Arkon: aftermarket PND mount solutions

Some time ago we were contacted by Arkon and they asked us if we were interested in reviewing their aftermarket SatNav mounting solutions. At first we weren’t too sure if we were, because we didn’t believe the standard mount solutions which are shipped with the devices leave much room for improvement. But after we received the Arkon review samples we were quickly convinced there was room! And by a large margin even...

Goodies

Arkon sent us a whole box filled with goodies to try out. This is what they sent us:

* Universal Beanbag/Friction Mount with Safety Anchor
* 1” Multi Angle Dash or Console Mount for TomTom Devices
* Removable Air Vent Pedestal for TomTom GPS Devices
* Powered Lighter Socket for TomTom GPS
* Windshield Suction Mount for Garmin nüvi
* Air Vent mount for Garmin nüvi
* Mobile phone mount for windscreen, dash or console

As you can see, lots of very nice stuff. But one those products leaped out from all the rest, the Universal Friction Mount. Years ago, even before TomTom started shipping their very first GO classics, Garmin already had their StreetPilot range. One very interesting mounting solution which came as standard with that unit was their ‘beanbag mount’. It was literally a bag filled with beans with an anti-slip bottom. All you needed to do was click your SatNav onto the mount on that beanbag and place it on your dash. The weight of the beanbag combined with the anti-slip bottom made sure the SatNav remained stable on the dashboard. No need to adjust anything on the windscreen.

I’ve often wondered why TomTom never released such a solution, preferably standard in the boxes of their units, or at least as an accessory. They never did, and so far, no company had made such a solution either. Until now.

Friction Mount

When I first took the Friction Mount out of its packaging, I immediately notice its weight. It’s a lot heavier than you would think just by looking at it, and it’s obviously made that way intentionally. Also included in the package is a small suction cup mount (with a lever, yay!), some different adapter mounting pieces, meant to fit the TomTom ONE, ONE XL, GO x20 and GO x30 series. There’s also a small quick start guide and last but not least a safety anchor to make sure the Friction Mount is held in place if you don’t really trust the anti-slip layer by itself. This anchor is self-adhesive and needs to be stuck to your dash, behind where you’re going to put the Friction mount. The anchor consists of a hook over which a ring (which is attached to the back of the beanbag mount) needs to be placed. In our tests I won’t be using this option. I’m going to rely solely on the anti-slip capabilities of the bag, because I’m not a big fan of sticking or screwing things to or into my dashboard. Your opinion on this subject may vary of course, and if you don’t mind this, the option is there for you.

Before starting my in-car tests, I wanted to know just how much this Beanbag weighed. So I borrowed my wife’s Weight Watcher’s scales (because I know these are precise) and put the Friction Mount on them. The result was 904 grams. Not bad! With the mount and a TomTom unit attached to it, the weight rapidly increased to more than 1200 grams. That should be enough to make sure it doesn’t budge, not even with a ‘sporty’ style of driving.

The Friction Bag also comes with a very important warning, so important even I feel I need to repeat it here: never, ever ever place this Beanbag mount on the Air Bag deployment zone of your car. Ever! I can’t stress this enough! Be aware that if you ignore this guideline and place it there anyway you’re putting your passenger in great peril! Because should you run into an accident and your Air Bag gets deployed, your Friction Mount containing your SatNav will be projected with great force into the face of your passenger, surely at least heavily injuring and possibly even killing him/her! So don’t do it!

The test

Of course, we needed to test if this Friction Mount lives up to its promises, so we took it for a ride. The first thing we noticed while driving is that the mount is very stable, at least as stable as a windscreen mount. We had feared that it would be more prone to vibrations, but luckily this didn’t turn out to be the case.

Then we did some driving tests:

From a complete stop
	Accelerating normally straight	v
	Pedal to the metal acceleration straight	v
	Accelerating normally while turning	v
	Pedal to the metal acceleration while turning	v
While driving
	Emergency braking to a complete stop while driving 50 km/h – 30 mph	v
	Emergency braking to a complete stop while driving 70 km/h – 45 mph	v
	Emergency braking while doing an evasive manoeuvre at 50 km/h – 30 mph	v
	Emergency braking while doing an evasive manoeuvre at 70 km/h – 50 mph	v

Wow, how’s that for a result? I didn’t try to do any emergency braking or evasive manoeuvres at higher speeds than mentioned because that would be too dangerous. Besides, I’d almost worn out my tyres due to these tests. I can tell you that during several tests, the ESP (Electronic Stability Program) of my car kicked in several times because one of the tyres was losing contact with the road. I mention this to underline that I really tried my best to make the mount shift on my dashboard, even if only by one centimetre. But no matter what I tried, it wouldn’t budge. Impressive, especially if you add to that that I wasn’t using the supplied safety anchor.

