Cell Booster Project & Aux Fuse Panel

So I have almost finished my cell booster project, and I wanted to post some details and pics so all you guys who helped me out with planning and advise can see that it wasn't totally lost!

I started with three brackets I made and painted black. One for mounting my power and fuse panel under the hood, one for mounting the cell booster to, and one for the antenna in the bed.


Once I had those all done up, I mounted the one under the hood along the backside of the drivers side fender, where there were two available mounting holes that were already threaded. I hooked up to the battery with a 250 amp breaker, followed by two fuses. The 150 amp fuse will be hooked into later, that will be for my power inverter that I plan on installing. The 100 amp fuse is feeding my new blue sea 6 circuit fuse box. For now, the fuse box is only running 1 circuit for my cell booster, but will be added to in future. Power for the booster is run through a relay, which is tied into the injection fuse in the fuse box in the engine bay. This way the booster can only be turned on when the truck is running, and me forgetting to turn it off doesn't drain the battery. I know that this setup is extremely over kill for what I am currently running, but didn't want to handcuff myself down the road. The other thing I like about this setup is that with the exception of a fuse tap to trigger the relay, it is 100% independent of the factory wiring. I did not splice into any factory wires for any part of this project.

I ran the wires into the cab through the grommet on the drivers side. Where the main wiring harness comes through the firewall, I just poked a hole and pulled the wires through. I ran to a switch underneath the climate controls. So I could put my new switch beside the wireless charger, I moved the usb and aux port over next to the ect button. It seems as though there are specific switches for specific spots, and it would not move directly over. There are grooves on the sides of the oem switches that correspond to the grooves in the holes. I assume this is done to make assembly slightly more idiot proof. A new blade in my Olfa knife quickly solved that problem, just shaved the edge of the switch. Once I had it moved over I was able to install my new switch beside the wireless charger switch. I couldn't find a switch that I liked or that was remotely appropriate to mount in the cab with three kids to see. Although the stripper lights switch would have been awesome, I had the switch custom made by Will at your4x4store.com. I gotta say he did an awesome job. It turned it exactly as I had hoped. Sent him the picture I wanted and what I wanted it to say, and I had the switch in hand in less than a week. The only other part of this project that has to be done is get the light under the words on the switch to come on with the dash lights, but I need one more add a circuit. I ran the wire from the switch, but it is coiled up under the dash until the add a circuit comes in next week. Going to tap the tail fuse under the dash. The switch itself isn't hard to install once you figure out how to access the panel. I couldn't figure it how to take out any of the plastic, even trying to start with the console. I suspect it is mostly clips that hold it together rather than bolts and screws. I didn't go too far that way since I know once I start prying things will break. I ended up pulling the head unit out. Just took off the plastic trim, unbolted the unit and pulled it out as far as I could without disconnecting any wires. I was then able to reach in and down to pop blanks and do what I needed to do.



Next I installed the booster itself. It came as a plug and play kit, so I almost left it as such and only kind of hard wired it. The power line had a 12v plug that runs a transformer for 5v power. Rather than cut the line and hard wire the power, I hooked the switch into a hidden 12v port that I installed under the drivers seat. I ran power to it from the switch, behind the dash, behind kick plate, and into the door sill plate where I went under the carpet and out where the wiring comes out under the drivers seat. Kind of hard to see now but...


This booster is wireless, but gives best results when the inside antenna is within 18 inches of the phone, so I followed the same path for the power wiring back to the plastic of the center console that is to the right of the gas pedal. I mounted the inside antenna on the back of this plastic. It cannot be seen but gives optimal performance when my phone is on the wireless charging pad.



Lastly, I had to run the external antenna line. I mounted the antenna mount I made to the track in the box of the truck. I didn't use any fancy fasteners, just stainless bolts with washers that fit snugg in the track. It worked well, but I had to grind down the edges of an old box end wrench to fit it in the track so I could hold the heads of the bolts while I tightened down the lock nuts. The bracket has 2 surfaces, one vertical, and one horizontal. The antenna is magnetic, and will typically live mounted horizontally so that I can close my tonneau cover. When I am hunting or out in a really bad reception area, I can roll up my tonneau cover and flip the antenna up. I drilled a small hole beside the mount, popped in a grommet, and ran the wire under the truck to the grommet under the drivers seat, where all the rest of the booster was installed. Just to note this isn't the antenna it came with, but an upgraded one.




