overhead mounting of tablet in Express?

[hansu]

Hey, folks. A lot of the posts here are focused on power-train or suspension concerns so I hope its ok for me to post a Q related to cockpit mods...

I want to overhead mount a small tablet on the ceiling of my Express van using a RAM-style flexible arm. I've not pulled the headliner up front but I've been in the one near the rear doors so I'm not sure what's up there in terms of mount-points just yet but I've been thinking of cutting a small section of the headliner out and then attaching a rare earth magnet to the RAM-style mount or if that ends up not being secure enough then just epoxying the arm to the ceiling. I like the modularity of the magnet approach though. "But it's gonna fall and hit you in the head..." Well, when I say a magnet I mean a super powerful one. But this vehicle is not a crawler. It's a moto support van home-built sleeper. Also, I'll worry about electrical power delivery at a later time. For these sorts of apps I find it really easy to double-sided tape/hook-and-loop a supplemental battery to the back of the tablet.

Anybody been down this path? Maybe I've missed something out there which would be COTS instead of having to fab it myself by-hook-or-by-crook?

 

[deserteagle56]

If you are mounting the tablet up there to use as a GPS you may run into a problem. When I did that in my E350, using either a Garmin Montana or a Nuvi GPS unit, I had to attach an external antenna for the GPS to get a good signal from the GPS satellites. Does the tablet have an external antenna connection for the GPS?

No such problem when the GPS units were mounted on the dash. Enough of the signal from the satellites got through the windshield and the side windows that an external antenna was not necessary (although, according to the GPS units, it did pick up more satellites using the external antenna). Also less of a problem routing power to the GPS units.

 

[hansu]

If you are mounting the tablet up there to use as a GPS you may run into a problem. When I did that in my E350, using either a Garmin Montana or a Nuvi GPS unit, I had to attach an external antenna for the GPS to get a good signal from the GPS satellites. Does the tablet have an external antenna connection for the GPS?

No such problem when the GPS units were mounted on the dash. Enough of the signal from the satellites got through the windshield and the side windows that an external antenna was not necessary (although, according to the GPS units, it did pick up more satellites using the external antenna). Also less of a problem routing power to the GPS units.

An interesting angle and thanks for bringing it up. It will not be used for GPS. I (still) use a Montana for GPS which I mount near the head unit on a custom flange. This also keeps it very close to charging.