Thread: Kuda GPS mount

I really appreciate you both sorting out the best way to mount this kit while mine gets painted to match my arabica dash....

No probs Mr Shiny Head.
If you are a good boy and the fishing godz smile upon me I may drop a fillet or 2 off on the way home.
All the fishing gear and the cyrovac machine is in the D4,there are plenty of cold refreshments in the Engel,the bait just needs throwing in the freezer before we head off.
Whilst in Exmouth all the peak fishing tomes are in the middle of the day Who could have planed it better
Andrew

Had a play with the external aerial for the GPS today. Drove the car out of the shed and turned the GPS on without the aerial plugged in - eventually found one satellite and this was intermittent.

Put the GPS aerial at the front of the dash (on the speaker grille) to see if it would work mounted inside the car, and plugged in the other end. No real difference in performance. Still only one satellite, although it did find it a bit quicker.

Put the aerial on top of the roof rack roughly above the rear vision mirror and plugged in the other end. Instant connection on both street and offroad mapping programs, and showing connection to 6 x satellites. Probably the best satellite connection I've ever seen on an after-market GPS unit.

So then I played around with where to locate the cigarette lighter plug / re-radiating aerial. I had initially just plugged it into one of the sockets in the console, but I don't want it there in the longer term. I have a multi-outlet unit with three cigarette lighter sockets and USB outlets hidden under the dash up above the accelerator pedal, so plugged it in there. Exactly the same performance as when it was plugged into the console socket.

So now to decide exactly where to mount the external aerial and how to bring the cable inside the vehicle. Aerial has magnetic base, so mounting is not an issue, but cable has a plug on the end which connects to the cigarette lighter plug / re-radiating aerial, so some of the usual ways of getting a wire into the car might not be possible.

Out of interest, does anyone know if the OEM sat-nav on the D4 runs an external aerial, and if so, where it is mounted. I was looking at my young bloke's Amarok on the weekend - the aerial for the factory sat-nav on that is in one of the mirror housings on the side of the vehicle (as are the radio aerials). The VW's have one of the best factory sat-nav systems I've seen. The one in Shaun's Amarok is identical to the one we had in the rented Passat wagon in Germany a couple of years back - both worked extremely well. The one in Germany even told us when there was heavy traffic ahead and suggested alternative routes - don't know if they have that system anywhere in Australia yet (definitely not in Kalgoorlie anyway).

Originally Posted by BMKal

Out of interest, does anyone know if the OEM sat-nav on the D4 runs an external aerial, and if so, where it is mounted.

According to the WSM there is a GPS antenna in tailgate upper light assembly, driver's side of centre.
Not sure if diagram is accurate.

Cheers,
Scott

WSM text confirms this location (item 7)


Cheers,
Scott

Originally Posted by BMKal

The one in Germany even told us when there was heavy traffic ahead and suggested alternative routes - don't know if they have that system anywhere in Australia yet (definitely not in Kalgoorlie anyway).

It's available but LRA won't pay for it to be activated is my understanding. There are options in the menus to turn it on. I have done this but it does nothing as the information is not provided to the satnav.

You would think with cars at this price point that this sort of thing would be a no-brainer.

Martin

Martin. The government has to transmit the data... and they don't...

Originally Posted by Tombie

Martin. The government has to transmit the data... and they don't...

Salesman led me up the garden path again.

Martin