Power Wagon Registry

Finally decided to put my Panasonic Toughbook to good use and use it as both a gps for navigation and also to gps myself on trails using topo maps. I planned on doing a doing a bolt on mount mimicking a police car style mount. So far I have the Havis dock with charger, tilt mount, and chargeguard. I have the bolt on mount being built as I type so hopefully I'll have that in a few weeks. Has anybody else ever done this or something similar? I'll document as I get the parts and the install.
This is sort of how it will look.

Do you know what mapping program and GPS hardware you'll use for this project? I have always wanted to do something like this, but the cost has always steered me away from it. Vehicle mounts aren't cheap, and I'd need to get a different laptop better suited to the application. $$$$

Low_Sky wrote:Do you know what mapping program and GPS hardware you'll use for this project? I have always wanted to do something like this, but the cost has always steered me away from it. Vehicle mounts aren't cheap, and I'd need to get a different laptop better suited to the application. $$$$

It depends on the application. If you want to use it for on road only, mapfactor navigator 16 is the way to go. It uses tom tom maps and acts like a normal tom tom gps. I plan on using fugawi global navigator. Its more complicated to use but you get access to 3d maps and well as being able to put on map overlays so you can use both a street map and a topographical map. For hardware, I just use my toughbook. It has onboard gps already installed in it.

Sounds like a cool project. I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out. I just checked out Fugawi, and that Google Earth plug-in sounds like the ticket. Being able to switch between topo map and satellite imagery layers would be awesome.

I've been doing this for years first with the laptop sitting on the center console and now I have a laptop mount made by RAM MOUNTS that bolts to the pass. seat bolts. I just put a USB GPS antenna on the dash. I'm using Delorme TOPO software most of the time and also I can Nav off USGS topo maps that you can download for free. It's a great way to nav and having a large screen that is adjustable for angle/sunlight is nice. I'll get a picture of my mount up later.

This is how I have it now. It's up higher and easier to look at while driving with it up there. I find that the DeLorme Topo software works fine for highway and most off road stuff. But if you want GOOD off road detail the USGS topo 7.5 minute maps cant be beat.

Here is where I'm at with parts so far. Everything except the toughbook came from ebay. All I am waiting for now is the mount base and pole which should be here by mid Jan since havis has to custom make the items.

Looking to have everything installed by the end of the month except for the Havis ChargeGuard!

Finally have have the laptop hard mounted! Took awhile to get all the parts but its finally done!
First step is to remove the passenger side front seat bolts. They have loctite on them so it may be a little difficult.
You are going to replace them with the provided bolts and spacers. the spacers go between the seat frame and the base. Torque the bolts down, I use the tried and true german torque spec of gudentight.
Bolt the pole riser to the base using supplied bolts and lock washers.
Bolt the pole to the riser. The riser is a 6in riser that is supplied with the Havis heavy duty mount kit for the ram. The pole is an 8in pole that should provide plenty of adjustment up to 14in. After mounting the pole you are going to want to attach your swing arm. I went with the basic static swing arm since the computer wont be moving all that much. It's the 9in model so it perfectly in reach for my short frame. It blocks the last cupholder on the bench seat by a little but thats not a deal breaker for me.
Now you are going to add your motion device to the swingarm. The motion device angles the keyboard up to 70 degrees. The motion device is about 2in tall and uses a friction lock to hold the computer at your set angle. The device sits under the dock itself. The dock I went with is a Havis model for the Panasonic Toughbook CF-30/31. It comes with a 12v power supply inside the dock. I also added a screen stiffener to hold the screen up when going through the gnarly stuff.
The computer I went with is a CF-31 Toughbook with 2.6 Ghz intel processor, 500gb SSD, internal gps, blu-ray drive, and $200 worth of mapping software.

The finished results. I get to live out my LAPD fantasy while driving But it is helpful having a full size computer screen for a gps, especially at high speed

Very very nice sir!

Colibri wrote:Very very nice sir!

Thank you!

Yeah, that is a pretty cool setup for sure !