Magellan Nav Side Pocket Install

[MyBlkBurban]

Thanks to 05Z71BURB from z71tahoe-suburban.com for inspiring me with "Poor Mans In-dash Navigation 1st Lame Mod" and my attempt ...

Updated Pic's

I picked up a switch and auxilliary power socket at radioshack, along with a blade fuse tap in and had a little fun. My intent was to install this and make it as close to "non permanent" as possible and not drill any unnecessary holes.

- I removed the dash and pocket
- Installed a couple of layers of adhesive insulation tape and built up the space between the dash and the pocket void ( roughly 1.5" )
- Tapped the fuse blade into the 10amp SEO ACCY fuse on the drivers side and ran a wire under the dash into the center console where it becomes an on and off switch.
- Removed the cig lighter ( since I don't smoke - bun in retrospect I probably would have probably swapped the cig lighter to the spot where the aux power outlet is and then kept the cig lighter option - but i accidentally broke the cig lighter on removal so - too late for that - Unless someone has an extra cig lighter they want to send me
- Used the spot where the cig lighter was to install the switch. The switch was a tad too small for the hole - so I just reused the black trim piece from the old cig lighter and then used a small c clamp to hold the switch in perfectly...
- Ran another ground wire to the passenger side panel that had a nice grounding nut.
- Put the new aux power outlet behind the glove compartment and plugged the Magellan unit right into it.

Now all I do is flip the switch and GPS goes on and flip it off and the unit shuts off... I love the look and GPS signal is 100%. No degradation that I have seen so far.

* I used an aux power outlet so that if I want to remove the unit - all I do is unplug it and replace it - no need for splicing wires ....

Things I would have done differently:
As I mentioned before, I would have not gotten rid of the Cig lighter and instead swapped positions with the aux power right next to it on the console and then reused the aux power from the console as the power source for the GPS -- thus saving me a cig lighter and $7 buck additional outlet from radio shack

 

[burbanman03]

WOW!!!!

what a cool mod

What model is that nav?
i like that idea i have been looking at the oem nav because i don't want to just have one of these stuck to my windshield but this works perfect

great job man nice write up as well

 

[MyBlkBurban]

Thanks --- It's the Magellan 3225 ( same as the 3200 series ) but comes with 1.5M POI's. I updated the POI file online to 6Million and it rocks now

I wish I would have taken more pics along the way - but I was doing this outside at 30 degrees.

I really love the way it looks OEM with the switch and molded into the dash the way it does. I've driven around 100 miles here and tested the GPS signal and it works as good as when it was on the windshield...

 

[Yang1815]

Nice mod. Saw that on the Z71 forum too hehe...

 

[tom q]

I have a similar setup with my tomtom 720. I used the pocket to hold the "circular plastic" that came with the unit. The circular plastic plate is "sandwiched" between the pocket and the dash cover. This is were I stick the bracket of the gps.

The flush mount in the pic looks really nice, but one time I accidentally left my gps in the bracket, some SOB's broke my glass and took my poor tomtom.

I get the last laugh though because my tomtom has a 4 digit code. There are 5040 possible codes to find the right one. I also called tomtom and had the serial number blocked.

Be careful with your GPS. Thieves know how easy it is to pull the dash cover.

 

[MyBlkBurban]

yeah - I actually keep a piece of paper hanging from the vent over the gps when I park somewhere so it looks like I just keep a "reminder list" hanging on the dash for myself ... lol