i wish the plans weren't so expensive, my wife wanted me to get one until she saw it was $35/month

You can enable or disable the plans as needed or when you do trips.

$35/month is the no-contract plan

You have an activation cost, but you also can turn OFF your plan entirely.

but then when you want to use it its $35/month, i.e. the no contract price

i wish it wasn't that expensive, $35 is more than its worth to me until i take longer trips where i am more remote

It looks to me like there's an $11 a month plan too, or $14 for the "freedom" version, according to their PDF here https://explore.garmin.com/en-US/inr...es-us-only.pdf. I ordered it from Amazon and it said backordered about 4 weeks, so I'll find out for sure when I get the thing.

If you have someone with a promotive account you can get the SE version for like 216 dollars.

I do the 35 dollar a month plan which is 40 incoming/40 outgoing. Do not give away your delorme account address, as it's VERY easy to burn through your messaging plans.

Also realize depending on line of sight it can take 6-8 minutes to send a message. But it's a great device.

Whats a promotive account? Not too late to cancel my order and get it cheaper.

its good enough for emergency but not anything beyond that, the $35 plan is the cheapest plan for tracking and messaging

That's really what I'm looking for, emergency contact. I don't think I really need the messaging, but I'll play with it and find out.

This is the simplest and sturdiest idea I've seen. I couldn't get my console cover to budge but if I can I will give this side mount ball a try.

For now I ordered two large RAM Mount clamps to fit the side of the long slot next to the shifter and I'll give the whole system a try. With an iPhone6 and an iPad2 I ordered the mounts and clamps to fit. I want the iPhone close at hand so I can text while driving. Just kidding. I want to be able to view traffic reports on the iPhone and maps on the iPad. Photos to follow when I get it delivered and set up.

I find the Toyota console navigator to be cluttered with controls and shaped horizontal when you want to see where you're headed not what's out on the sides. Most of the screen is useless because of the wide format.

How to: Center Console / Shifter Trim Removal and Cean

Quick favor. Center console removal.

Thanks Dave. @phillyd2 That was really helpful. I'll give it a try again.
Dave

No problem. As mentioned, pull to the point you think it's breaking and then pull a little more to release the clips. You will laugh how easy it was

I used the same setup as @phillyd2 , however I added a bracket to stablize the plastic.

Even with aluminum brackets behind the plastic for the ball mount, the actual plastic itself is not firm enough to prevent wobbles, the bottom pushes in and out too easily.

What I did was fab a quick little aluminum bracket that supported the bottom to a bolt so that I can pull in the bottom to keep it tight and prevent wobble. This was a quick proof of concept, I am going to actually make a bracket that all the screws can attach too which will have a tab like this to mount to a bolt. It is screwed tight to the plastic and then another nut (and washer and lock washer and backer nut) is used to pull the entire screw towards the bolt.



Right now I have the ram mount post extension friction fit with electric tape to make sure I like the height before PVC gluing the post together, but I think the location works well with my first cut.