Saturday, November 16, 2013

Videos: Fjallraven Winter Jackets and GPS Dash Mount

Some more random product "prostituting" videos have been put together. Bad news is that I forgot to change the aspect ratio of my camera to 16:9 from 4:3. And I was too lazy to crop the photos, so enjoy the vertical black bars!


Fjallraven Cantwell Winter Jacket Overview
This is my newest Fjallraven and winter jacket. I'm up to four Fjallraven jackets now: 2 spring, 2 winter. Being 5'4" and having a hard time finding clothes that fit me, I go crazy when I do find a brand that does. From what I remember, this is a Swedish clothing brand. They seem to focus on clothes for outdoor activities.

The Cantwell is a very nice looking jacket that looks a bit like the Canada Goose bombers, but I believe the Cantwell uses fake fur. Best part is that this jacket runs a bit larger at the waist than all of my other Fjallraven jackets and the waist band is elastic. Problem with my other jackets is that they are tight around the waist (all are XS), so I need to move the double zipper up to avoid tightness around my waist -- very bad when sitting down. I don't want to size up because every other part fits perfectly.

I only bought it earlier in the year, so I still haven't winter-tested it yet. The insulation feels thicker than the Greenland jacket I have, so I'm not too concerned.

Fjallraven Greenland Winter Jacket Overview
Have had this jacket for around three years by now. It's a Sherpa lined version of the Greenland jacket and I've worn it on and off for the past few years. I can't say I love it, but it is pretty warm and snow resistant.

The biggest issue I have with this jacket is that the Sherpa lining doesn't end at the neck: the hood is also fully lined. This means that the white Sherpa material is fully exposed against a green exterior shell when the hood isn't worn. A more minor issue is the lack of a drawstring for the hood to make it fit tighter. For me, it's not a big issue because the hood is small enough that when it is worn, it fits around my head very tightly and only the strongest wind can blow it off. Also, having to undo the double zipper and move it up to avoid tightness isn't the best feeling on the coldest winter days.

That looks like a lot of complaints, but it's still a pretty good jacket even though I don't love it. My wool pea coat is my main winter workhorse. On days when wind would blow straight through my pea coat, this one holds up.

Garmin GPS Dash Mount Overview
My job used to involve a lot of road trips to unfamiliar places or just many places. A car GPS device became a necessity. For the first year, I used a the supplied suction cup mount and had to get used to a $500 GPS fly off the windshield onto the floor while going 100 km/h. It was more annoying than dangerous. Over time, I got better at making it stick longer on the windshield, but even clean glass and spit would fail after hours baking in the sun.

I finally got a dash mount from Best Buy that's a weighted base with a flat area to attach a suction cup. Unfortunately, the suction cup still got baked in the sun and would detach after a few hours. The good thing is that it would tip over rather than go flying most of the time.

One day, I spotted a sale on Amazon for a Garmin branded GPS mount. This one had a fixed arm that locked into the base -- no suction cup. Not once did it ever fall off and on a few occasions, I wanted to get a second one because I sometimes needed to run two GPS units at once. Check it out here: Garmin Portable Friction Mount.

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