The Install

The big project. Installing in my 2007 Toyota Tacoma.  Why?  Because I can.The real reason is because I have high hopes of spending a lot of time in the mountains this summer.  If something goes wrong, I want to be able to reach someone…anyone.

UPS delivered the radio monday afternoon and I started working right away since I had to go out of town the following day.

Coax and power leads

First order of business was getting the power leads and coax through the firewall.  This proved to be a little more difficult than expected.  The main grommet already had a big fat 4AWG wire running through it for the AC inverter. I found another grommet that would barely fit 2 power leads and coax inside of the power loom.

I ran the coax into a duplexer and then two seperate runs of coax to the radio.  One for VHF/UHF and the other for HF+50.  On the HF side, I had to run into a 9:1 UNUN and I grounded its input.

 

Antenna mount and ground strap

The antenna is mounted with a hood channel mount I picked up from a local CB shop.  I ran a flat braded grounding strap to a bolt to ensure a good ground. Also, I ran grounding straps from the body to the frame and ground the exhaust to the frame,  Not much noise, but still a little that I need to hunt down.

 

 

 

 

Radio and Tuner

The 2 coax runs make their way by different paths to the radio and tuner which I mounted under the front passenger seat.  From under the seat, I ran the head control cable and a CAT5 cable to a coupler so I could use the microphone jack on the radio body instead of the one on the head unit.  I did this simply for looks.  All cables run under/behind panels so they are out of sight.  I was looking for a clean install and I think I did pretty good.

 

 

 

Head Unit

I mounted the head unit with heavy duty fastener (thick plastic velcro like stuff).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Microphone Mount

I mounted the microphone in an open spot near the panel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple completed pictures of the install.

 

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