Drilling a hole in my roof

My company buys us SUVs for company vehicles Explorers, jeeps, Trailblazers. As soon as we get them we drill a hole in the roof and install a radio and antenna. Never had one leak and never had an issue returning the vehicle to the leasing company. They make rubber plugs for that reason. Most of my personal vehicles I have installed roof antennas. Never had a problem selling them either to private people or dealers. Sometimes I leave the antenna mount in and sometimes I plug it up. It's a fairly common thing. Seriously doubt it affects resale value. If someone doesn't like it someone else will. The main reason to install it that way is for performance. Better ground plane, central location, shorter feed line. Just because you may not like it don't think that everyone else thinks just like you.

 

We mount multiple NMO antennas on each vehicle at work without leaks so it can be done. However, I decided to make my own mount for the driver's side fender. It's in the same spot as shown in anethema's post. I modeled it after this one
http://www.westcrystal.com/products/hardware/at12.htm

 

I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way, it wasn't intended to fuel a fire. Although I don't agree with this, to each his own and I hope it works out. On the other hand if by chance it doesn't, it might be harder to repair on the second go round. I'll kindly remove myself from this thread, and sorry for the inconvenience .

 

It is 3/4", metric tape is at the house.

 

I work for a Motorola radio shop

I have 4 NMO's mounted on my truck. 3 on the roof and one on the fender

You will have better signal with a roof mounted antenna.

DO NOT GO THROUGH THE CARWASH WITH ANTENNAS MOUNTED. Especially a CB antenna. I have seen many roofs damaged because of that.

Take them off and put rain caps on in that case.

 

OP - please disregard the part where he says it seals fully. While this may be true, sealing the metal from the bare metal from the elements is not your only concern. There is such a thing called galvanic corrosion that is caused when 2 different types of metals contact each other. I've seen it before, straight from a manufacturing company. There is no reason why you wouldn't seal up the bare metal unless you were cutting corners to finish the job quickly.

 

ive mounted a 4' firestick in the bed before but since then i have bought a
Undercover Tonneau where i then mounted the antenna to the yakima load bars that i have mounted on top of the tonneau. which it tends to be a pain the butt to remove the tonneau and remount the antenna. which is why i wanna mount it to the roof

 

Muhaha NMO mount here i come

 

My only tip is when you drill through the paint, make sure you use some masking tap on where you'll drill. Helps keeps the paint from chipping off.

 

The metal of the NMO mount HAS to make ground contact with your truck or it is useless. Your truck is the counterpoise for the whole antenna setup (though in some CB set ups it uses the cable more so).

Therefor you have to have the two metals touching.

Again, I do this for a living, and have, in 8 years, none of the roof mounts I've replaced caused body rusting where the hole was drilled.

Galvanic corrosion is also caused when dissimilar metals touch, not just any metals. Stainless steel and mild alloy are not that far apart on the scale. Even then, you need an electrolyte to cause corrosion, it doesn't happen by magic.

So basically, you can prime it if you like, but since the mount is designed to, and will, cut through the paint into the metal underneath to bond to it, it probably wont help. And it shouldn't rust anyways if properly installed.

 

That is the exact one I used on both sides. West crystal is out of Kelowna, BC where I came from (though I've since moved) and they are a great company.

The Tacoma bracket works well.

 

Here's the thread where I describe dropping the headliner and drilling and installing an NMO mount in the center of my roof.

Because of the various air bags, I didn't want to "fish" the cable down a pillar. Your mileage may vary.

The one piece of advice I'll reiterate is: to avoid roof scratches, wash the roof first, then cover and seal the area around the hole to be drilled with tape and newspapers, because the drill shavings WILL put surface scratches in your paint when you try to clean them up otherwise.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/au...ose-installs-ham-radio-nmo-antenna-mount.html

 

could this type of antenna be used with a marine band CB? reason for asking is i was told that the cables are different. i really like that style. its better than running the cable through the door and to joeys CB we go!

 

Just get a HAM license and run 2m - then you can use repeaters, and vastly increase your range and the quality of your communications.

Or if you don't want to bother with the (minimal really) hassle involved in getting licensed, then get an MURS unit.

The only legal use of a Marine VHF transceiver mounted in a truck is for talking "ship to shore" with boats; which could be useful if you're a chase truck for some type of boating event, but is of highly limited usefulness otherwise.

 

all i use it for is coyote hunting. that is what we use.

 

Honestly though, I would not recommend using a CB whip on your Tacoma's roof. The Tacoma is not like a Ford Exhibition or Chevy Tahoe. They have thick metal roofs, the Tacoma does not.

I used to run a high gain 50" VHF antenna on the roof of my truck, and it really warped the shit out of it. The NMO hole was perfect, it's just the whip shaking in the wind and putting stress on the roof really did the damage.

 

right now i have the magnetic base. if you were refurring that to me.

 

when i run my 5/8 wave antenna that sucker flops around and will hit my mag mount CB antenna, it's annoying when they hit each other..when it's really flopping around i can hear the sheet metal buckling as well. so i wouldnt recommend hard mounting a CB antenna on the roof unless it's a mag mount such as the Wilson "Lil Will" antenna.

EDIT: here's how i marked and lined my hole i drilled..

 

i'll admit i don't know all the properties of metal and how they react so i won't sit here and pretend to argue. what i do know is how prone metal is to rusting as soon as it is exposed to the metals. i've seen galvanic corrosion first hand. i've seen roof mount antennas rust first hand. i don't know how they were installed however.i personally believe that one should seal up any bare metal any chance they can. rust is a cancer that will never stop. another thing to consider also is do you notify your customers that your work is guaranteed not to rust and that they can bring it back if it does? do you do regular inspections on previous work? do your customers inspect your work years after or do they not bother to look since its way up on the roof where they never look. do they have enough pride of ownership in the vehicle they are having the install on to bring the vehicle back in if does start to rust? if does start to rust will they tell you or will they bring it somewhere else to get it fixed? If you can honestly say yes to all they questions i give you some mad props after 8 years with 100% track record on your installs. Then you must truly do good work and credit is due where credit is deserved. just my thoughts...