Well that's it! Booster only runs with the truck, is completely hidden, and works best when it is on the wireless charger. Could not be happier with the set up! Thanks to everyone who helped out with my million questions! If any one has any questions please feel free to ask.

 

where did you source the booster? details please

 

Just a question. I have not had an issue since 2005 with cell reception. That said I am in a pretty Urban area. Is this still a thing in the more rural areas?

 

The booster is made by Wilson Electronics. Called a WeBoost 4g-m booster. I live in Canada, and priced it several places. In town was $530 +tax. Amazon.Com was $380 usd, and Amazon.ca was $430 canadian. I ordered of amazon canada. Best price I could find.

 

In town mine reception is fine, but when hunting or fishing or anything outside of town for that matter is bad. Where I live moat people live rural or out of town completely. Especially for summers.

 

That I can understand.

 

Even in the lower 48 cell reception is not a given. We run boosters and satellite phones in Nevada all the time. Once you are off the interstate service is gone.

 

Group buy?

 

Great write up! I have been strongly considering doing the same in my truck. I have about a 9 mile dead/low service zone on my commute that drives me crazy. Also where we commonly go camping you have to climb on top of the dunes to get signal. Thanks for helping me spend my over time pay lol.


This is the unit I have been looking at. Any one have any experience with it? You can get the unit in several frequencies for various providers.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00U...al+booster&dpPl=1&dpID=51UbbdBLOVL&ref=plSrch

 

Hahaha that's what I did!

 

I couldn't find a switch that I liked or that was remotely appropriate to mount in the cab with three kids to see. Although the stripper lights switch would have been awesome, I had the switch custom made by Will at your4x4store.com. I gotta say he did an awesome job. It turned it exactly as I had hoped. Sent him the picture I wanted and what I wanted it to say, and I had the switch in hand in less than a week.

Love the work on this - and I really like the cell booster switch. I think I'll go this route myself!

 

I want this switch as well!

Been looking for something like this

 

found it here https://www.ch4x4.com/product/ch4x4-custom-laser-etched-toyota-small-push-switches/

 

The time and effort you put into this project shows you have a couple screws loose.

Its super clean, I love it.

 

So hi all. I've been following this thread pretty fierce. I have a question that is concerning but I can't find a direct answer for:

With the auxiliary fuse block - how do you wire it so that it will shut off when the engine is shut off. With my forgetfulness if it's not wired to shut off with the main power I'll never remember to hit a switch or whatever and will end up with a dead battery in the middle of nowhere.

 

You would have to power up the fuseblock via a relay or solenoid that is strong enough to handle all the amperage in your aux fuseblock.

The relay would have to be triggered by an ignition on source... so that the relay receives a 12v+ signal from something that is simultaneously turned on by the ignition... then that relay or solenoid is commanded closed which would allow power to go to the fuseblock.

Tell me if I need to dumb it down for you a little.

 

Those WeBoost cell boosters work great. I have one in my house since I live pretty remote in the mountains. Our main goal was to boost signal for our LTE cellular data service. That certainly improved our reception. On our cellphones, they would not work on the first floor in most areas. Afterwards, you can make a call from the crawl space under the house without any signal loss issues. The home units are a little different than the mobile ones. The home units uses a directional antenna whereas the mobile use an omnidirectional antenna. Once I targeted the tower, the bandwidth differences were amazing. We went from around 3mbps to around 20-25 on the download side. We make due until Starlink comes online in our area.

I’d recommend buying the higher end models they have. My dad cheaped out on his and the performance was not that great.

Love the mobile install in this thread.

 

I’m going to install mine tomorrow sometime. Where is everyone wiring the power to if you are hard wiring it? I have a switch pros panel but it seems like a waste to take up a switch there for something I always want on if the truck is running. Any suggestions?

 

I have been looking at the weboost 5G but $500 big ones

 

I keep going back and forth on how I want to wire mine. I currently just have it plugged into the main cig socket up front but I don't love that for long term use. Thought about the hardwire kit, thought about the switch pros, thought about getting a custom switch created, still can't decide. I'm leaning towards hardwiring it in on some sort of switch I'll install in the dash.