Custom Camera Mount

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

I have taken some pretty good turns and the mount has barely moved. The way the suctions cups are up against the dash with that sticky pad under the camera end of it, it actually holds the mount in place pretty well. I had my D70 on there when driving back home for 2 hours last week and it seemed pretty stable. If you look at the mount where the suction cups are, that part of the mount wedges between the glass and the dash of my jeep to help keep it in place.

I have managed to cause the mount to come loss under very rough conditions though. We were doing some off-roading (driving down dirt roads, a couple that had pretty good inclines, nothing crazy though) near Lake Meredith in the Panhandle over the Thanksgiving break. While going up a steep inclined road that was fairly rough it lost suction and fell off my dash. The camera was not attached, but it was a good test for the mount. I never plan to drive down a road like that while chasing, but it showed me what it could handle. I am going to leave it in my jeep to continue testing it till spring. It did show some signs of slight vibration going down the highway last week, which I hope the velcro will eliminate for the most part. I will probably make revisions to this mount a number of times before spring to get it just right.

I am driving to San Antonio for the Big 12 Championship this weekend. It will give me a good chance to test my camcorder on there for the first time attached to it and to see if the vibration is noticeable during playback.

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

Nobody ever "plans" on driving down roads like that while chasing. But I will admit, along with many others. I have been down some very strange roads. Roads that seem like a water park slide used to follow down. Steep grades, deep dirt ruts, very large gravel / rock surfaces, and those pesky suprise train track crossings that launch you airborne for a few seconds. Personally my test for equipment stability for chasing is "would that thing stay put if the car was flipped upside down?" If your answer is "yes" or "prolly", then id say your good to go. Anything less, can and WILL come loose.

 

[Chris White]

Very nice setup. I have kind of an old car so I bought 3 .26 cent L bracket's (little ones, just big enough for the camera mount) at the hardware store, screwed them into my dash (the vertical portion of the L faces back towards the driver, two screws in each L bracket), then tossed a window camera mount(same as pictured pan/tild head) over it. I just have to remember to turn the darn auto-focus off. (I remove the camera mount but, the L brackets stay in place 365 days a year obviously due to the screw holes in my dash, also a great place for my GPS mouse to stick to is the L bracket base under the windshield).

I am not much of a car guy, I'd drive a pinto or a lexus and wouldn't really care much day to day which one I took. But, setup consists of screwing the window car mount to the L-Brackets. Of course I also mounted my ham radio to the side of the center console with L-Brackets as well so....