BruceHartman.net

For quite some time I’ve been wanting a mechanism to support a laptop in my truck. I’ve had a few different concepts in mind, from a wedge of foam to fill the passenger seat to various other not-so-great ideas. A week or two ago I saw a setup that intrigued me so I figured it was about time to get off my butt and do something.

First of all, why? Well, the biggest reason is that I want a comfortable workspace for reviewing photographs in the field. Too often when I’m in a new situation I’m learning on the spot and I don’t really know what’s successful beyond the basic exposure information I can get from a histogram. Things like blown highlights, or soft focus & depth of field issues… I’d like to know right away what works and doesn’t and despite the size of the preview screen on my 50D, I just can’t tell if I’ve blown the focus until I see full size images when I get home. Yeah, I’ve always had my laptop and it would be easy enough to setup on the hood of my truck, but this is better.

Mike’s design is more basic than mine and mounts to the cup holder in his center console. So, Monday I tried that, but just couldn’t make it work. Nothing fit tight enough for my taste. Out of frustration I stuffed the original PVC components under the center armrest and was struck by a bit of inspiration. After a little more brainstorming I ran back up to Lowe’s and picked up a few more fittings, and threw together the basic layout you see here (sans wood).

I called in the cavalry Tuesday night and took a ride to David’s house where we knocked out the wood and final assembly in about two hours.

Features:

• We made provision for a small power inverter (the black thing at the front edge) so I can draw power from the truck instead of killing the battery in my laptop.
• The laptop support surface articulates and is removable for driving. The articulation is possible due to the combination of one each 45 and 90 degree elbows.
• The whole thing can be installed or removed in about ten seconds.
• Glue is unnecessary and the lack of will allow for further modifications or adaptations should they be required.
• The entire mechanism, even when fully assembled, doesn’t impeded on either of the two front seats at all.

I still have a bit of finish work to do. I need to paint the wood (stain & polyurethane is an option too), add a nonskid foam pad, and a ledge of some sort for the front edge of the laptop surface. I’m thinking a very sleek low profile drawer pull might do the trick. I also want to add a Velcro strap to go across the laptop to hold it in place.

I’d do a full write up, but for this to work as well for you as it does for me you’d have to have the same seat package as my truck. Still, I think the concepts and basic ideas here might be useful to others. Feel free to post questions and I’ll do my best to answer them.

UPDATED 2009.07.18 – I’ve finished up the mount and added a few more pictures of he finished unit. I’ll actually have an opportunity to use it tonight during a night time shoot downtown with the RPMG. I used a polyurethane/stain blend on all the wood and decided to finally just glue up all the pieces so it was solid. I opted to use a couple of bolts to hold the tee and 90 to the two mounting flanges instead of glue so I wouldn’t waste the two flanges should any changes need to be made. Everything else is glued except for the connection between the laptop surface flange and the rest of the unit. This way I can pop the laptop surface off (with or without the laptop installed) and stow it in the back seat (see the last photo in the gallery). I had considered painting the PVC, but I’d rather have white, than some other color that’s prone to scratching. I might do a test with the Krylon Fusion paint to see how well it bonds to PVC. If it works well I might reconsider and paint it after all. But for now, I’m considering the project finished.

As you can see, the screen sits up really high and would obstruct the driver’s view if you tried to use this while driving. I’m pretty sure you’d get pulled over and ticketed if you tried, so don’t be dumb. For the record, I’m not responsible if you do something stupid.

I’m pleased with the final result and I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces tonight and tomorrow.