Owning an electric vehicle when the charging port is on the opposite side from where the charger is mounted can be problematic. Sometimes, the cable isn’t long enough to make it to the other side. Other times, it’s cumbersome to maneuver the cable around the rear of the vehicle and then up to the front where the charge port is located.
Consider an EV charger cable ceiling mount.
We’ve previously discussed phone and tablet mounting solutions for several popular EVs including the Tesla Model Y and even some not so mainstream vehicles like the Lexus RZ 450e.
Some Ideas We Didn’t Like
It helps to have a charger with a 25 foot cable. While there are cable extensions available, it’s something that can potentially degrade power delivery but if the cable is too short, there may not be a choice.
Several YouTube videos are out there that suggest utilizing a tool balancer to suspend the connector. After trying a few of these, it was apparent they will exert an upward pull on the connector and potentially risk damaging the charging port. Potentially a more elegant solution, but too risky.
To counter the upward pull of the tool balancer, there is a YouTuber that recommends using duct tape to attach a two pound ankle weight to the connector. This also seemed like a bad idea.
Our EV Charger Cable Ceiling Mount Project
The tool balancer didn’t work well enough for us and duct taping an ankle weight to the connector was out of the question so after doing a lot of research, we were able to construct an excellent solution that is safer and less expensive.
Here’s what we did:
The EV charging cable is suspended from the ten foot ceiling with a few evenly spaced large diameter spring clips attached to a metal chain. The metal chains are attached to a ceiling hook. The EV charger cable is then looped through the large spring clips. This provides easy adjustment while suspending the EV charger cable high above the vehicle.
When not in use, the EV charger cable connector is parked on a J1772 mounting dock that is attached to the wall near the front of the vehicle. After pulling into the garage, it’s a quick few feet to the front to grab the connector and plugging it into the charging port.
For those that have a Tesla and are using the NACS connector, there’s plenty of those types of mounting docks out there too. Whatever you purchase, ensure it’s the type that has mounting holes around the perimeter as there are several manufacturers that put the holes deep within the mounting port and these are much more difficult to attach.
Another tip is to ensure all of these are attached to a beam. The EV charger cable is fairly heavy and the weight could potentially pull it out of a poorly anchored attachment.
Summary
The amount of hassle this saves versus pulling the EV charger cable around the rear of the vehicle then adjacent to the entire length of the vehicle to the charging port is significant and especially appreciated in the winter.
Hopefully this helps anyone trying to figure out how to attach your EV charger cable to the ceiling of your garage. Using the tips contained in this article will hopefully save the reader time and money in configuring their charging setup at home.