DIY Easily Removable Smart Phone Holder Suitable for Heavy Duty Phone Cases

For some time, I’ve been looking for a reasonably priced cell phone holder but have been less than impressed with the options. Either they are very expensive, require drilling, block vision, don’t work with heavy duty cell phone cases, and awkward to install – especially if you don’t want them always installed on your truck.

My main use for using a smart phone and mount is to help me find hiking trail heads or follow backcountry / fire roads. I didn't need a mount that is installed permanently or semi-permanently - just something for occasional use. I wanted something that was stable, easy to set up, remove, and adjust - all while being reasonably priced.

Pictures of the DIY mount are below.

Installed



Mount with Extra Magnets



Mount Disassembled




Adhesive Base Plate



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My first attempt was to buy one of these magnetic cell phone holders.

https://amzn.to/3IoN15A



I soon found out they do not work at all with heavy duty cell phone cases if you install the adhesive metal plate beneath the case (my particular case has a kickstand so I didn’t want to install it outside of the case as recommended). I kept the magnetic holders and the adhesive metal plates as spare parts.

In my second attempt, I bought:

This magnetic camera mounting base with 1/4 Mini Ball Head, with 1/4’’-20 Male Thread Stand (24lb Vertical Magnetic Pull Force)

https://amzn.to/3DonLsj



And, this universal cellphone tripod mount adapter. There are numerous options for this adapter, but this is the only one I could find where it confirmed there was a mounting hole on the back as well as on the bottom. If I wanted to mount the phone vertically, I needed to have one with a mounting hole on the back.

https://amzn.to/3pyx306



When I got the magnetic camera mounting base, I was a bit concerned on how strong the magnetic attraction was between it and the adhesive metal plate (I had these as spare parts as mentioned above). So, I tore apart my old magnetic cell phone holders, removed the neodymium magnets and glued them (with Gorilla Instant Glue) to the magnetic camera mounting base. This improved the attraction between the base and the adhesive metal plate substantially.

If you don’t have extra neodymium magnets or the metal adhesive bases like I did, you can get them easily on Amazon as well.

The real test came on a recent trip to Utah which included driving the White Rim Road and Potash Road in Canyonlands. If you’ve ever driven these roads you know how rough they are with a lot of jarring motions due to the rocks and uneven terrain. To my surprise, the phone and holder didn’t budge a fraction of an inch. This continued on the numerous backcountry roads and highways I drove on the trip. So, I would call it a success.

Total Price in CDN$ was about $50 when I bought it but I’m sure if you searched around some more, you could find cheaper and slightly different ways of doing it. For example, I know you can get a 60lbs vertical magnetic pull force mounting base

https://amzn.to/3rxC23H

which means you would only need to buy the tripod mount adapter and the adhesive metal plates.

Hope this gives you some ideas on other options that are out there for phone mounts.