Fuel for Thought
Ram Mounts, part 2
I wanted to mount more than one swing arm to the support post. I couldn’t figure out a neat way to do it until I ran across the Tele-Pole with a flange on the RAM website. The flanged post was the solution, so I ordered one. While it was en route I figured out how to take the idea a couple steps forward (many of the world’s problems are solved while driving). I used the idea of the flange but made it a separate plate. The adapter plate can sit on the post in the same position as the flange. An added benefit is that the plate can also attach between any of the swing arm joints. The only modification to existing hardware is the threaded rod or swing arm bolt may need to be replaced with a longer one to account for the thickness of the plate. I made one center hole square to hold a carriage bolt if I needed it for a particular application. The adapter can be made longer (within reason) for additional mount points.
As I mentioned last week, there are two styles of swing arms to consider. One has what I call a fixed wrist (standard), and the other has a wrist that swivels. The swivel joint has octagonal faces inside the joint to help lock the joint into one of eight positions around it’s rotational axis.
Something interesting that I ran across while preparing for this write up is this quick release mount. I include it, because it might be of interest to someone here. There are also ball-less mount plates that can be attached directly to whatever.
Like I said—addictive.
Most of the parts I have shown were items I ran across while entering various search terms on the RAM website. Terms like “swivel,†“swing arm,†“flange,†and “release†returned everything I’ve mentioned here.
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