Newbee question?

[Sailor K]

Hope people will bear with me. Newbee question. Recently bought a 2019 1500 Classic with the base radio. Wish I had gotten the 8.4" now. I'm only interested in android auto, the backup cam and basic radio. Checkout the infotainment 8.4 option and its hugely expensive. Budget doesn't allow for 4 figure upgrade. I redneck-engineered a 10" android tablet on a suction cup mount and did a hotspot wifi link on my phone. The tablet runs google maps and ties to phone for up to date maps, speed traps, traffic updates, etc, which is what I want. I use the base radio for backup cam. Good news: cheap and works great. Bad news: Tablet overheats in 10 minutes parked in Florida sun even with sun shade and takes 20 minutes to cool off enough to work again. AND periodically the suction mount and tablet lets go and dumps the entire thing in my lap. There are tons of posts and I'm just looking for a cheap 7"+ screen with android auto/google maps mounted in the dash that doesn't lose any stock functions. Any suggestions where to look?

 

[kurek]

Yeah I fooled around with a tablet years ago in an old truck too. Wasn't even a budget thing it was because the OE radio location was below my waist and I didn't want to take my eyes that far off the road for nav.

Well bottom line on all that stuff is cheap mickey-mouse solutions are always a disappointment. At some point I learned the only way to get things that work properly is to be willing to spend the money on things that work properly.

That means living without some stuff, I'm a wage earner like you probably are so I can't just casually drop a thousand bucks. But I'd rather do without something than live with a pain in the butt, half-baked joke and I'd definitely rather spend a thousand bucks up front to do it right than end up spending a thousand bucks in the long run trying to chase down a bullsh** path.

What I'm getting at here is my recommendation is to first look at how much it would cost to do it right, whatever that means. Get a good idea of how much money that costs and then work backward from there if you have to. It might end up cheaper in the long run and a lot less frustrating along the way.