Hey Junkies,

I received a Garmin Nuvi 200W for my birthday, and I decided to just use the suction cup windshield mount, as it's 1) free 2) easy 3) free and 4) easily removeable. I have it mounted allll the way to the left of the windshield like so:



Garmin doesn't offer a hardwire kit. I've seen some on the internet, are they any good? Has anyone used one? I imagine it will be REAL easy to run the wires because of the location.

Any insight?

Thanks!

Edit: I'm talking about one of these. Doesn't mention whether or not it's fused. Good idea/bad idea?

 

Good idea and easy. You could even use the 12v plug it came with and cut off the plug. Then connect the positive and negative wires to the ACC and grounds. You can run the wires in the A-pillar. That's what I did with my A/F gauge.

However, you're just asking to have the unit stolen.

 

If you wire the Nuvi to your ACC wiring, then it'll have the accessory fuse, just like if it was plugged into the 12v socket, IIRC.

 

The included plug has circuitry, fuses, etc in it, and I'd have to rig it up somehow. Also, I'd have to buy another charger to leave in my wife's car (to switch the unit back and forth) so I might as well buy this thing.


I take the unit out and bring it with or stash it under the seat, so just the mount and cable would remain, and they are pretty invisible in the corner there against the black dash. The car also rarely sits unattended anywhere aside from my condo garage or my guarded parking lot at work, so it's pretty safe.

 

We almost never use Navi in daily driving. I personally wouldn't bother hardwiring it if it wasn't a fixed mount. The Nuvi has enough battery life that you could whip it out and stick it up when you need it.

 

The problem is, I'll probably leave it under the seat or in the glovebox until I need it, and then I'll whip it out to find the internal battery dead.

 

It is probably not the case here, but with the Sirius tuner installed in my dad's car, if you cut off the plug it actually doesn't work anymore. It required the installation of a generic 12v lighter socket to be installed and then plug the car kit power adapter directly into that.

The nice thing is that you can still remove and shift between vehicles as you haven't destroyed the original 12v plug. Basically, buy one of these: then cut off the clamps and hardwire those to the accessory spot on the fuse panel and plug into it.

 

I just bought the same thing with the same intention of teh OP, the only question I have is I plan to wire a fuse inline and I'm curious as to what the recommended amp rating would be? I'd assume a 10 amp fuse for just the navi is fine? Also I plan to out one of the add-on aux plugs on the passenger side of teh center console like some people have done, I was going to go with a 15 amp plug on that side for things like a laptop etc... Do these assumptions seem reasonable?

 

Mikey that's probably because the Sirius tuner your dad has includes an RF transmitter built in to the lighter plug.

 

Here's another option for the OP. I got the Modifry 3" bracket for the side of the cluster area. I'm going to hardwire it into the dash area and I'm sure it'll look really nice.

Plus if you want to remove the unit, just reach forward and unclip it in <2 seconds. And yes, that's Richard Marx playing in my CD player.