I just bought a new Tacoma extended cab and need to get a piece of coax cable about 1/4 inch in diameter into the cab. The cable will be comming from the back side of the back side of the truck and needs to end up under the dash. Any ideas before I have to reinvent the wheel ?
getting wire into cab
Oct 26, 2006
10 Replies
Run it along the frame underneath and then come up through the engine compartment feedthroughs behind the dash. This will save you from any unnecessary cutting.
1/4 inch coax?? You'll be happier with RG-8X Look for a plastic body plug on the backside of the cab between the cab and bed.....then run the coax under the floor mat so it comes up under the dash. In my Tundra, both radios have remote faces so I had to run the connecting cables and a mic cable under the floor mat. The radio bodies are mounted on the floor behind the seat with both the power and coax cables coming through body plugs on the back of the cab.
Thanks for the response. The 1/4 inch coax is rg-8x that I plan on using. This is the first truck I have put a transciever in. Have been putting them in my cars for 30 + years but never a truck. The mount for the antenna was easy as I cut a piece of stainless steel and used one of the screws that holds the tie down rail that runs around the inside of the bed to hold that bracket. I knew others have put transceivers and other things in the cab and would be able to tell me the easy way to get the wiring inside the cab.
Going off the pictures, I believe you will save a lot of work running it under the frame rail and coming in through the engine compartment, over taking out your seats to run it under the carpet. But both systems would work and since it seems you have had everything out already to run your current wiring that may be the easiest way to go. Just make sure you stay away from your power wire to avoid EMI.
Actually, it was very easy to fish the control and mic cables under the floor mat with a coat hanger without removing the seat. The power cables went under the cab by the frame rails then up behind the cab and through a body plug. The #4 power cables were run through "smurf pipe" before I ran them under the cab I also installed a fuse holder and fuse under the hood so on the off chance that a wire got chaffed of pinched, it would blow the fuse and not the battery. EMI has not been a problem. Kenwood TS-480HX, Turbo-Tuner, Tarheel M-200 screwdriver antenna (200 watts) Yeasu FT-7800R, glass mount dual-band antenna on the windshield.(50 watts)
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Noon-Air posted for all of us...
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Hey Nooner, nice job on the install! How did you mount the control heads to the dash?
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Thanx... I used 2 mounts and combined them into 1 for both radio faces. I used this one for the Yaesu dual bander
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the FT-7800R face in the pic) :-) I used this one for the TS-480HX
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With a little modification, it turned out pretty good.....and no holes in the dash :-)
Good to hear the EMI is not a problem. I am going to install a Kenwood dual band rig. I found a body plug just about under the driver's seat. I was able to find the rg8x I shoved through the hole by feeling it through a hole in the carpet under the driver's seat. There was a nice hole in the carpet where a wire goes to the bottom of the driver's seat.
Nice looking install job on your truck.
de KU4PT
Toyota was very considerate towards us (HAM radio operators) when they designed their trucks. I used the glass mount antenna for the dual bander.... no holes in the body, it is a cellular lookalike, and the feed line was easy to run/hide inside the cab.
Thanx :-)
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