The Shakes Killed My GPS

[proverbio]

I mounted my two year old TomTom Rider gps to the popular center mount designed by Techmount on my R1200RT. After install, I went for a short ride around town. On my return, I found the gps cradle shred to pieces. The whole thing was hanging on to the last remaining bolt. If I'd taken a longer route the gps would have ended on the street somewhere.

The cradle has since been repaired with copious amounts of epoxy. It does not look pretty, but it has not failed me yet. Hooray for epoxy!!! But I'm stumped as to who to blame. This could have been an expensive affair.

 

[61996]

If your motorcycle shakes and rattles to the extent that it breaks things; I'd head to the dentist to get my fillings checked....just sayin.
I'd also be checking every nut, bolt and screw just to be safe.

 

[daboo]

You should talk to Techmount. Their product failed, pure and simple. If you had an R1200GS and took the bike out stump jumping, I would say it was your fault. But an RT on street roads?

I've had one RAM Mount arm fail that was holding my coffee cup. I contacted them, and they replaced it for free.

Chris

 

[akbeemer]

Same thing happened to my TomTom mount. TomTom replaced it without any questions. My unit was almost new when it happened. There is an alternative way to mount the ram ball. You can thread a ball directly into the center hole on the cradle.

 

[henzilla]

Not trying to be contrary...how tight did you draw those screws down, doesn't take much over torque to loosen/crack those wellnuts support. BTDT

I'm sure Techmount will work with you regardless...give them an opportunity

 

[akbeemer]

The failure is in the TomTom cradle that the GPS rests in. Not Techmount's (or in my case Ram's) issue to correct. I used a nut driver to put mine on and I do not recall a torque specification being provided. I don't think I applied more force than was reasonable, but it failed as did the one in the picture. TomTom sent me a replacement cradle based only on an email I sent that included some pictures. I had already mounted the damaged cradle by screwing a threaded Ram ball into the hole shown in the center between the four broken mounting points. I still have the replacement cradle, but so far have seen no need to replace it.

Here is how mine looked:

 

[henzilla]

Guess I didn't pick up it was the cradle itself...yeah, your picture looks a lot like his. I've tried so many different mounts thru time with some issues...but never a Tomtom GPS