I've been planning to develop a cheaper version of the radically overpriced laptop desks in truck stops for a while now. I actually have the plans in my head including black plastic mounts and aluminum tube machined aluminum hardware but i have no time. So i thought id post my quick, dirty, cheap and extremely effective solutions. Note these are for specific trucks.
Freightliner: Use 1/4" or 3/16" plywood. a piece a foot by 2 feet should be plenty. Heres a picture of the parts. Use industrial velcro available from walmart NOT the garbage at truck stops. It ocmes in rolls about 2" wide by 10 feet long or so. You can buy the tinier packs but they're a ripoff. You can use the lightweight velcro to hold yoru laptop down but not for the rest.
http://opticalmoments.com/freightliner-truck-desk.jpg
Make two of each piece except the 4" square though you can make two of it if you want.
You will also need another piece of the size you want. Ive found what works best for me actually is a piece about 5" by 6". You can have it as large as you want up to the size of the laptop or even larger though that makes it bulky and hard to adjust to where yo uwant.
Attach the 4" square to the bottom of the short side of the two L's.
Its purpose is to provide stability and attach the industrial velcro that attaches it to the truck. If you made two of the 4" squares attach one on top of the L short side and one on bottom. Its handy to hold things like a usb hub, external hard drive or whatever.
Apply some of the soft Fuzzy velcro to the back of the long side of the l which will go against the dash. This is just to protect the dash. Now attach the two weird shaped l's parallel to the sides of the big l shaped thing you've made. Drywall screws are fantastic for this and you can adjust the desk that way. Attach the last piece - 4x6" or whatever to the two pieces you just screwed on. Note that except for where those two pieces attach its good to use wood glue as well. Trucks can vibrate anythign to pieces.
Put a couple strips of industrial velcro across the top of your dash. Place them horizontally, not in the direction the truck drives. If not eventually they will come loose.
Now place as much of the rough side velcro on the 4x6 piece as you want. More is better. You should only need a couple very small pieces on yoru laptop. I'd say 4 pieces about 1"x1" would be perfect as they allow you to adjust the laptop, dont clutter up your laptop with velcro and will hold the laptop fine.
You now have a quickly easily removeable laptop desk. I pull mine out twice a week. You could also set it up so the top holds your cb or whatever if you wanted but i like mine small and lightweight. You could also put hinges on the 4x6" piece but you need to support the two sides if you do a tiny bit. a small wooden rod should do it. That would allow you to tilt it up to see if you wanted. Not worth it imho.
Problems - because of where it sits it will block your sight of some things. The radio isnt easy to see and you'll need to get used to reaching under the desk for your brakes and air suspension/etc but honestly its not a problem and i dont even think about it. This thing blows away the commercial ones as you literally dont need to take your eyes off the road to see it.
I'll be posting a couple setups for a pete 387/other/angled dash desk next. It isnt nearly as unobtrusive. Hope this helps someone.
PS i once made one of both these and one of the 387 desks in 30 minutes each by pulling into walmart/lowes and buying what i needed.
