Just as many others have, I wished I had checked here before ordering from this Lidomounts company(?) or whatever it is. But I did order. He charged my credit card on 12/26/2012. The items ordered arrived about 2 weeks later. I'm sure I sent half a dozen emails before, during, and after the process. Not one was answered.
My first issue (other than the long lag time) was how to mount a TM-V71A to the seat bolt mount. The web site seems to imply that you will receive something specific to the radio you specify. Never one to discount dumb luck, I "discovered" a YouTube video (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYnZGZ9eHyQ) on how to attach this style Kenwood to the mount. Problem 1 solved.
The next problem was that the 4-hole AMPS plate holding the radio head didn't attach very securely to the mount column. The two parts slid pretty freely and I had visions of a radio head flying into the back seat or worse. I contacted Lido (hah!) and got the expected response: nothing.
So, looking around on the web, I found the company that appears to be the main distributor of this stuff. What Lido calls an LM-300,
Arkon Resources, Inc. (
http://www.arkon.com) calls a GN088-SBH. The 4-hole AMPS plate is an AP015. (BTW, I didn't misspell the company name, it's Arkon not Akron.) I decided to drop them a line saying that, although I didn't buy the GN088-SBH/AR015 from them, I needed some help. Almost before I hit the send button, Aaron Roth, VP, Marketing & Sales, responded. He said (paraphrasing here), that he went to the warehouse and tried to replicate my problem. When he couldn't, he assumed that the ones I had were just too loose and sent me an AP015 (AMPS plate) and dual t-tab adapter head. That was on January 14th. The parts arrived on January 18th, no questions, no charge.
I strongly recommend that, in looking for mobile mounting items, you check
Arkon. The kind of customer service they provide is nothing short of amazing. Thank you very much, Aaron!
73,
Bob -- KD2UJ
