Course Motorsports Magnetic Phone Mount

The folks at CourseMS sent me one of their Direct Fit Magnetic Phone Mounts for Gen 3 Tacomas. I got it in the mail today and installed it this afternoon.

The installation is simple. Pull the trim plate from the radio. Remove the upper left 10mm bolt holding the radio chassis and loosen the lower left bolt. That will give you sufficient room to lip the mount base behind the chassis and slip the bolt back through the chassis and mount holes. Tighten the bolts back, reinstall the trim plate and you're almost there. Screw the mount ball onto the plate, slip the retainer over the ball, snap the magnetic base over the ball and tighten the retainer over the base. Select the round or rectangular steel plate and adhere to the back of your phone case. You're done. 5 minutes.

My initial impression is that it is a well-made, easy to install mount. I have an iPhone Xs Max and like that I can attach the phone to the base horizontally, the phone doesn't block the vent and I can still access all of the control buttons on the left side of the radio. A huge plus for me is that there is no drilling required. I used the larger rectangular steel plate because of the size of my phone and it holds very securely. In fact, it is so secure that I found if I needed to adjust the phone to level it, it was fairly easy to loosen the mount ball. This was easy fix using a bit of blue Lok-tite. My sense is that I could have used the smaller round steel plate and it would have been just as securely mounted.

I've been using a WeatherTech cup phone mount and haven't been really happy with it. the plus side of the WT mount is that it's close to the USB outlet so I could easily access power and CarPlay. I placed an order for a CPLAY2Air today but will ultimately have to address the power access for longer trips. Another project

You can find other options out there, some cheaper, but I am impressed with the quality, craftsmanship and functionality of the CourseMS mount.

 

Your review is spot on. Here are a few more things for those considering it.

1) With the rectangular magnet (for your phone), wireless charging will not work anymore. I haven't tried it yet with the smaller round magnet (but I will. So, you lose Qi charging.
2) The phone will shake a bit on the mount causing some reflection glare issues. The phone feels very secure on the mount. I'm not saying it will come off, just that the entire mount shakes a bit and it is noticeable because the screen catches the light some. This might be a thing for all phone mounts. Just know that the mount shakes a bit independently of the car dash.
3) It looks great and is hardly noticeable. The install is very, very easy and you don't have to permanently alter anything in your truck. It also looks way less rinky dinky than a suction cup or vent mount (IMO).
4) So far, besides the slight shakiness, I'm very happy with this mount. I do hope that switching to the smaller magnet will let me do Qi charging.

 

I need one of these...

 

Thanks for adding that perspective. I haven't driven with mine yet - will do that today. I don't use the Qi charger - always had a think Ottorbox case that seemed to prevent charging.

 

I want to pick these kit up but can anyone answer me this question. I don't want to apply the adhesive magnet on the back of my phone case and just slip the magnet directly on the back of your phone and put the phone case over it. Will the magnet still work to put the phone on the mount?

 

There is only one magnet. It’s the round one one the dash. The rectangular and round plates are not magnets.

to answer your question, yes, that’s what I’m doing. My review is in the product review thread.

 

Thanks

 

Used mine for the first time on the road while working as chase crew for a hot air balloon this morning. Works well - do get a bit of vibration. It didn't affect my view of the screen and I really didn't tice it unless I was sitting still. So far it's a thumbs up. Looking forward to getting the CPLAY2air so I can run CarPlay.

 

I currently have my iphone X in an otterbox case (defender I think?). I put the rectangular magnet inside the case, but didn't use the adhesive. The magnet is between my phone and the case on the inside of the case. It took a few tries to get it right, but the magnet stays in place just fine and my phone holds very well to the mount.

 

Thanks. I guess I will pull the trigger and order a kit.

 

I think you will like it. Again, the only issue is the slight wobble. But I'm a bit OCD on things like that. I only use the phone holder when navigating, and it doesn't wobble enough to mess that up. Also, the OP is right, the little plate is just metal, not a magnet, but it does interfere with the Qi charging.

 

Thanks. Good to know. I plan to only use it for navigation too.

 

I confirm this, and while I don't use the Qi charger in the truck, my overnight charger is a Samsung Wireless charger for my Samsung phone, and it doesn't charge with the metal plate either.

 

In the scosche kits, you get a few small pieces of vinyl to attach to your phone before sticking the metal plate to the phone. I guess the theory is that it protects the surface of the phone. Did this kit come with anything like that?

 

Not in my kit. But I also put the plate between my phone and my otterbox case.

 

I wish I had done this, I affixed to to the outside of my otterbox defender case. Thinking about scraping it off and trying again.

 

I’m so ocd on my phones that I worried that type of setup would let the plate vibrate against the phone.... scratchy scratch.

I bought a DMM a while back but just haven’t gotten around to figuring out how to get a custom magnet mount on it. This setup looks very much like the one in my car.

 

I just moved mine - It came off fairly easily once I was able to get it going nd stuck on the inside of my Otterbox case.

 

So the adhesive was still viable after removing it? Enough to hold it securely after moving it?

 

Yup. I figured I could use the circular plate if it didn't. I pulled the rectangular one from my case and pressed it onto the inside of the case...and dropped the case on the floor. The plate stayed attached.