A little late night Lowe's Engineering...

[sperry]

So, Matt and I built camera mounts for the Subys. They turned out pretty decent, especially considering they cost about $10 each, not including the gimbal thingy:



The mount consists of about 1.5 feet of 1" box aluminum, one u-shaped bracket/hook dealy, two wing nuts, one end cap, and a 2" suction cup. Plus the nice gimbal mount from Gordon's Photo.

The u-shaped bolt loops through the center child restraint bracket, holding the mount down to the seat (it actually puts quite a dent in the seat's foam.. we dunno how it'll effect the seat in the long run, but I wouldn't leave it on there for more than a few days at a time unless you're willing to risk a permanent dent). The suction cup locates the rear and helps absorb the shock of pitching up and down.

This whole setup is very simple and much more stable than the one I built for my passenger seat headrest. In fact, I build my own version of this new rear seat mount that bolts into a secondary bracket that attaches under the 3rd brake light on my WRX instead of using a suction cup. (STi has no 3rd brake light in the way). My mount is a bit more complicated, since you have to fabricate a second bracket, but it's also a tough more stable (we think) because it's bolted in at the rear. (Pictures and maybe a test movie to come tomorrow once we have some daylight.)

Here's some crappy video we shot "testing" the mount at 1:30am:

Camera Matts_Camera_Mount_Test.avi (15.5MB DivX)

IBstreetracingfingerpointing

[Nick Koan]

Wow, nice. That ain't half bad. Matt's bringing his to Buttonwillow I assume?

[Dean]

Cool. Great idea.

To relieve the stress on the seat, a cross peice of your square stock just behind the seat would help like a + or a cross. You can double it up if necessary.

In the rear, I'm not sure you need a second mount point at all. Just a friction surface to prevent left to right slip, and disperse the load.

No reason to penetrate the deck I don't think, and I fear if somebody whacks Matt's mount, it might crack the rear glass.

On the tail, just stop an inch or two short and make a T with a single peice of your square stock, or just a flat piece on the bottom either just roughed up, or throw some grip tape or old inner tube on the bottom. You can shim it to match the angle if you want.

I think I have some flat aluminum stock lying around if you want.

I think I'll make one as well.

[Dean]

I also think one of the micro carabiners to hook the camera strap to the passenger side child seat tie down would be good to act as a backup.

You could also use a single hook in place of the U bolt to make installation easier.

[MattR]

Yeah, i'll have it at Buttonwillow...

It turned out quite well, I really am surprised at how stable it is.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Cool. Great idea.

Thanks! It actually came out better than I expected. I didn't think the suction cup would work at all, but it's very stable.

Originally Posted by Dean

To relieve the stress on the seat, a cross peice of your square stock just behind the seat would help like a + or a cross. You can double it up if necessary.

I actually had something like that planned for my mount, but it made things more complicated, and would require a much longer U-bolt, which I simply didn't have "in stock" last night.

Originally Posted by Dean

In the rear, I'm not sure you need a second mount point at all. Just a friction surface to prevent left to right slip, and disperse the load.

The rear mounting point has 3 purposes, it has to resisit yaw, pitch and longitudinal movement. The connection at the child saftey hook really only pulls the mount down to the deck, so at that point the mount has quite a bit of movement. The seat and the rear cup are really what keeps the mount planted. The only direction theis mount isn't very stable in is roll, so if you've got a camera that's weight isn't very centered on the mount, it will translate into bounce. Your suggestion of some 90deg cross braces at the rear and near the seat would help the stability a lot, but would also mean all the yaw and lateral support would be entirely from friction between the braces and the rear deck. I wanted at least two "fixed" points in the mount. You can see what I mean when you see my mount. It's actually screwed in under the brake lamp on my car. Matt's mount was basically a version of my mount redesigned to work without the brake light.

Originally Posted by Dean

No reason to penetrate the deck I don't think, and I fear if somebody whacks Matt's mount, it might crack the rear glass.

As I said above, this mount makes no holes anywhere, it's connected to the center child saftey seat hook.

Originally Posted by Dean

On the tail, just stop an inch or two short and make a T with a single peice of your square stock, or just a flat piece on the bottom either just roughed up, or throw some grip tape or old inner tube on the bottom. You can shim it to match the angle if you want.

I think this is a good idea, and coupled with the T at the front behind the seat, I think you could have a very stable mount that doesn't push the seat at all. I'm just concerned with the bulk of the mount in the rear-view, and the lack of two distinct fixed mounting points.

Originally Posted by Dean

I think I have some flat aluminum stock lying around if you want.

That's cool, I'm unofficially sponsored by Lowes, so I get all my aluminum there.

Originally Posted by Dean

I think I'll make one as well.

Take a look at mine and Matt's in person. I'm sure it'll help you with some ideas and help you to improve on the ones we made.

[sperry]

Here's some pics of my mount. The bracket screws down under the rear brake light, and the loop is for attaching a security cable to the camera.