SATNAV in a Defender

Hi David, the latest GPS chipsets do pull in a fairly good signal on the dash of a defender, but by far the best signal is obtained by using an external antenna. But remember the Defender lid is aluminium so is about as good at holding magnets as a piece of wood. Some people have stuck sheets of steel to the inside of the roof to make it work. On mine the Snorkel has a steel cyclone top so the external antenna sticks perfectly on that and is higher than the roof.

I have removed the ashtray from my dash and fitted a desktop iPaq mount in there to hold my Satnav. Alternatively one of the suction mounts is good, but can struggle a bit when going off road!

And don't forget the average Satnav is no good for going off road due to the maps not including byways. For good offroading an alternative option is to use something like Memory Map but you'll need an iPaq or a smart phone to run it on.

Regards,

Dave.

I've always used a suction mount in both my off-roaders, but to stop them falling off I mount it so that the GPS unit or cradle is touching the top of the dash so that it can't jiggle up and down independently of the vehicle. It's worked so far, since I did that I've never had it drop off.

Hi David, you don't sya what type of SatNav you're looking for but by far the majority of current generation receivers will work fine in your Defender. They are very much more capable than earlier designs and an external antenna should not be necessary.

In my 1986 Defender I discovered the following:

remove ashtray insert Magellan 315 rotate ashtray through 90 degrees insert ashtray, now vertical, alongside Magellan

No external antenna, perfect GPS reception, perfect fit, doesn't even rattle.

Now how did the guys in Solihull know, in 1986, that a Magellan made in 1999/2000 would be exactly that size?

Obviously the Magellan has no mapping, but it takes me faultlessly from waypoint to waypoint and I can then take it out and start walking if I wish.

I use a Brodit mount. Expensive but good quality as for the external, so far I haven't needed one

In message , David writes

My 110 has 3 GPS antennas on it.

Two are mounted under the plastic dummy vent panel on the front wing (for Gamin and speed camera device)

I use tomtom on my PDA via a bluetooth receiver sitting on the dash. Which works pretty well as the screen is heated.

The thing that really messes it up is on the other one with a rollcage across the top of the screen.

My el-cheapo Aldi £120 jobbie works fine stuck to the windscreen of my 110 CSW

Sorry - mean to add this. A couple of years old now and so actually not that cheap but it works.

My Streetpilot III worked sitting on the dash, but performance was vastly improved by an external aerial.

had to get another ext aerial for my tom-tom as it would not pick up a signal due to the step angle of the screen, currys were selling them off a £10 if your lucky enough to find any, failing that about £12 from fleabay

If it's an old system you 'may' need an external antenna. If it's a current model with a SiRFStarIII, GlovalLocate, UBlox or MTK chipset then it'll work fine regardless.