, in both cars, not unduly and certainly not enough to be annoying (to me at any rate). An original mount that's not as tall as my TT1 would move less (some of the Garmin mounts?).

Another advantage; if a passenger wishes to 'fiddle' with the Satnav whilst on the move, it's easy to just pick up the whole Bracketron/Satnav combo, place on lap and 'do the business' rather than having to lean forward and try and cope with bumps/bends etc or struggling to slide the Satnav out of its (tight) holder.

So, overall, for me at any rate, the Bracketron solution isn't perfect but it's a more than good enough solution to my particular requirements. At £20 from Halfords I reckon it's OK.

I have noticed that TT (and others) sell discs which can be stuck to the dashboard and then used with the standard windscreen sucker mount. Fine, but many dashboards might have location limitations, the round disc is probably as much an advert to the crims as a windscreen mount or even the residual 'sucker ring' (but I guess it's easy to cover the dash ring with something innocuous eg map) and longer-term I wonder what the disc's 'easy to remove' adhesive will do after several years on a hot/cold dash top. And I always struggle to take the sucker mount off! - so not as easy a solution for transferring between cars
_________________
TT GO app on Android Phone

carl_the_cobbler · Frequent Visitor Joined: Jul 22, 2007 Posts: 251

Just an update on this topic. I have been looking for a dash mount as the people here were and I found the following on Ebay.

http://tiny.cc/8F0cX

Just click on the above link and from there you will see an Ebay link. I assume you can buy them elsewhere, the price just seemed very good.

Cheers

Carl

	PocketGPS
	Web