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I just bought a Garmin Zumo 450 for my 2008 Speedmaster and am not sure the correct way to wire this thing up. Has anyone here done this? Any info would be a great help. Pics would also be helpful.

thanks

the first season I had mine I just ran the wires back direct to the battery. I now have it switched via a relay. There are pros and cons either way but if it's the only add-on you've got I'd say just run it to the battery.

a gps pulls very little power. I just wired mine up to my taillight circuit. In retrospect I would have done it direct to the battery. that way I could run it without having to turn the key on.

Yankee Dog

I'm getting close to doing the same thing and was considering taping into the Parking Light wire in the headlight.....and maybe eliminating that little light all together....which is fused. Someone here on the forum suggested that was the way to go.

i put mine right to the battery. maybe add a inline fuse but i dont think its needed

Frank

Thanks for all the info...I wired mine direct to the battery.

Now I am thinking about splicing the cable and adding a quick release just before it connects to the cradle. This way I can remove the GPS and the cradle at the same time. It will also prevent theft of the cradle.

Bob

A couple of things: the fuse is really needed to protect your wiring if something bad happens and whatever circuit you tap into should be something you really can live without (parking light); also, you can pop the wire off the cradle once the gps is off but(at someone else's suggestion I replaced the wingnut holding the cradle with a nylock nut and I think it would now be way too much trouble for someone to steal the empty cradle.

There was a link awhile ago to ebay for a handle bar mount for the Garmin 550 GPS unit. Was the round ball type. Can't now find it. Anyone save the link? Thanks. It was not a Garmin accessory.

FYI. AMA members are supposed to get 20% off on Garmin products.

Clay

You are possibly looking for the Ram Mount system:

http://www.ram-mount.com/

Close....but not a Ram product. Their mount for the c550 is a piece of junk that lets the GPS bounce off the mount at the first pot hole. The one I'm looking for is a no-name unit that looks like this, but has a smaller mounting ball.
http://products.ram-mount.com/rammount/productdetail.aspx?partnumber=RAM-B-231ZU

Bill....you probably have the Zumo 550.....good choice....mine is the Street Pilot c550....more of an automobile style GPS. Just trying to not spent the 8 or 9 hundred dollars it would take to get the Zumo here in Canada.

Was this it?

http://www.techmounts.com/products/index.php?page_function=detail&product_id=15

Thanks Robert, but no, that's not it either. It was a simple handle bar ring style with a small ball sticking off it. It was an ebay offering which I can't find anymore. I'm going to move on and purchase a refurbished Garmin 2730 for a good price and see how that works out. The 2730 is a Motorcycle friendly GPS, is water proof, and you can assemble a nice mount for it.

Bill....one would need to add something like this to to the main unit. I'm going to pursue this a little further when I'm done with the forum tonight.

http://www.techmounts.com/products/index.php?page_function=detail&product_id=19