Having looked on the net at the various commercially available kits for mounting laptops in cars, most of them, IMHO seem to have several disadvantages i.e. they're all made stateside, fitting may involve the loss of the front passenger seat or drilling the floor to attach a mounting flange. Similarly, the do-it-yourself kits demonstrated on You Tube whilst showing admirable innovation in the design and use of materials i.e. construction from plastic waste pipe or metal angle/tube are a bit cumbersome, not that robust and also can involve loss of space in the passenger footwell and are possibly dangerous in the event of a shunt and definately don't comply with Construction and Use regs.

Seems to me that the ideal fitting would be either to the strong points in central door pillar (On, at or Below the seat belt fixing) or to a strongpoint underneath the dash chassis using a retractable, semi-rigid, larger diameter link of the type used in the flexible armoured cables on these USB lights or drill or iron cables.

Anybody know of such an item for sale commercially or how it could be fabricated locally ?

Nick

Edited 20 February, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

Daft questiion probably, but what's the reason for wanting to mount a laptop in the car?

Daft questiion probably, but what's the reason for wanting to mount a laptop in the car?

Photographic editing on the hoof.

Large scale display of portable GPS set output whilst on the go (Obviously !)

Viewing of dynamic varibles of VCDS whilst in motion.

And many other apps I haven't thought of yet.

You'd have thought that manufacturers would have been on-top of this requirement already, in the same way that tow-bars are handled.

Nick

Lol, iv never heard of anyone wanting to do that, bar the diagnosics. I'd rather a passenger seat/footwell then a laptop "stand" I think lol

Matt

If you aren't driving while using it you can get a tray that straps onto the Steering Wheel, obviously worse than useless if you plan on driving while using it.

You can get mounts that fit into the cup holder, however the cup holder on the Fabia is a little far back, you'd have to make your own mount point on the central console, not that hard.

Depending on what you are doing you could always get a PC that fits into a double din space, hook it up with a wireless keyboard and mouse and you remove the mounting problems:

http://www.revo-sys.com/CarPC_Pre-built_Systems.php

Fast and Furious style FTW!!

If the laptop is already ready mounted in a cradle or holder, then if your doing a repetiive drive, stop, shoot, laptop input routine it does away with all the nause of shutdown the laptop for driving, placing in the footwell and then re-setting it up again when you stop again. This facilitates a quick critical look at the full size version of what you've taken (Using bluetooth/usb) before moving on.

Same, I would have thought, would apply to roving business activity. Surely sales reps, delivery drivers, especially trunkers and police have this sort of kit.

I would have thought a substantial pull-out under glovebox tray, or some sort of support trailling down from the seat-belt strong-point or up from the "Transmission tunnel" would have been a real seller as either a "From new" option or aftermarket add-on and would have been particularly useful for those constantly on-the road on business.

I find it hard to believe that I'm the first to come up with the idea ?

Nick

Edited 20 February, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

Not sure they are that popular in the UK, in the US (as its legal in certain states to use a laptop while driving) there are plenty of units you can get that bolt onto the centre console:

http://www.jottodesk.net/laptop_desk_jotto_desk_car_desk.htm

Here you go:

Wheeldesk - Amazon UK

Although the US Amazon has far better pictures Wheelmate Laptop Steering Wheel Desk

Edited 20 February, 201115 yr by Jim H

interesting hmm

always been tempted to do a pc install

Clicky

Photographic editing on the hoof.

Large scale display of portable GPS set output whilst on the go (Obviously !)

Viewing of dynamic varibles of VCDS whilst in motion.

And many other apps I haven't thought of yet.

Nick

bar the photoediting get yourself a htc desire, job done. What is it photoshop at 80+ in the outside lane ??

The stuff I've seen so far either requires a degree of set-up each time you use the laptop e.g. the steering wheel or head rest type, or renders the passenger seat unusable the business trunk or floor mounted table types. In all cases the laptop is usually left in view when not in use, making a tempting target for the opportunist thief when the driver is away from the car.

My ideal would be a locking concealed tray mounted below the passenger dash,in which the laptop could be permanently planted, complete with all connecting cables. This would quickly deploy on pulling out on rails (Like filing cabinet), elevating and swiveling towards the drivers position using a combination of swivel joints, scissor jack and ball joints, with the driver being able to lock it into the finally selected position - perhaps using the facility of a telescopic stay pointing into the footwell - like a shooting stick.

Afer use, unlocking and pushing towards the dash would stow it. A bit like the space saving desktop pc keyboard trays of old that use to fit underneath the desk and deployed towards the user.

I'll continue the search. I suspect if I'm going to get something like that then its going to be a one-off fabrication.

Postcript

Thinking about it, one of those old fashioned articulated TV wall mounts could be modified to do the job, rotating its plane 90 degrees and incorporating a mechanism to lock the joints when in final postion.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LCD107-Universal-Bracket-Swivel-Management/dp/B0012AAUPW/ref=sr_1_52?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298327379&sr=1-52

Nick.

Edited 21 February, 201115 yr by Clunkclick