Garmin 441S Mounting and wiring

[Kevin Henderson]

Santa got me a nice little Garmin 441S for Christmas.   I think I have a solution to mounting but wiring has me a little confused .
For mounting I'm thinking of using the Edson 3" stainless steel GPS mount so that he GPS will sit approximately in the area outlined by the red box in the attached photo.  I had thought about mounting directly into the NAVPOD but decided against drilling into the NAVPOD itself for mounting.

The wiring has me a little perplexed.  I do not yet intend to use any of the NMEA 2000 features or the transducer.  I simply want to have a plotter at the helm.  As for power, the wiring harness seems too short to get anywhere to tie into my nav instruments circuit.  Any ideas or suggestions on wiring power only to the Garmin?   

[Ken Juul]

The small GPS units don't draw much power.  If you are really just planning on having a stand alone unit, I would tie into one of the power lines/grounds inside the navpod powering the other instruments.  Think carefully about mounting, you still want to be able to use the pedistal guard as a hand hold should the need arise.

[Ralph Masters]

Kevin,
You should be able to tie into the power supply and ground for the other instruments with no problem.  The little bit of added power draw you won't even have to go to a larger fuse.  Congratulations.

Ralph

[Kevin Henderson]

Thanks Guys... Thats what I was kind of hoping to hear.  Since the Garmin won't draw much power I'll likely tie into the instruments.  I also just discovered that the NAVPOD has the security "keyed" screws... any ideas where to get a driver that will remove those?  The PO did not leave me a way to remove those screws.
As for the handhold on the pedestal... I may lose a little bit of handhold but I thought it better to place the display there than above and on top of the guard, placing the display directly in my face... then again... nothings set yet.   

[Roc]

I had to remove the instruments once, and found I needed the special hex wrench.  Called Navpod and they sent me one for free.

[Ralph Masters]

Kevin,
I put our 740 in that same spot and there is still just enough space to grab the bar above it if and when you need it.
what type of security screw are you looking at??  The torq head or one with a funny half cut flat head slot??  Torq heads are easy to find, I have a set if that will help.

Ralph

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

Kevin,
The company that makes the NavPods is called Ocean Equipment and their number is 949-588-1470.

  www.oceanequipment.com

The security screws look like the torx type but have a hollow center. If you can get a free one from them, that would be good. In their catalog they sell a wrench set that includes two wrenches that look like allen wrenches, a T handled wrench and a spare screw. I don't know the cost of this but its a thought. (item # tpk300 in their catalog)
You could also try Ralphs wrenches and go from there. I used to have one with a screwdriver type handle which was a lot easier to use than the L shaped wrenches but that went with my boat when I sold it.

Good luck,
Mike

[Jim Hardesty]

my security wrench is a 5/32 Allan with a hole in the center.  It's not that special, a good industrial supply house probably has them...I think that Grainger part is
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/search.shtml?searchQuery=5%2F32+security+wrench&op=search&Ntt=5%2F32+security+wrench&N=0&sst=subset

If you still have the factory information, commissioning packet it may be in an envelope there.   Thats where mine was.

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

Kevin,
Here's one of my earlier posts about a chartplotter mount.
It looks like your unit mount has a swivel so you would just need the platform to mount it on.


http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6680.msg44154.html#msg44154

[Kevin Henderson]

Completed my installation project of the Garmin 441S.  I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Edson GPS mount with the 3" base.  This mount allows the small(er) size of the Garmin 441 to have a few inches of stand off distance and swivels to several positions easily. 
1.  Under the pedestal, centered just above my ST60's and Navpod
2.  Swung to the port side if desired (if it was mounted on starboard tube of pedestal it would swing to starboard.
3.  Swivels around to view from forward of the wheel.
All arrangements kept ample hand hold to pedestal if needed, and the bonus of my canvas cover for the wheel still fits. 

After ordering the Navpod security wrenches and getting inside it was an easy install.  I drilled a 3/8" hole in the center of the back of the Navpod and ran the wire inside.  With the addition of some grommets and the fit snug.  The wires are run into the Navpod with watertight integrity.



   

[frank]

Have seen many 34's (including ours) where the GPS Unit is mounted below the Nav Pod thereby leaving the pedestal "grip bar" clear. Frank

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

Very nice Kevin!

[Ralph Masters]

Kevin,
Good looking instalation.  BZ.

Ralph