Garmin Portable Friction Mount
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $17.69 You Save: $22.30 (56%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $17.68 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Portable Friction Mount
Customer Review: Have the StreetPilot I3? You NEED This!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Garmin StreetPilot is an amazing driving tool, and I don't know what I ever did without it! I have been living in Central Florida for 2 years and do not know my way around at all. I am originally a New Yorker and felt stressed driving anywhere in Florida because I would always get lost so I never left the house! I can go anywhere now and with confidence BUT... the screen is so small on my Garmin that I have trouble seeing the display with the included windshield suction cup mount plus the fact with the hot Florida sun it falls off on its own! I like to see the display because it shows the distance before the next turn and I like that. I drive a Lexus RX300 and was NOT going to let somebody install a permanent mounting system NO WAY JOSE! I did not want to screw up my beautiful interior with any permanent structure! So I hunted the internet for a solution! This Friction mount is the best! It holds my Garmin I3 perfectly and allows me to place it as close as I need it on my dash! Does it slide around? NOPE! I have made some hairy turns and have not made it budge yet! Its bean bags at the bottom with rubber underneath and the spot where the Garmin is placed is a ball joint like on the windshield mount. You just remove your Garmin off the windshield mount ball and place it on the new Friction ball. You can swivel your Garmin so that you can see it the way you want. When I leave the car I just grab the whole unit, bean bag and all and place it in my carry bag. I don't have to release it like with the windshield mount. For the ladies, if you have a decent sized purse/pocketbook (it fits in mine and I don't use the huge tote type bags) the entire thing should fit. The little sides of the bean bags fold over so it's pretty flexible. BUY THIS, it's the only thing other than rechargeable batteries and a charger that you would need to buy for your Garmin.Customer Review: AntoineP
Summary: 3 Stars
Garmin Portable Friction Dashboard Mount for nüvi Series and StreetPilot C5XX Series GPS Navigators (C530, C550, and C580) I purchased the Garmin Friction Dashboard Mount based upon the generally favorable reviews I had read and because of the fact that I got tired of those infernal "rings" on the inside of my windshield from wet sticking the mount that came with my Garmin GPS. While I would recommend the friction mount because it does address the windshield ring problem, it isn't quite as stable as some reviewers have indicated. The problem results from the fact that autos and trucks come with almost an infinite number of dashboard designs and sizes. The Garmin friction mount works very well on some and not so well on others. For example, it fits easily on the dash of my Ford F150, but it does not fit easily on the dash of my wife's Toyota Avalon. In addition, while it does fit easily on my truck dash, it is not particularly steady even on that dash. On the Toyota it takes a bit of maneuvering around to try to find a spot where the mount doesn't wobble but still allows one to open up the little antenna. For my wife and me a major advantage of the friction over the windshield mount is its ease of removal of the GPS/friction mount combination as a unit. When we return from a trip I simply take my GPS still attached to the friction mount into the house and when parked during a trip I pick it up and place it in the trunk. (A GPS is just too tempting to thieves to be left on the dash in plain view.) So for these reasons I give the product three stars rather four or five. But I would still recommend it and would buy another. It's shakier and less stable than advertised but far easier to apply and remove than the windshield mount.Customer Review: Well worth the price
Summary: 5 Stars
I use this with my Nuvi 660 and have had it for about 2 months now. You have to remove the rectangular mount where the traffic antenna/power adapter inserts from the window suction cup mount that comes with the 660 and install it on this piece, so you will be left with just one functional mount. That's okay, though, because I don't miss the suction cup mount at all since this one, as others have said, can be easily moved from vehicle to vehicle or left on the floorboard to keep out of sight. I use it in a VW Golf, so not a lot of real estate on the dash and what there is is curvy, but it works just fine and stays put wherever I leave it, even during sharp turns and high speed.
Because of the placement of the release button on the 660 mount (on the bottom of the unit) and the relatively short ball post along with the tight spacing of the bean bags, there's not much room to quickly dismount the Nuvi to take with me during brief stops on a trip, but the ball joint allows you to tip up the nuvi easily to push your fingers between the mount and the nuvi to get the release. The ball joint isn't super-stiff (it didn't come that way out of the package), which worries me a little bit if it's going to loosen and sag over time, but I guess I'll deal with that when it comes down to it.
Maybe I'm just imagining it, but satellite acquisition seems a touch faster, too, now that I've got the unit down on the dash--when using the suction cup mount, I had to keep the Nuvi up near the roof of the car sometimes obscured by the roofline (it's a Golf--not a lot of windshield to work with without obscuring my view).
This was well worth the additional cost in my view. My brother has a Street Pilot C550 which would work with this mount out of the box. I've strongly recommended it to him.
Customer Review: For me, it works as advertised
Summary: 5 Stars
The friction mount bag is shaped like a "plus" sign with ballast in each "foot." It is not nearly as flexible as I had expected. The slide mount for the arm that supports the Garmin unit is fastened to a metal plate inside the bag, so the "feet" can only flex a little bit. The arm locks into the mount and is easily released for stowage via a tab. In addition, the mount can rotate via a light ratcheting mechanism, or be locked into a particular orientation. The Garmin bracket snaps on a ball joint at the top of the arm, enabling easy orientation of the GPS unit. But the ball joint has plenty of friction to keep the Garmin from shifting while on the go. The bottom of the bag is covered with a thin layer of foam that provides a lot of friction, and it has not slipped at all while in use. If the bottom of the bag ever gets slippery, then I'll find a way to add another thin layer of material to it.
To stow the assembly, remove the Garmin from the bracket and unplug the power cord. Then slide the arm out of its mount on the bag and put everything in the glove box. If you have enough room in your vehicle, you might even be able to leave the arm attached to the bag.
The Garmin portable friction mount works great in both our Honda Odyssey minivan and our Honda Fit. It holds the GPS unit in the perfect viewing location and just below the windshield line (we are both fairly tall), so there is no blockage. It seems a bit expensive for such a simple device, but it performs its advertised job well. And we no longer have to find a place to wedge the Garmin - the convenience is worth the price. If we could get rid of the power cord, then our Garmin would be nearly perfect!
Customer Review: Buy it....really!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for my Nuvi because I was going to California and you cannot use the windshield mount (suction cups, etc, that attach to the windshield, I was told, are illegal and you can get a ticket). I hated having to spend the extra money on it, but after using it the first time I was very impressed. This is much better than the suction cup. It never fell off and never moved. On the way back from Las Vegas, where people routinely seem to approach triple digits, the mount never moved! We did not drive that fast, but even around corners it stays in place. It is really easy to use, and I once had to stop short and still, it did not move. It is easy to place my Nuvi and adjust its placement. It is not as heavy as I thought it would be, and I actually did not think it would work well, but I was pleasantly surprised. I never use my windshield mount anymore (I am tired of it falling off while I am driving). This is so much safer to use than the suction cup mount. I would recommend this to everyone, and wish that Garmin would use this instead of the suction cup, as its standard, included mount.
Added July 26, 2008
A couple of weeks ago I had a problem with the gooseneck, so I emailed Garmin. The CSR who wrote to me asked me to be more specific about which part I had a problem with (she replied on a Sunday). I emailed back and told her it was the gooseneck. She emailed me back saying that a new item would ship out ASAP. I received the part within 5 days. No charge. I have to say that kind of customer service is not seen very often anymore and am glad to have it. Just another reason to be happy with this product....btw, the problem I had with the part was my fault. :-)