Mounting the garmin 396/496

I am considering buying the Garmin 396 or 496 and I'm trying to figure out a good clean way to mount and display it in my RV-7A (not permenantly). The friction mount on top of the glareshield will work however, the forward visibility will be badly restricted. I have therefore considered configuring a
R-A-M mounting system that attaches to one of the tubes of the left landing gear weldment. I think that I can configure a flexable arm that goes from the weldment horizontal until it reaches between my knees/calves and then goes up towards the instrument panel where the garmin can be mounted on top of the flex arm and displayed just below the bottom edge of my instrument panel........

Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have an alternate suggestion? Any ideas will be very much appreciated.

Thanx very much.

Victor

Victor,
I copied Dan Checkoway's design which is working great. You don't have to drill any new holes if you use preexisting instrument holes. You make the bracket yourself to your dimensions.

Here's Dan's: http://www.rvproject.com/20051026.html

Here's mine:





We both removed a couple of instruments that were redundant due to the Dynon. Then used the existing screw holes to mount bracket...far from permanent.

Tobin

Garmin flush mount.

I created a flush mount using the standard Garmin mount that is screwed to a bracket behind the instrument panel.





We've upgraded to the Dynon D100 since these photos but we used the same mount configuration for the garmin 296. We have a hole to the left of the garmin to depress the release latch with a short wire probe.

vasrv7a said:

I am considering buying the Garmin 396 or 496 and I'm trying to figure out a good clean way to mount and display it in my RV-7A (not permenantly). The friction mount on top of the glareshield will work however, the forward visibility will be badly restricted......... Does anyone have an alternate suggestion? Any ideas will be very much appreciated...Victor

Click to expand...

Using .063 material, I made up a simple shelf by tracing out its dimensions using the bottom of the GPS mount as a guide and adding extra material for the attachment holes. I then bolted it to the roll bar using the two existing bolt holes that tie the roll bar into the sill. No new holes were drilled. The double sided adhesive tape that Garmin supplies with its GPS kits is more than adequate to keep the plastic mount firmly in place. The GPS can be tilted normally within the confines of the mount and rotated through a wide range of angles. So tenacious is the holding power of that adhesive that my GPS also serves double duty as my headset rest.

Got mine mounted on a 2 way swivel mount bolted to the flange coming out of the panel.

Thanx for the suggestions........ I will review my options carefully

Victor

Here's what I did. I have the ejector hole as well, and I made a special tool out of 1/4" nylon rod that unlocks and ejects the unit.

Here's the problem.
In this location, the glossy screen on the 296 etc. will reflect your shirt and wash out the display.
If you wear a black shirt, no problem, but it's pretty annoying otherwise.

If anyone knows of a source of antireflective film, let us know.

Vern Little




more photos, templates

I originally tried the RAM mount but it took up too much room, so I made a similar swivel mount from an old Toyota truck mirror. Now that I'm redoing my panel and AirGizmo has the "tilt-up" panel dock, I will mount it in the panel just under the Dynon.