Other supplied mounts

Another interesting mount was the Powered Lighter Socket mount. This mount needs to be put into the powered lighter socket of your car, after which your TomTom unit can be clicked onto it. Same as with all other Arkon accessories, this mount also comes with adapter plates so almost all TomTom units will fit. All ONE, ONE XL, GO x20 and GO x30 units that is. (ONE 4th edition and ONE XL 2nd edition won’t fit since those come with the suction cup attached to the back of the unit) It’s also important to note that, contrary to what you might think, this mount does not automatically charge your unit while it is inserted into the power socket. It remains a passive mount. It does however offer an extra powered lighter socket, into which the normal TomTom car charger can be inserted and connected to the SatNav in the usual fashion. This does leave you with the long power lead dangling around and this isn’t very handy, especially not in cars where the lighter socket is put relatively low in the console, like in my case. But in those kinds of cars, this power lighter socket would not be a good option either since this would require that you look down to your SatNav all the time instead of keeping your eyes on the road. So it’s a relatively good solution, depending on the layout of your car. I have to be honest though, I also found the strain on the power lighter socket to be a bit high. I’d hate for it to break because of the weight the inserted SatNav adds to it. But that’s hardly Arkon’s fault, and this also may vary from car to car.

Next I tried the Removable Air Vent pedestal. This one also comes shipped with the same adapter plates so you can also fit all aforementioned TomTom PND’s to this mount. However, in my specific case, I couldn’t really fit it onto the air vents of my Alfa Romeo because these specific air vents are recessed and not flush like in most cars. Also, the ‘wings’ of the vents seemed a little flimsy to me, so I wouldn’t really feel comfortable hanging a weight in excess of 200 grams onto it, and letting it be subjected to a couple of Newton’s laws. I then tried it in my wife’s Vauxhall (Opel), and with this car it wasn’t a problem at all. The device hung stable and fixed, without any problem. Again, the quality of the Arkon accessory was impeccable.

I didn’t try the 1” Multi Angle Dash mount because that one needs to be either stuck to the dash with adhesive, or screwed onto it. And as said before: I do not want to do that to my dashboard. The quality of the Arkon accessory is just as good as the others though, so after testing all the others I’m pretty confident in saying that you’ll have no problems either installing or using it should you choose to buy this mount.

Garmin

Arkon was also kind enough to send me some nüvi mounts, but I wasn’t able to test those since I didn’t have a review nüvi handy. But here also, I’m confident that these mounts will work just as well as the TomTom mounts do. I also didn’t test the supplied Mobile Phone mount.

All Arkon mounts use the same system: the base of the mount of course differs depending on the model (lighter socket, Beanbag, Air Vent model, …), but on top of these bases, you can always slide different socket type adapters, on which in turn you can then slide your SatNav unit. This is a very handy solution, and it also allows for very easy upgradability in the future, should new types of mount fittings appear with new SatNav models.

The company

Arkon was established in 1988. They were pioneers of the FM transmitter category and also of the cordless infrared headphones category. In the nineties, they introduced the first Patented Grip Universal Phone cradle, followed by a Universal PDA Mount. After 2002, when GPS on PDA’s became popular, their sales increased a lot and so they were convinced this was the route to follow. They introduced more and more Powered PDA mounts and Powered GPS PDA mounts (PDA mounts with an integrated GPS receiver). In 2004 the first Personal Navigation Devices (PND’s or SatNav’s) became increasingly popular. Arkon, who by then could fall back on more than a decade of expertise in developing alternative mount solutions for the aftermarket, continued to work together with almost all the top brand names in the PND category. They are dedicated at becoming the global leader in the mobile mounting category.

Mio

Just before we finished this review, Arkon sent us word that they now also have Mio and Navman mounts available in their range. As with the TomTom and Garmin mounts, the base of the mounts is the same, but the adapter plate is different, allowing the user to click a Mio or Navman Satnav onto the mount. This new series is meant for the Mio Moov 200 and Moov 300 series, and are also compatible with specific models of the Navman S Series GPS devices.

EasyPort

Arkon also let us know they new ship a completely new line of alternative mounts for the TomTom GPS devices which feature the new EasyPort mount. The EasyPort mount was introduced this April with the new TomTom ONE range. The ONE is connected to a new type of adapter plate, which then in turn connects to Arkon's mounting solutions (friction mount, air vent pedestal, ...)

I have to be honest, I had never heard of Arkon before this review, but now their name is carved into my memory as if it were stone. You really have to try these accessories to believe how good they are. I really like them a lot, especially the Friction Mount Beanbag. This piece of equipment is really incredible, I can’t recommend it enough! I also use it myself now and I’d hate to part with it. It’s just so easy, just lie it there on top of the dash and that’s it! No fiddling any more trying to slide the SatNav on it, no more having the SatNav dropping off my windscreen while I was driving and last but not least: no more suction cup marks on my windscreen! (because everybody knows those are not only a pain to clean, but also attract criminals). In case there was any more doubt: these accessories and the Friction Mount in particular come highly recommended! (If I could, I’d give it two ‘thumbs up’! ). If this review has got you interested in Arkon products, then you can find their International Distributors through this link.