Well after seeing these guys selling their products on eBay, I figured I could do better. First of all, I realized that they were just using normal 3/4″ steel pipe. But I wanted to mount the laptop on the side of the floor and not the bottom. I managed to score some spare thick plexi from the local hardware store since it was sitting outside for a few months and was just a mess (but since I won’t ever be looking through it I didn’t care how messed up it was)…
I’m still scouting for some plastic sleeving to cover up the pipe. Due to it’s mounting up foreward where it is, the front seat can still slide all the way up and I can still accomidate a passenger with little problem.
I’m currently using an old IBM Thinkpad with a 12″ screen but I’ve got a newer Dell 14″ that will soon be installed. Bigger screen with better color visibility in sunlight is a good thing!
My bolts on the plexi were a little too long but no one will know!
Here’s where it hooks into the floor. I’ll probably grab a carpet remnant from the local auto parts store to do a better cover up soon.
Here’s the secret to my “over engineering”. I have mounted the pipe flange directly on the metal of the unit body where most of the other installations I’ve seen sat on top of the carpet and insulation. This made for a wiggly mounting! I also upgraded the flange to 1″ pipe size so that I’d have a larger mounting surface. Believe me, this mount is solid!
Legally, I’m not too sure how I’ll stand up. I know that it’s illeal to watch movies in the front seat while driving but I’m actually using GPS software most of the time. I also know that you can’t mount GPS deviced in the windshield because of the risk of obstructing the drivers’ view. Well this mount keeps the laptop out of the way of the windshield so I should be ok but I’m not going to run around asking the highway patrol what they think!
Overall, I think I spent about $30 but I’ve got some spare plexi and pipe for the next mount I’m going to do.