2016 Tacoma Ham Radio Install

I installed a FT-8800r and a Diamond 7700 (UHF connector) today in the Tacoma. It took about two hours stretched over four hours due to the heat and unavailability of shade.

Radio
The FT-8800r control head is supported by a cup holder and goose neck. The radio body is zip tied underneath the seat for now. I was going to put it behind one of the seats in the storage compartment but didn't want to lose the space.

Antenna
The mount is from Relentless Off Road. It's made for a CB radio so I used a Dremel to widen it out and take off some of the black paint for grounding. It was a pain but I didn't want to pay someone else to do it. It's a solid mount and cost $30 w/ shipping. I went through a plug in the floor right behind the driver seat and used a hanger to guide the antenna cable in. I drilled the plug and used gasket sealer to make sure it was water tight. I double zip tied the cable to the frame and used fuel line hose to protect the frame from rubbing and wearing through the undercoat.

Firewall
I went through a plug about five inches up and to the left of the driver side wiring harness. I drilled a hole through the plug and used windex as a lubricant to get the wires through it. I used a hanger to pull the wires through the firewall after cutting an additional slit in the firewall material. It not too hard and all the pieces go back in place nice and tight. Lastly, I wanted a cleaner look and wanted to protect the wires as much as possible so I placed the wires in protective tubing and wrapped it in electrical tape, both in the engine compartment and in the cabin.



Speaker
I mounted a cheap truck stop speaker for now and unfortunately I lost the screws that secured it to the speaker to the frame, so, another zip tie. Despite being cheap, the speaker works great.


I was pretty apprehensive about this since I just bought the truck but it is easy and I believe it is 100% safe. I love the Tacoma but my Jeep only took an hour to install.

I appreciate info from Hugopreston on the mount, and for ROCdermody and Marbleyard for where to route the power cables through the firewall.

 

None of your pics are working for me.

 

I will provide photos of the antenna routing when the rain stops. Right now the cord is zip tied underneath to the frame but I am going to place a rubber protecter or something along the antenna line to keep from rubbing the frame.

 

They're all working for me! Looks good

 

how is the cup holder mount working out??