Cell Phone Holder

After many very long road trips in my wife's SUV that's equipped with Android Auto, I've come to the conclusion that I actually prefer having a separate screen with the phone map on it rather than taking up the vehicle screen. In her car, the phone was pretty easy to mount to a vent. In my previous car, I simply drilled one carefully placed hole in the dash and mounted a 17mm ball. 17mm ball mounts are the size that Garmin used in their GPS mounts, so it's very common to find accessories with the same ball size. Anyhow, I've been trying to figure out how to mount a cell phone in the Ridgeline so it's up high and easy to see and reach. The dash layout doesn't make that easy. I'd be willing to drill a hole to mount another 17mm ball, but I can't find a spot that isn't either soft material or in the way of other buttons or displays. This is what I've come up with. It isn't exactly done yet, but it's working pretty well so far, so I thought I'd share.

First, I bought a ProClip phone mount that is specifically designed for Ridgelines and Pilots.

This mount clips onto the left edge of the left-center vent and uses the joint between the dash pad and gauge cluster to grip. It's difficult to explain, but the pictures will show how it works. There's no drilling and it snaps on in about 2 seconds. It also comes off easily, too. This mount is designed to be used with ProClip's phone holders, but I wanted to use something else.

Then I bought this 17mm metal ball mount.

Then I bought this wireless charger.

There are lots of wireless chargers out there that will work with that 17mm ball mount. This particular one uses Apples MagSafe charging system. The MagSafe system puts a metal ring on the back of your phone and then a matching ring of magnets in the charger. I have an Android phone, so my phone doesn't come with the metal ring like many modern Apple phones. So I also bought this phone case for my Samsung Galaxy S22 phone, which has the metal ring embedded in the case.

With this case on my phone, now I have the appropriate metal ring on the back that is attracted by the magnets in the wireless charger. My phone still charges just fine on all other wireless chargers I've got, which is probably 3 or 4.

The metal ball easy attaches to the ProClip mount, but I didn't like how the phone ended up partly obscured behind the steering wheel. So I cut off the angled phone attaching plate from the ProClip mount and fabricated my own simple piece of aluminum. I took the ball off of the 17mm metal ball mount and mounted it to the aluminum plate. I shaped the aluminum so that it positioned my phone to the right of the steering wheel, up high enough to not block the dash vent, just under my line of sight when the phone is installed, and still left of the radio buttons.

Anyhow, here are some pictures. This first one is showing the ProClip base with the original mount sawed off and laying to the right. My aluminum plate is attached and the MagSafe charger is attached.

It's hard to get a picture of my phone stuck to the magnetic charger, when I use my phone to take the pictures, lol. I'll probably take it apart again and paint the aluminum plate and find some nicer looking socket headed hardware. So far I like this solution because of how super-easy it is to use. Just bring the phone close to the charger and the magnets suck it into proper position. When leaving the Ridgeline, just grab the phone and it pops right off. It grips firmly enough that so far I haven't had the phone move at all while attached to the charger.