PSA: Smartphone Car Mount Edition

"boxrocket" (boxrocket) 05/05/2018 at 11:54 • Filed to: mounts, safety, psa, smartphone

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Don’t place your magnetic smartphone holder above where the ignition key/button is.

Magnetic phone mounts are great, except physics still plays a role, like when having to suddenly brake and your large smartphone weighs just enoughjust fall down, hitting the key in your igntion, and/or in trying to catch it during freefall, you accidentally hit they key. This can cause the car to think you’ve decided to turn off the engine, even when cruising at 60mph.

My windshield is too far away to mount the phone to, and the dash doesn’t have a good place to mount it except right over the gauge cluster, but I like outwards visibility.

Time to look for a longer arm with a mechanical grip.

Decay buys too many beaters > boxrocket 05/05/2018 at 13:16

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Ram Mount.

I’ve seen guys crash motorcycles and the phone doesn’t budge.

E92M3 > boxrocket 05/05/2018 at 14:02

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I’ve been thinking of trading my magnetic mount for a wireless charging mount. Either way there’s a wire hanging, but at least its less wear on the phones charging port. Plugging and unplugging 20 times a day is going to take it’s toll eventually.

boxrocket > E92M3 05/06/2018 at 22:46

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Very true, though the rare times I have my phone mounted it’s when I’m using it to navigate, which takes a fair bit of battery power. Even with USB-C it sometimes uses more charge than it takes in when navigating.

boxrocket > Decay buys too many beaters 05/06/2018 at 22:51

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Thanks! I’m checking them out now.

I actually moved the mount further up the dash, which actually helps in 2 ways: The phone angle is easier to read (it’s a short arm that’s just an arc with a ball on the end, so movement is limited) and it’s closer to the right side of the dash a little so now the charging cable goes on the side of the radio instead of in front of it. We’ll see how it turns out.