War Wagon's CB/Scanner install

[Adondo]

You may have to come here and work for us!

Those Ram ball mounts are heard to beat, and they tend to stay put too.

You'll have to paint that bracket flat black to match, I hope you know.

[The_War_Wagon]

You may have to come here and work for us!

By the time I'm done screwing this up, you'll disavow ALL knowledge of me!

Those Ram ball mounts are heard to beat, and they tend to stay put too.

You'll have to paint that bracket flat black to match, I hope you know.

I've been THINKING about that... I might well order a black one from somebody and do that.

[The_War_Wagon]

Well, the GOOD news is, my correct-sized mounts finally arrived (and I'm going to reserve the right to tear Ram Mounts a new one over their non-existent customer 'service' to date. They'll sell you a mount faster than you can say "How much?," but their ability to ACKNOWLEDGE an e-mail, drop a dime, or otherwise say 'BOO' after the sale, leaves MUCH to be desired... ), but the bad news is - even taking INTO account some foresight and additional planning, my tinkertoy setup may NOT work as envisioned. More on that later.

Time to install antennaes! Starting with the CB, I finally figured out where to do it! TONS o' crappy cellphone pics a-comin'!

Since the roof rails are aluminum, and given my choice of mount, that's where I decided to mount it - left rear edge of the rail.

Yes, there will be some stress at highway speeds (which I rarely acheive), but I'm a BIG proponent of barrel springs on CB antennaes, to help offset mount stress in such a location. My antenna is a Wilson 3 footer, so it should be fine in this location. 18' of coax to run - should be plenty leftover in a Commander, right? WRONG! Turns out, it was BARELY enough!

No holes necessary (aside from the rook rack!) - just a lotta routing, so here we go.



Down and underneath the plastic trim, and behind the tailight.

[The_War_Wagon]

Ran it along underneath the hatch seal, to that split below the latch. A little of this helps keep it in place in out of sight places!



All our plastic trim in the back makes running it around and hiding it out of sight easy enough!

Hiding it underneath the plastic side trim where applicable, along the way!

After making the turn out from underneath the left rear door trim, it's under the seats, and out behind the console. Zip ties help hold it in place up against the bottom of the driver's seat, by running them through openings in the rear edge of the seat tracks.

That left JUST enough to come out, and mount into this doodad.

NO entertainment center in my Commander means, E - Z mounting!

[The_War_Wagon]

As for that radio bracket mounting issue...

Installing a mount that actually fits on the trim piece - a little RTV silicone gasket goop to help it stick better was also used.

Excess wipes away easily enough.

Here's one possible configuration (I still have an additional 6" long arm and dual-ball joint to utilize). Problem is, it's so TOP heavy, I know it'll NEVER hold on this ball and where it's mounted (trim), even with city driving.

KNOWING that would probably be the case, I ordered THIS double joint SPECIFICALLY, to provide an additional mounting point. Perhaps bolted to some 1/8" sheet plate, screwed in alongside the console on the passenger's side for stability.

Shoot - I may just end up using 1/8", 2' long brackets mounted to either side of the console, to mount them above the console thusly! They've GOT to go there anyways - it may be back to the drawing board altogether on the radio mounts.

[1USMC]

I enjoy and learn from your thread with your trials and tribulations.

Your not alone out there with your good and your not so good days !!

;-)

[The_War_Wagon]

Believe it or not, I actually got EVERYTHING installed today!!! I got it all figured out - pictures to follow, BUT... I'm a 6' jumper of co-ax short, of actually having it all together!!!



Radio Shack has a 10' strand available - I may run out and get it tonite. I'll also post pics shortly as well!