camaroz1985
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2021
- Threads
- 11
- Messages
- 921
- Reaction score
- 975
- Location
- Carlisle, PA
- Vehicles
- R1T, ID.4
- Occupation
- Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
We have all probably seen the video showing the magnetic tablet mount on the back of the headrest. Looked clean and relatively easy, but there was little information about it. I was also skeptical of the ability to hold a heavy tablet with a magnet.
I ended up buying multiple mounts to try to find the strongest and best fit. (Thank you Amazon for your generous and easy return policy.) I decided to document this to hopefully make things easier for the next person to try this.
We have Samsung Tablet A 10.1 (2019) tablets for the kids (yes I know it is a mouthful but that is the way I have to search for everything for them). They aren't the heaviest tablets, but also not lightweight like a phone would be. In our old car we had cradle style mounts that attached to the headrest posts, but obviously this won't work on the R1. The mount I ended up going with was the Scosche MagicMount Pro XL Flush mount.
.
It advertises being strong enough for tablets, and that does seem to be true. I did also try the original MagicMount Pro (seemed weaker, XL advertises 2x stronger, but I don't know if it is quite that much), and the MagicMount Pro2 (works with MagSafe and seems ok for a phone, but also seemed weaker than the XL).
They come with a metal plate to stick on the tablet, and once this is on, the magnet is super strong.
You can twist it to change from landscape to portrait mode, but shaking it or bumping it doesn't seem to make it come loose at all. Trying it in the house, I was worried with how hard I was throwing my hand to get it to come free it was going to fly across the room when it actually did. In fact I have a little bit of concern that it may eventually pull the adhesive off the headrest the magnet is so strong, so we will have to be careful when removing them from the truck.
To mount them to the headrest hook, it is just 3M adhesive. The magnet mount is larger than the hook on the truck. You can just peel off the tape and stick it on, but I didn't want it attracting dirt and fur (dog, not kids) on the overhanging area, so I broke out my art class skills and made a crayon tracing of the hook, and cut that to use as a template for where I should remove the backing.
(It is symmetrical on the truck, but apparently I need to attend some remedial art classes to refine my tracing skills.)
I used a knife to cut the inside of the line and then stuck it on. You notice I offset the mount so it was biased to the bottom. This was to give clearance for the power outlet.
The mount comes with black and silver trim rings. I chose the black so it will blend in more. The silver ring will also be used later.
The tablet fits perfectly there, and looks great.
A short right angle USB C cable will be used for power, but you have to be careful with the style of the right angle as some aren't sharp enough and will not fit with the wood piece. I would have loved to use a 1 ft cable, but the shortest I could find that worked was 3 ft. I will just wrap it around the mount to keep it tidy.
You could stop there, but I know I don't like the bare tablet there as I have knocked one off the old car and shattered it, so I wanted to put some kind of bumper style case back on it. The problem was the case was thick so the magnets don't work well through it, but that shouldn't stop you.
I used the extra trim piece as a template for the shape to cut into the back of the case. Some careful measurements, cutting and a little trimming gets a hole in the back of the case where you won't see it (so it doesn't have to be pretty), but allows for strong magnetic attraction. I used the case I had cut previously for our old mounts because new cases won't be here before we leave, but everything worked as expected so I will order new cases for a cleaner appearance.
Finally the finished product ready for adventure. Probably best for on-road adventures, not sure if I would trust it bouncing over rocks, but the kids shouldn't need more than the windows for entertainment then anyway.
Note: After test fitment and pictures, I took the tablets off to give 24 hours for full adhesive strength of the mounts as outlined in the instructions. I take them off the mounts when we aren't going on long trips. I left them on for a week once while we were vacationing in hot temperatures (over 100 outside) and the adhesive actually came off the metal plate on the tablet, but the mount stayed stuck to the seat hook. That was about a week after the initial install, so maybe they are more adhered now, but I still take them out until we need them. This install was 3.5 months and 4k miles ago. We haven't had any other issues.
I ended up buying multiple mounts to try to find the strongest and best fit. (Thank you Amazon for your generous and easy return policy.) I decided to document this to hopefully make things easier for the next person to try this.
We have Samsung Tablet A 10.1 (2019) tablets for the kids (yes I know it is a mouthful but that is the way I have to search for everything for them). They aren't the heaviest tablets, but also not lightweight like a phone would be. In our old car we had cradle style mounts that attached to the headrest posts, but obviously this won't work on the R1. The mount I ended up going with was the Scosche MagicMount Pro XL Flush mount.
.
It advertises being strong enough for tablets, and that does seem to be true. I did also try the original MagicMount Pro (seemed weaker, XL advertises 2x stronger, but I don't know if it is quite that much), and the MagicMount Pro2 (works with MagSafe and seems ok for a phone, but also seemed weaker than the XL).
They come with a metal plate to stick on the tablet, and once this is on, the magnet is super strong.
You can twist it to change from landscape to portrait mode, but shaking it or bumping it doesn't seem to make it come loose at all. Trying it in the house, I was worried with how hard I was throwing my hand to get it to come free it was going to fly across the room when it actually did. In fact I have a little bit of concern that it may eventually pull the adhesive off the headrest the magnet is so strong, so we will have to be careful when removing them from the truck.
To mount them to the headrest hook, it is just 3M adhesive. The magnet mount is larger than the hook on the truck. You can just peel off the tape and stick it on, but I didn't want it attracting dirt and fur (dog, not kids) on the overhanging area, so I broke out my art class skills and made a crayon tracing of the hook, and cut that to use as a template for where I should remove the backing.
(It is symmetrical on the truck, but apparently I need to attend some remedial art classes to refine my tracing skills.)
I used a knife to cut the inside of the line and then stuck it on. You notice I offset the mount so it was biased to the bottom. This was to give clearance for the power outlet.
The mount comes with black and silver trim rings. I chose the black so it will blend in more. The silver ring will also be used later.
The tablet fits perfectly there, and looks great.
A short right angle USB C cable will be used for power, but you have to be careful with the style of the right angle as some aren't sharp enough and will not fit with the wood piece. I would have loved to use a 1 ft cable, but the shortest I could find that worked was 3 ft. I will just wrap it around the mount to keep it tidy.
You could stop there, but I know I don't like the bare tablet there as I have knocked one off the old car and shattered it, so I wanted to put some kind of bumper style case back on it. The problem was the case was thick so the magnets don't work well through it, but that shouldn't stop you.
I used the extra trim piece as a template for the shape to cut into the back of the case. Some careful measurements, cutting and a little trimming gets a hole in the back of the case where you won't see it (so it doesn't have to be pretty), but allows for strong magnetic attraction. I used the case I had cut previously for our old mounts because new cases won't be here before we leave, but everything worked as expected so I will order new cases for a cleaner appearance.
Finally the finished product ready for adventure. Probably best for on-road adventures, not sure if I would trust it bouncing over rocks, but the kids shouldn't need more than the windows for entertainment then anyway.
Note: After test fitment and pictures, I took the tablets off to give 24 hours for full adhesive strength of the mounts as outlined in the instructions. I take them off the mounts when we aren't going on long trips. I left them on for a week once while we were vacationing in hot temperatures (over 100 outside) and the adhesive actually came off the metal plate on the tablet, but the mount stayed stuck to the seat hook. That was about a week after the initial install, so maybe they are more adhered now, but I still take them out until we need them. This install was 3.5 months and 4k miles ago. We haven't had any other issues.
Sponsored
