Sick of your GPS mount dropping your phone. I don't have to tell you that this can be expensive but I will. I have a modification that will improve your mounts holding power. This modification could be used to improve other GPS mounts, but here we are working with a Rocketfish Universal mount. If you are doing this on a different brand your mileage may vary.

Like most things made these days I find that they have to be modified to make them work just right.

You will need....

GPS mount

Exacto knife with NEW blade

Step 1: The Root of the Problem

The rubber grips on this mount are a great idea except that they simply do not work well as it is. As you can see in the pictures on mine the upper and lower tabs deflect horribly making it's holding power basically suck. One hard bump and away the phone goes.

No matter how I tried I was never able to lock my Galaxy Mega 6.3 in the mount in a way that I felt secure. I found myself always being ready to reach out and catch it at railroad tracks.

Well no more.

Step 2: The Modification

Here you need to exercise caution. I mean this.

Use your Exacto knife to trim away the first 3-4 rows of rubber grippers. This is dependent on how thick your phone is. Mine called for 4 of the ribs to be removed to accommodate the Otter Box. Trim 1-2 at a time as you can remove them but you can not put them back after you cut them out. When trimming these ribs make sure you use a brand new blade as these ribs can be a bit tough to cut because they are rather soft and mush around a bit. Ideally the first rib to contact the phone will deform a bit when your phone is installed.

In the pictures you will see that I trimmed the ribs away so that the bottom of the notch was flat. It does not have to be perfectly flat but the flatter the better. Basically trim the ribs flush to the bottom.

Step 3: Finished Product

Now that we have the modification done we lock our phone in place. Now it locks down on the phone in such a way that you could go off roading and have it stay in the mount without issue.

IMPORTANT

When reinstalling the mount to your windshield use rubbing alcohol on a clean cloth to clean the mounting spot. Also remember to clean the suction cup for the mount. When installing be a bit aggressive on pushing the suction cup to the windshield to make sure you expel as much of the air as you can from the inside of the suction cup and then actuate the locking lever. With this method I have never had a mount come off the windshield during use.

Now enjoy your new mount and drive with confidence that it will stay were you put it.