Car Harness or back seat holder for Laptops?

August 25, 2005 3:01 PM

I have a laptop (Powerbook G4 12") that I want to use in our tiny (Mazda Protege5) car for showing DVD's to my kids on long drives.

The kids are squished into 3 child carseats in the back (they actually fit nicely). The problem is WHERE to put the laptop. I've searched on Google and the only back-of-seat harnesses I've seen are for DVD players 7-9" in size. Lots of people have wedged the computer into the space in between the two front seats, but that space is way too small in our car. Placing the computer in the lap of the kid in the middle is not an option, as it will result in a grouchy kid with a hot lap and probably a wrecked Powerbook. Any suggestions?
Again, I checked on Google and I also searched the Ask Mefi archives, so I'm sorry if I'm a moron and this has been asked before. Thanks.

posted by chococat to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Make sure it's well secured however you do it; people are regularly injured and killed by unsecured objects flying forward in a collision.

Are you sure you want to expose your laptop to damage this way? 7" models of portable dvd players are available for $120 at WalMart, CircuitCity etc, which I realize isn't chump change but it's less than a replacement LCD for your G4, which strikes me as the lowest cost car-tastrophy that could befall it. I see ~$65 models on ebay.

If you're determined to go forward with this, I think I would go to Home Depot and pick up some velcro strips, a small bit of planking (they sell 'project squares' in varying sizes over in the wood section) and some 1" dowling. A few screws through the plate into cut-in-half dowling to make something that looks like the meal tray on a high chair when you remove it and you can presumably strap the laptop to the square and the dowling to either side of the middle childseat.

If that's not workable then perhaps you can set the dowling into a V shape under the square and have the point of the V on your center console and the 2 'legs' on the rear seat, making a platform for the laptop.

Did I mention you should secure it so it doesn't fly forwards and kill you?
posted by phearlez at 3:43 PM on August 25, 2005

Here's a little table for laptops that fits on the back of the seat. It would mean angling the laptop so all 3 kids could watch, though. Here's the manufacturer's site which has a number of laptop mounting options...if you're price conscious, then they may not be the option you're looking for.
posted by bachelor#3 at 3:45 PM on August 25, 2005

Perhaps you (or someone who can sew) could make some sort of sling that would hang from the front seat headrests, with a secondary strap on the bottom, tied into the front seatbelts where they bolt into the floor (to keep the sling from acting as a swing and whacking the middle kid in the head on the backswing). Maybe someone you know still does macramé?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:21 PM on August 25, 2005

Best answer: This article in today's NYT Circuits section (*cough*) is a quick review of a product made exactly for this.
posted by mathowie at 5:12 PM on August 25, 2005

Don't know how much money you want to spend, but this is really the best solution for you. Two screens (one for each seat) three headphone jacks, plays DVD's region-free... about $225 from Wal-Mart. They also carry them at Radio Shack, but they're another $50 (they just had a sale on them that expired two days ago... $180!). You can also hook up one the monitors to, say, an XBOX (or any video source, really).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:32 PM on August 25, 2005

If you use the device Matt linked to, which looks really cool, just make sure the keyboard is protected in case someone gets car sick. Watching movies in the car ups the chances of car sickness.
posted by caddis at 12:56 AM on August 26, 2005

Response by poster: These are all awesome suggestions, thanks.
The home-made angle probably isn't going to work for me, as I'm kind of a loser at building anything. I know I should probably just buy a portable DVD player, but I really don't have a spare $200 (more in Canada) because I spent too much money on things like....a Powerbook. I will probably go the route that Matt suggested, although the idea of exposing my laptop all spread-eagled like that is starting to really scare me. I mean, it would be INCHES away from a 5 year-old's feet. I have some thinking to do.
Thanks again.
posted by chococat at 6:16 AM on August 26, 2005