New England Mod & Meetup Thread

Nice to have you with us sir!!!!

 

Welcome to the shenanigans

 

You see what you have started? 117 Pages is pretty freaking crazy.......we had what......6 or 7 meets this year since April? Loving this ride! Casa Del Crash hopefully will get bigger and better

 

Can't believe it either.

This and the wheeling thread should be stickies
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ne-area-wheeling-trip-plans.258758/

Speaking of wheeling, I'd love to get another run in before the snow flies.

 

Well.....lets not get a big head about ourselves yet....lol. For that status, we need to not just "get it up" but "keep it up" as well.

 

Have you seen some of the stuff that is stickied... and how many are not even active.

Most of the other regional wheeling threads are stickied and have more action. Granted we can't really talk about where we're going but more eyes makes for better conversations. Jus sayin.

And it's easy to get to do. Just have to ask a mod to bless it.

 

Hello and welcome!

 

what are you all running for radios? looking to get more active in the wheeling community and I know this is "required"

 

There are 2 main types of radios. CB radio is 27MHz (11m). Then there's GMRS/FRS, which is 70*cm.

GMRS is General Mobile Radio Service, FRS is Family Radio Service. They BOTH use the same channels. Channel 1 on GMRS is channel 1 on FRS. FRS is lower power, no licenses needed. The radios are bare bones, and the FCC says "yes these radios are good for this". GMRS allows more power, the FCC buys off the radios, AND YOU NEED A LICENSE (legally). CB (citizen band) has no restrictions. All channels are open to anyone to use, with an FCC approved radio w/ a limit of....8? watts.

Now, the radio a LOT of people use (I would NEVER recommend this....EVER.... ) is the Baofeng UV-5R. It is a Ham radio, and is NOT allowed to be used for GMRS/FRS frequencies. It can be used, but it's NOT ALLOWED. Don't do it. Ever. Never. No sir-ee Bob. The way this works is you have to program it to the same frequencies as the GMRS channels. And if I were irresponsible, I would list those frequencies so you can punch them in on your own.

Spoiler

If I were REALLY irresponsible I would offer to program it for you since I own all the cables and have a file to do a quick zap to get all the channels on it. The UV-5R has a ton of accessories too, like hand mics, extra batteries, etc. For wheeling needs, the FRS radios operating at 0.5 Watts are usually enough. The cheap Baofeng UV-5R is plenty, too.

But there are GMRS dash mounts, too. This is a 20W and works great, no batteries to worry about, etc. But, it's 150ish bucks.

$160 Midland – MXT275 MicroMobile® GMRS Radio – 15 watts Two-Way Radio with Integrated Control Microphone – Overland Caravanning Tractors – Detachable External Magnetic Mount Antenna - 8 Repeater Channels

https://www.amazon.com/Midland-Micr...mzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0

That said, you can have THE BEST GMRS setup ever. 50W, antennas, mics, maps, the whole shebang. And if the group you're out with is using CB...it's useless. I'd say around here, GMRS/FRS is the way to go. I've never been on a trip that uses just CB, and a lot of the "official" groups, etc are moving toward GMRS bands instead of CB.

Quick answer:
Get these, they charge via USB, and will work unless your group is using CB.

$30 Radioddity FS-T1 FRS Two-Way Radio Long Range License-Free Walkie Talkies NOAA, 22 Channels 154 Privacy Codes with Earpiece, USB Charging, 2 Pack

https://www.amazon.com/Radioddity-L...uMDAifQ==&sprefix=usb+frs+radio,aps,85&sr=8-3

and if you need a CB, grab one of these:

$100 Midland 75-822 40 Channel CB-Way Radio

https://www.amazon.com/Midland-75-8...mzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0















* FRS/GMRS is technically around 65cm, the 70cm is the ham band. But a 70cm antenna works a-okay, at least for what use we have bumbling around the woods. I have a 70cm antenna for GMRS.

 

Or possibly

 

Whoa! This has to be one of the best answers I've ever received on an online question! I have a 3tpam so the unit you showed would be perfect. Any tips for mounting/hiding the head unit and mounting the antenna? (3rd gen)

 

I have my ham radio license and my GMRS. Once you're out of high school/college, the nerds don't really have groups anymore (used to be robotics...), so, radio was my way to kinda nerd out a bit.

Antenna - There's a LOT of conversation about interference, ground planes, yaddah yaddah. They're all (technically) right. But they're useless. You're mounting a radio on a moving metal box without a true ground. The bickering is over a percent or two in performance when we're playing in the 10% performance bands already anyway. Bicker over getting up to 12%, have at it.

Point being - antenna, mount it wherever and however you want. If you want it off the back, or off the hood, or on the roof. I have mine off my roof rack, and a second one that mag mounts to the hood when I'm playing in the brush in the woods.

Here's a thread for clean installs.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clean-vhf-cb-radio-installs.415584/

This post piqued my interest when I saw it the other day. If I am reading it right, if you pop the bezel off, there's plenty of room to mount the brains inside there, under the head unit, and then run the mic cable down and out.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clean-vhf-cb-radio-installs.415584/page-112#post-27585401

If (IF) I go away form the Baofeng and into a dash mount, it'll just be slapped in like this.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clean-vhf-cb-radio-installs.415584/page-113#post-27949733

I can't put it in my passenger seat (that's a WHOLE other can of worms...Although, I MIGHT be able to........), so next best thing. But honestly, for how often I use it, the hand held baofeng works great. I have a few tie ins and accessories for it that makes it a bit better than "from the box". But come 2025 I might get a dash mount, we'll see.

CB is useless. I had it for a cross country trip. All I got was truckers yelling at each other at merge points, that dude out in LA, and interference over squelch. I don't have a 53 ft trailer (or doubles ) to worry about for a detour. Google says take the exit, I can take the exit. But, if the group you're with off road is using CBs, then it's immediately becomes un-useless.

 

So much respect for this.....

Annnnnd......it's gone lol J/K.

 

Okay here's a dumb one.

Long of the short: has anyone ever taken the pawl out of the turn signal stalk?

I have to go through this thing every morning, with my turn signal on. The way the road bends turns it off (twice). I'm wanting to see if I can remove the pawl so that the signal will stay on, and I have to be the one to turn it off. And there are a few other shenanigans intersections around me where the signal likes to turn off before I want it to.

 

You need to be at least my age to qualify for driving around with your turn signal on.

 

@Boston10Taco

 

All the pics I got. Hope you got some more. Awesome day! I think a very short list of what didn't get done but the list of what did was great!
Hope everyone that arrived with vibes had a smooth ride home.








Edit: huge thanks to @crashngiggles for offering up his place to make this happen