Growing tired of having my radios roll around in my vehicle while out and about, I made the decision to get a RAM mount to mount everything to. I didn’t want to drill any holes to install it, mainly due to most locations being inadequate for that method of mounting, so I instead opted for a RAM Stubby cupholder mount base. While this worked in theory, in practice it didn’t work so well.
I chose the long length arm (~5″) to get the radio up high enough combined with the marine electronics mount, which is essentially a 6-1/4″ x 2″ aluminum plate for mounting fishfinders to. It provides a decent mounting platform for handheld radios via their belt clips but does merit some additional tinkering with to make things perfect, but that’s an aside for now.
The Stubby mount is weighted, but with the long arm and plate mount, coupled with the weight of a radio, it’s not a stable mounting option as originally thought. Under normal urban driving conditions, the entire mount assembly tips over. Not ideal.
I decided to take the mount apart and see what could be done with it. The bottom of the mount is held in with 3 clips and can be easily pried apart. The base also has a screw in the center which secures a steel weight. This weight does not extend the full length of the interior of the base which is the reason for its tippiness (autocorrect tells me that’s not a proper word, but whatever).
I weighed everything and determined that the base weighs in at 490g, while the steel slug alone weighs 378g. I went to my local outdoor store and picked up some BB’s to add further weight to the base. I filled the space between the top of the base and the top of the slug and then filled the gaps between the slug and the wall of the base. This added an extra 395g of weight bringing the new base weight up to 886g. With this modification, the problems with tip over have been removed. Now I just need to find a way to keep the radios from sliding off the plate mount on top. Another project for another day.
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