I made a backing plate that mounts behind the plastic but I'm not sure it really adds any strength. I did not use any loctite, nor any other type of locking. The tension of the plastic has held everything together well to this point. I have roughly 8,000 miles with the ball mount holding the ipad and is fairly sturdy. It does slightly touch the passenger seat corner, which would controls any shake. The only complaint I have is I would like a bit more rotation to drivers side. As I said above, I'm going to play around with a 1/2" spacer and/or wedge to see what I can gain. Other than that, I don't have any complaints.