Disclaimer:
I was a mechanic in a past life and have quite a lot of experience. While I
think this process is pretty easy, you need to read through the directions and
evaluate it yourself to decide whether or not you can do it. The details
presented here are believed to be correct but they are not not guaranteed to be
correct. I am not responsible for any damage that you may do to your car or
injury that happens to you as a result of following these directions.
Proceed at your own risk.
There are two sources for vehicle specific mounting brackets that I am aware of. Each of these companies has several mounting location options for most cars. Something to keep in mind is that the ProClip brackets are made of plastic and the Pro.Fit brackets are made of metal.
ProClip USA:
www.proclipusa.com
Pro.Fit International:
www.pro-fit-intl.com
While either of these companies should have a fine solution for anyone looking to mount a single iPod nicely into a single vehicle, my situation is different. The challenge in my case is that the iPods are two slightly different form factors and need to be mountable in any of our three cars.
Mounting needs to be approached in two steps:
- Selecting a car specific bracket
- Selecting a method to attach the iPod to the bracket
I chose the ProClip brackets for my BMW and Miata because they were easier to install and I liked the look a bit better. Our Subaru Forester actually already had a Pro.Fit bracket installed. It was left over from a cell phone installation which was recently removed. I ended up liking that bracket better anyway in that car.
Both companies offer iPod specific attachment methods but they add to the expense of the project and that adds up for three cars. The ProClip iPod mounts are also specific to each iPod form factor so that was out for me as it would tie the 15gb to one car and the 40gb to another. Both Monster Cable and Belkin offer iPod carrying cases that include a little clip that allows you to hang the iPod case (with iPod inside) on your dash. I did not like the Belkin option for two reasons. First, they only had a case for the thinner (15gb) iPod. Though that may change in the future, the little hanger seems to allow a lot of side to side swinging of the iPod. I actually thought that the Monster iPod iSport cases would be ideal but found construction quality to be inferior. The black plastic belt clip itself is VERY flimsy and will likely break within 30 days if you clip it to your belt and move around a lot. Furthermore, there is a lot of slop when it is in the dash clip, allowing it to move around quite a bit (like when going over rough road surfaces or turning sharp corners). The other issues I had was with the case itself (which were returned for a refund) were cost and the fact that you needed to dig your fingernail into the opening to set the hold button. Poorly designed if you ask me.
For me, Velcro was the answer. It's easy to use, inexpensive, available at your closest hardware store and will allow me to attach any iPod with doc connector to any of my three cars. This $8 package of industrial strength Velcro is a lifetime supply for this project. In case anyone is wondering, the 40gb iPod still fits nicely into the case that it came with with the Velcro attached. Though you can't really tell from the pictures, I attached the more furry part of the Velcro to the mounting bracket and the more rigid part to the iPods. This will reduce snags etc. since the iPod is what you will be handling most often and would be the most snag-prone part as a result. You may want to add a slightly longer piece of Velcro to the back of the iPod (closer to the leaf at the top of the apple in the Apple logo), though this seems to be working so far for me.
This page was last updated on October 24, 2004 01:00 AM
